THE FILM ONCE cost just €130,000 to make, but since its release in 2006 it has won an Academy Award and made millions at the box office.

Now the musical adaptation of the film has topped the list of nominations for the prestigious Tony Awards, with 11 in total.

The low-budget 2006 film chronicled an unlikely romance between a Czech flower seller and a Dublin busker, played by Marketa Irglova and Frames frontman Glen Hansard.

The Tony nods include nominations for best musical, acting mentions for both its leads actors, its book, lighting, sound, choreography and its set, which offers the audience real drinks before the show in a replica pub.

“‘Once’ constantly surprises me. I think it’s the power of the music and the storytelling that people connect with,” said John Tiffany, who was nominated for best director of a musical.

Hansard and Irglova performed one of the biggest gigs of their lives when they sang ‘Falling Slowly’ from the film’s soundtrack at the 2007 Academy Awards in front of a star-studded crowd. The song went on to win the Oscar.

Hansard’s film career hasn’t stopped there (and remember he started out as Outspan Foster in The Committments). He’s written a song for the soundtrack of the first film in the hugely successful Hunger Games series.