NORTHERN STAR POWER
Gosling, Villeneuve are in demand
When this year’s Oscar nominations are announced on Tuesday, there’s a good chance some Canadians will be prominently in the mix, most notably Quebec director Denis Villeneuve and London, Ont.-born actor Ryan Gosling.
The in-demand duo, who are working together on the upcoming sci-fi film noir Blade Runner 2049, has already racked up a long list of honours on the awards circuit.
Villeneuve’s aliens-have-landed thriller Arrival is up for nine British Academy Film Awards and got two Golden Globe nominations. The Directors Guild of America also nominated Villeneuve for its outstanding directorial achievement award.
Meanwhile, Gosling won a Golden Globe for his role as a jazz musician in the dreamy musical La La Land, which took home seven awards in total.
He’s also up for BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards for best leading actor.
“Ryan Gosling, when you look at his body of work, he’s an artist that makes no compromise,” Villeneuve said during an interview at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards earlier this month.
Gosling has equal praise for Villeneuve.
“He’s very inspiring and he’s a gentleman, to boot,” Gosling said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“He’s very Canadian. Our (Blade Runner) crew is very Canadian. It’s kind of funny, just everyone apologizing to each other all the time for no reason.”
Villeneuve and Gosling are both well established in their careers: Gosling’s honours include an Oscar nomination in 2007 for Half Nelson, and Villeneuve got a BAFTA nomination in 2012 for the mystery/drama Incendies and a Palme d’Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for Sicario.
But their profiles have really skyrocketed lately, with their current projects landing them major features in high-profile publications that have declared the indie darlings as bona fide Hollywood A-listers.
“I was happy to see Ryan Gosling win that (Golden Globe). He’s oh so charming,” said Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson, whose fake documentary Operation Avalanche was up for a TFCA Award and is nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards.
“He’s the biggest star in the world.”
Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan praises Villeneuve’s ambition.
“Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors that are working right now and I’ve just been in awe of all of his movies, starting with Polytechnique and Incendies,” he said in an interview at the TFCA Awards.
“He’s working at such a high level of craft and being able to work with these amazing performers and create this very distinct visual language.”
Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors that are working right now and I’ve just been in awe of all of his movies.
Also in contention for a nomination is Xavier Dolan, whose film It’s Only the End of the World is one of nine movies still in the running for a best foreign-language Oscar nod.