Canadian film pros in 5 Oscar categories
Quebec-born creator of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ among nominees
Canadian filmmaker Sami Khan celebrated his Oscar nomination Monday with his wife and two-year-old daughter by having a mini dance party in their Toronto living room to the tune of Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.”
Then reality set in. “Then we realized we had to drop our daughter off at daycare,” the Sarnia, Ont., native said with a laugh in a phone interview Monday morning, shortly after he was nominated as co-director on “St. Louis Superman.”
The story, which is up for best documentary short, is about a Ferguson activist elected to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives.
“I was like, ‘Yes, I am nominated for an Academy Award — but did you also know we also successfully potty-trained our toddler this week?’ ” Khan said. “So it’s kind of been a huge week on both fronts.”
Khan is among several Canadians in the running for this year’s Oscars, which will be held
Feb. 9 in Los Angeles.
Animator Dean DeBlois of Aylmer, Que., got a nod for best animated feature for the final instalment in the heralded “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy.
DeBlois wrote and directed the coming-of-age story, which has the lead voice of Montrealraised actor Jay Baruchel as a young Viking named Hiccup. In this last look at his life, Hiccup is a young adult, contemplating his future and finding a new home for his dragon, Toothless.
DeBlois was previously nominated for Oscars for 2011’s “How to Train Your Dragon” and the 2015 sequel. He shares the nomination this year with producers Bradford Lewis and Bonnie Arnold.
“When it comes to the Oscars and awards in general, I try not to think about it, otherwise I kind of carry this guilt of representing 400-plus people who worked on the movie,” he said.
“Whenever we get nominated or we lose, with the highs and lows, I feel it personally, because I feel it’s somehow my fault for not taking the prizes for the crew.”
Other contenders for best animated feature are “I Lost My Body,” “Klaus,” “Toy Story 4” and “Missing Link,” which also has a Canadian connection. Vancouver Trevor Dalmer was art director on “Missing Link,” however he isn’t named in the Oscar nomination.
Meanwhile, sound expert Paul Massey, who spent his early career in Toronto, is in the running for best sound mixing on “Ford v Ferrari.” His co-nominees are American sound pros David Giammarco and Steven A. Morrow.
“Ford v Ferrari” is a biographical drama starring Matt Damon as American car designer Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale as British driver Ken Miles.
This is the ninth Oscar nomination for Massey, who was born in England and moved to Toronto at age 19 to work in the music business. He moved to Los Angeles to work in film 13 years later.
Last year Massey won the Oscar
for his work on “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The other films nominated in Massey’s category are “Ad Astra,” “Joker,” “1917” and “Once upon a Time ... in Hollywood.”
Speaking of “1917” — Vancouver-born Dennis Gassner got a nod for best production design for the epic war film. He shares the nomination with set decorator Lee Sandales.
He won the honour in 1992 for “Bugsy,” and was last nominated in 2018 for “Blade Runner 2049,” directed by Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
His competition this year includes the films “The Irishman,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Once upon a Time ... in Hollywood” and “Parasite.”
And Montreal-based, American-Tunisian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur will also be representing Canada, in the category of best live action short for “Brotherhood.”