A whole lot of Canadian content at this year’s gala
From a jazzy Ryan Gosling to the Montreal team behind Arrival and a trio of homegrown animators, there’s a healthy dose of Canuck among this year’s Oscar nominees. Victoria Ahearn shares some Canadian tidbits leading up to Sunday’s show, which will be hos
Awards shows have been showering the Ontario native with nominations for his La La Land role as a jazz pianist who falls in love with a fledgling actress, played by Emma Stone. The former Mickey Mouse Club star has already won a Golden Globe for the part and is up for an Oscar for best actor. It’s his second such Oscar nomination after Half Nelson (2006), in which he played a high school teacher with a drug addiction.
Fun fact: Gosling found inspiration in the musicals Top Hat starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (“I like Fred’s style. He’s very mischievous,” he said), and An American in Paris, which he called “very experimental and yet it doesn’t feel pretentious.”
DENIS VILLENEUVE HAS ARRIVED
Hollywood is hot for the talents of this French-Canadian gem, who is nominated for best director for his heady alieninvasion drama Arrival. It’s his second Oscar ride after his 2010 drama Incendies was nominated for best foreign-language film. The Quebec filmmaker has had a string of high-profile projects in recent years, including Prisoners, Enemy and Sicario. His next film is a whopper: the hugely anticipated Blade Runner 2049, starring Gosling.
Fun fact: Villeneuve has dreamed of doing science fiction since childhood, when he read European sci-fi comic books. “I was raised with dreaming about space all my childhood,” he said. “I’m part of the Star Wars generation.”
ARRIVAL’S MONTREAL MOMENTUM
Several other Montrealers who worked on Arrival are also up for Oscars. They include sound editor Sylvain Bellemare; production designer Patrice Vermette and decorator Paul Hotte; and sound mixers Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye.
Fun fact: Bellemare found inspiration for the sound of the heptapod aliens in Pink Floyd’s music and a mélange of animals. “We tried to do something that ... was more based on instinct and rhythm,” he said.
HIGH HOPES FOR ANIMATED SHORTS
Three of the five titles nominated in the best animated short category have Canadian ties. Blind Vaysha is by Montreal’s Theodore Ushev and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Pear Cider and Cigarettes, produced by Cara Speller, is directed by Robert Valley of Vancouver. And the Pixar-produced Piper is helmed by Alan Barillaro of Chippawa, Ont.
Fun fact: When Ushev heard of his nomination, he fainted, overwhelmed by pent-up emotions from the campaign. “A lot of people were telling me, ‘You have a chance, you have a chance,’ and when a lot of people tell you this you just get nervous,” he said. “I had to do a lot of yoga and sports to tame the pressure.”
FIRST NOD FOR 13TH PRODUCER
Winnipeg-born producer Howard Barish has his first Oscar nomination for the documentary 13th, which looks at the criminalization and mass incarceration of African Americans in the U.S. He shares the nomination with filmmaker Ava DuVernay and her cowriter, Spencer Averick. Fun fact: Barish first met DuVernay a decade ago and also had producer roles on her 2010 debut I Will Follow and her 2012 film Middle of Nowhere. Working on her first two films inspired him to focus on “giving back.” “My current projects revolve around producing small independent features which will embrace emerging talent and first time directors,” he said.