where it was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play 2014, and also received Best Play nominations from the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortell Awards McPherson's play Girl from the North Country, where the dramatic action is broken up by 20 songs by Bob Dylan, opened at London's The Old Vic on 26 July 2017. The play is set in a hotel in 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota, the birthplace of Dylan. The project began when Dylan's office approached McPherson and suggested creating a play using Dylan songs. The drama received favorable reviews. Screenplays The film of his first screenplay, I Went Down, was critically acclaimed and a great commercial success. His first feature film as a director, Saltwater, won the CICAE award for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival. His second feature film was The Actors, which he wrote and directed. He is the director and co-writer of The Eclipse, a film which had its world premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. It was picked up for distribution by Magnolia Pictures and was released in US cinemas in spring 2010. The film subsequently won the Melies D'Argent Award for Best European Film at Sitges in Spain – the world's premier horror and fantasy genre festival. At The 2010 Irish Film and television Awards The Eclipse won the awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay. Ciarán Hinds won the Best Actor Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for his portrayal of Michael Farr. In 2013, he wrote the last episode of Quirke. In 2020, he co-wrote the feature film adaptation of the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was released digitally worldwide on Disney+ on June 12, 2020. Influences McPherson has cited James Joyce and Stanley Kubrick as two of his "heroes". Theatre awards Theatre-related awards won by McPherson include: Europe Prize Theatrical Realities (with the Royal Court Theatre) Stewart Parker Award The Good Thief Meyer Whitworth Award This Lime Tree Bower Guinness/Royal National Theatre Ingenuity Award This Lime Tree Bower Pearson TV Writer in Residence Award This Lime Tree Bower Evening Standard Award The Weir George Devine Award The Weir Critics Circle Award The Weir Laurence Olivier Award The Weir Tony Award nomination for Best Play Shining City Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Director The Seafarer Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard nominations for Best