The Swell Season's story is fit for the movies

Oscar winners Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová return with a new album, 'Forward.'

- JANINE SCHAULTS

MARKÉTA IRGLOVÁ and Glen Hansard won the original song Oscar in 2008.

Oscar speeches come and go. Each year a new batch replaces the old with only a select few penetrating the public consciousness enough to make a best-of reel. Fewer still can survive a replay without an element of cringe.

Not so much for Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, whose timeless “Falling Slowly” from the 2007 indie darling “Once” won for original song at the 2008 ceremony.

Hansard’s bewildered appeal to “make art, make art!” and host Jon Stewart bringing the then-19-year-old Irglová back onstage post-commercial break after the orchestra cut her off to deliver a wide-eyed message (“Fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up”) carved a spot in people’s hearts that even surpassed the goodwill brought on by starring in the film as two strangers who change each other's lives through song.

The relentless touring as the Swell Season that followed while embarking on an ill-fated love affair in real life only added to their Hollywood story (and fueled a cycle of celebrity gossip, especially in Hansard's native Ireland, that the pair hopes to never experience again).

Remarkably, the duo is still making good on those speeches. They've never stopped dreaming big or making art, and now, almost 20 years later, they've reunited as the Swell Season with a gorgeous new album, "Forward," and a tour that stops at the Greek Theatre on Friday.

Sitting side by side in a tiny box of a dressing room sporting an absurdly robust tea selection in July hours before performing at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, both recall over an hourlong conversation the initial phone call (or text they can't agree) that jumpstarted this reunion of sorts.