Cillian Murphy is Hollywood-bound in quest for Oscars glory

Murphy, nominated for his role as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's epic biopic Oppenheimer, has already secured a host of major gongs.

He has so far won in the best actor category at the Golden Globes, Baftas and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The Golden Globes win was Murphy's first major international award of his career.

Murphy's closest rival for the Academy Award is expected to be Paul Giamatti, who starred in The Holdovers.

Murphy flew out from Dublin on the 3.14pm flight to LAX ahead of Sunday's Oscars ceremony.

The 47-year-old — who is also known for the horror film 28 Days Later, war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley and for playing Tommy Shelby in the hit BBC crime series Peaky Blinders — is often not forthcoming about his private life and has spoken about finding red carpets “challenging”.

Last month, he was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs about how he will deal with being out of his comfort zone at the Oscars.

Murphy said: “I have struggled with it in the past and you know, it’s not something I’m ever totally at ease with — but I think you have to, like, choose to enjoy it and I think you can do that in your brain, just make that alteration and it’s easier then.

“I’ll have my wife and my kids with me, and that’s been lovely… and you’d be an eejit not to enjoy it, just go with it, that’s my attitude.” He also said that having his wife, the visual artist Yvonne McGuinness, by his side has been “crucial” to feeling grounded as the “sort of ancillary aspect of being an actor is quite challenging”.

Meanwhile, cinematographer Robbie Ryan, nominated for Poor Things, was another one of the Irish Oscar hopefuls on board the flight.

The Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film, which was produced by Irish film studio Element Pictures, has been nominated for 11 Academy Awards.

This year's Oscars take place on Sunday.