SHOULD Belfast, as is expected, prove successful in scooping Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, it will propel Kenneth Branagh into the history books.

While the Dunkirk and Harry Potter star has yet to win at the Academy Awards, his five nominations to date have been for five different categories.

Securing nods in 2022 for Picture and Director would add a further two and make Branagh the first person in the ceremony’s history to boast seven different nominations for seven different awards. What’s more, the film itself is a front runner to win.

Belfast pays tribute to the city of Branagh’s childhood. It was in 1960 that he was born there, second of three children to working class Protestants Frances and William.

The Troubles would see the Branagh family escape to England when young Kenneth was just nine. And yet, those early years have never left him.

Though not an autobiographical film, Belfast has been described as Branagh’s most personal.

Shot in a nostalgic monochrome, the film chronicles the childhood of Jude Hill’s Buddy.

Outlander’s Caitríona Balfe and The Tourist star Jamie Dornan play his Ma and Pa, while Judi Dench sparkles as Granny.

A dexterous handling of complex issues sees Branagh well navigate the historic and the mundane of life in 1969 Belfast.

There are personal torments - unpaid bills and unrequited loves - and those of the bigger picture.

Early in the film, Buddy’s street transitions from playground to battlefield as militant Unionists burn out the Catholics and set up barricades to protect from Republican retaliation.

Comic touches see Buddy taught the correct response to the question of his religious affiliation, when asked on the street.

Pleasing stretches, meanwhile, are spent in the local cinema, basking in an escape from real life.

Then there is the matter of a more permanent escape. Aware of the need to protect his family, Pa proffers brochures for Vancouver and Sydney.

Ma is horrified, Buddy wide-eyed. Home is home, regardless of the pain with which it is associated. Can they really leave it behind?

In 2018, Belfast granted granted Branagh freedom of the city.

In many ways, a circle was closed in the process that had opened many decades before.

While some have found this film rather too sugary for its own good, it’s hard to deny the sincerity of its maker.