You probably have never met writer-director Jim Sheridan, but chances are, he has already made fun of you.

The acclaimed filmmaker, who is currently on the Island taking part in the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF), is energetic and quick-thinking ? and he gets bored easily.

He will take this boredom out ? with sharp humour ? on you, on nearby paintings, and on random passersby.

So, if you spot a small, grey-haired Irishman with a twinkle in his eye, beware.

It is possible that you have met him however, as he has already sought out liquid refreshment in Flanagans (where he met ?all the Irish that seem to be here reinsuring the Island?) and at staff parties in the Hamilton Princess as well as at posh dos at Michael Douglas? and CZJ?s home.

Keeping Sheridan still is an impossible task and for this reason, he is probably much more fun to have a drink with than to try and interview, as this reporter recently learned.

Sheridan is BIFF?s ?Filmmaker in Focus? for 2004 and Friday after the screening of his most recent film, ?In America?, he accepted the festival?s occasional award for excellence in filmmaking, the Prospero.

Sheridan is much less serious-minded than one might expect from having viewed his powerful films ? ?My Left Foot?, ?In the Name of the Father?, ?The Field? and ?The Boxer?, which together with ?In America? have earned 15 Academy Award nominations over the years.

But Sheridan can apparently write serious and deeply moving films while maintaining full Irish charm and an irrepressible sense of fun. Great in drinking buddies, if not always interview subjects.

Today, he is based in Dublin bur rarely home, he said: ?I have not been home since October.?

While he is ?not really a film buff,? he told he is having a great time in Bermuda.

A bad experience in Bucharest a few years ago has turned him off the experience of serving on film festival juries, however.

There, he got into ?it? with the wrong filmmaker. ?This filmmaker was from Romania and told me his film was the best and I didn?t think so, so he didn?t talk to me again,? he said.

?He was a high hiedjin (bigwig) so, if he had wanted to, he could have gotten me shot. I didn?t think that was a good reaction, do you??

So, Sheridan is at BIFF as ?a very special person?.

He co-wrote ?In America? with two of his daughters, Naomi and Kirsten, and the film tells the semi-autobiographical tale of the family?s move to New York in the early 1980s from Ireland.

The writing trio received an Oscar nomination for the film which opened BIFF this year and left few dry eyes in the packed theatre at Southside last Friday.

Sheridan said he wrote the first draft of the screenplay and then his daughters had a go at it.

?They basically eliminated my character,? he said. ?I don?t think that?s a nice thing to do to your dad. Apparently all I did was sing songs I did not know the words to and tell them I loved them when I was drunk. That was the entire extent of my influence on their lives.?

Well perhaps not, as Naomi and Kirsten are now both pursuing screenwriting careers. Naomi actually penned a film which showed at BIFF a few years ago called ?Disco Pigs?.

Sheridan says that attending the Oscars with his daughters this year was a little more stressful than his past appearances at the grand dame of entertainment award ceremonies.

?I was supposed to get the hair straight,? he said. ?And I couldn?t seem to get the hair straight. The girls really wanted that.?

Sheridan has been at the Oscars on a few occasions for his work as writer, director and often producer of his films but he has not yet had the big nod.

He is prepared each time to accept ?on behalf of the Irish nation?, he assured , however.

?The first time (1989, for ?My Left Foot?) was great but you start winning (Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for best actor) you think you are going to win everything.

?But we didn?t keep winning. We did not win for enough. The second time (1993, for ?In the Name of the Father?), was a total laugh because ?Schindler?s List? was up that year. And they kept saying ?Schindler?s List? till you just didn?t want to hear it anymore. It won everything and it was a great film and Spielberg is a very magnanimous person.

?This year, we didn?t think we had much chance in acting. (In America?s Djimon Hounsou was nominated in best supporting actor section and Samantha Morton in the best actress category.) Tim Roberts looked like he was going to win and Charlize Theron was winning everything.

?For screenplay, we didn?t know, but Sophia Coppola won and she is a very nice girl.?

As ?In America? tells us, Sheridan originally went to the United States to pursue acting but soon found his great success in writing.

But he finds writing harder, he said: ?Because you have to sit still.?

And soon, as an interviewer, you realise you have lost him again because he adds, a little too straight: ?What I think I really ought to do is get someone who writes down everything I say when I say it? as you scribble your notes.

And then he?s on the move again. In between trying out the reporter?s crutches, teasing the reporter with other screenwriters and poking fun at nearby targets, the reporter finally learns that being Irish is central to Sheridan?s writing ? although he is not sure why.

?I only write green. I think it is important to be very green,? he joked.

?Being Irish influences what I do but how I don?t know how.

?I think the Brits were very good about beating us up for so long. So we?ve got a great chip on our shoulders. But where would you be as a writer without trouble or a big chip on your shoulder??

Success brings changes however.

?You get more money,? Sheridan said. ?Money tends to change you because it alienates you from a lot of things.

?It alienates you from some relatives. And in the long-term money does affect your perspective on the world. It?s hard to stay radical when you are well off. Truly radical. I mean, you can make a living being radical but that?s a different thing.?

But the attention that comes with Hollywood success does not put him off. Probably, the opposite is true. ?It?s fine. It?s grand, it?s not a problem,? he said.

While Sheridan?s past work has focused on the Irish experience, his next project will take him a little further afield.

He is working on a political story about the prohibition era in the United States. ?(Prohibition) split America between the big cities and the heartland,? he said. ?It was never the same after. Now you have the Democrats in the cities and the Republicans in the heartland. Prohibition really showed the fault-lines.?

He almost admits the topic is a departure for him. ?It probably is,? he said. ?But I?ll give it a go and see how it turns out.?

@EDITRULE:

If you would like to see filmmaker Jim Sheridan he will be participating in BIFF?s Chats With series on Wednesday at 12.15 p.m. in the BIFF Front Room, #1 Passenger Terminal, Front Street. He will chat informally with journalist David Poland about his life and his career for roughly one hour.

Today?s Chat at the same time, will feature screenwriters Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) and Carlos Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien). They will discuss the art of screenwriting and will be joined by moderator Peter Rainer of National Public Radio.