Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, "Night in Tunisia", won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academy Award (Best Original Screenplay) for "The Crying Game" (1992). He has also won three Irish Film and Television Awards, as well as the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for "Michael Collins" (1996) and the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for "The Butcher Boy" (1997).