Animator John Kelly's cultural picks

Animator John Kelly is winning acclaim for his short Retirement Plan, which tells the story of Ray (voiced by Domhnall Gleeson) as he fantasises about everything he’d love to do in retirement, once he finally has “the time” – watch it now via YouTube.

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Commissioned by Screen Ireland and RTÉ, this touching, elegantly simple meditation on what one does (and doesn’t) with all the possibilities life has to offer won the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at the prestigious SXSW festival, as well as Best of the Festival Award at the Palm Springs Shortfest 2025 – now it’s being tipped for an Oscar nod.

John Kelly talks all things Retirement Plan with Dermot Whelan below:

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We asked John for his choice cultural picks…

FILM

I don’t watch as much animation as I should, but I saw Arco at a film festival in Los Angeles (darling) and it was great. Beautiful, original and thought provoking. And incredibly French. Show it to your kids if you can.

MUSIC

I just came across the Bricknasty XONGZ አስቀያሚ ጡብ album from last year. From Ballymun, making world-altering music.

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Here’s a playlist of my favourite songs this year:

BOOK

I’m reading a new biography of Stanley Kubrick, called Kubrick: an Odyssey (Faber). It’s interesting but 70% of it is “then Stanley spent the next 17 months in his office at Childwickbury Manor developing a project about the Boer War that would ultimately never come to fruition. 375,836 words were written and at least one screenwriter died during development”. It removes none of the mystique.

Stanley Kubrick

THEATRE

Just like I need to exercise more, I need to see more plays. I did go to see People, Places and Things with Denise Gough last year though. Hard not to overstate how impactful it was, this and Book of Mormon might tie for my top theatrical experience.

People, Places and Things star Denise Gough

The Rehearsal Season 2. Nathan Fielder is doing the greatest comedy things on the planet now, but it is also INSANE how much money HBO must have given him.

The season finale of THE REHEARSAL is single-handedly and without reservation one of the most riveting, nerve-wracking hours of television I’ve ever seen. Nathan Fielder pushes boundaries heretofore unimaginable, creating absolutely astonishing moments of nail-biting tension. pic.twitter.com/hh414Gk30u

— Dan (@Danimalish) May 26, 2025

GIG

I went to see The Redneck Manifesto in the Button Factory a few months ago and they are still as fresh as they were two decades ago. Their first music video back in 2004 was also my first animation, and I’ve been clinging onto their creative coattails from afar since. Richie Egan from The Redneck Manifesto (also Jape) is creating the soundtrack for my next short film.

ART

At the risk of sounding fancier than I actually am, I had a spare afternoon in Los Angeles last month and spent it drawing in the Museum of Contemporary Art. I’ve recently started drawing art in a bid to gain some deeper understanding, or at least not just let it wash over me. It’s something I haven’t done since my student days and I can recommend it.

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An image from John Kelly’s short animation Retirement Plan

PODCAST

Not new but I loved the Storytime with Seth Rogan podcast. I think part of the deal with hitting your 40s as a middle-class straight white male is you get more into non-fiction? So my next short film is an animated documentary. And this podcast with its single-great-story structure is great, it feels like funny friend is telling you something amazing at the pub.

TECH

Last year I started using a diary app to keep track of ideas, and have been boring everyone senseless about it since. Possibly not an original thought but it’s a great way to create a non-linear archive of things like rough ideas, dialogue, shots, because you can add multiple tags to entries. I recommend Day One or Diarium as they both sync between phone and computer.

THE NEXT BIG THING…

If there is any positive upside to that giant two-letter steamrolling technological advancement that I don’t want to mention by name (but would be the name of popular Irish bank if you added one more letter), it’s that humanity will have more value. Back to non-fiction again: a first-hand true story, a lived experience that could only have been told by a real life, imperfect, person has a newfound potency. That’s my blazing hot take.

Find out more about John Kelly and his film Retirement Plan here

Animator John Kelly’s cultural picks

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