Haligonian’s big night at the Oscars
Proudfoot picks up second Academy Award for documentary short
“It is a validation that this thing we felt worthy of celebrating was worthy of celebrating and that is very special.”
Ben Proudfoot Oscar Award winner from Nova Scotia
It is a day to remember for Ben Proudfoot.
The Oscars 2024.
At about 8 a.m. they started arriving at Proudfoot’s North Hollywood home: the craftspeople of the L.A. Unified School District’s Musical Instrument Repair Shop, who annually fix some 6,000 instruments for the public-school students of Los Angeles, as well as the students whose lives have been enriched by their work.
And also the crew who turned their story into the documentary The Last Repair Shop, which had been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the 96th Academy Awards.
“Getting ready, the tuxes on, the makeup done, pretty much took the whole day,” said the Halifax-born Proudfoot, 33, co-director of the film, who donned a Giorgio Armani tux for the ceremony that started at 4 p.m.
Since 20 people at Proudfoot’s house were bound for the event, a couple of limos wouldn’t do. Instead, they climbed into a rented yellow school bus.
“The film is about equal public access to musical education, so what better mode of transportation,” Proudfoot said.
It drove them right to the door, where Proudfoot, along with Porché Brinker, an 11-year-old violinist who appears in the film, and codirector Kris Bowers and his wife walked the football fieldlong red carpet as cameras snapped and paparazzi yelled stars’ names.
Inside, there was a short reception. Then The Last Repair Shop crew took their seats, about 20 rows back from the stage, amidst the other nominees in their category.
'JUST SO NERVOUS'
Theirs was the 13th trophy to be awarded, so they had a couple of hours to wait.
“You are just so nervous,” said Proudfoot, who had been nominated twice for Oscars and won one in 2021 for directing The Queen of Basketball, about the first woman officially drafted by an NBA team.
“We were friends with all of the other nominees, so you know one of your friends is going to win. But you are still hoping that you will win.”
When they found out they had, Brinker stormed the stage.
Proudfoot somehow maintained his dignity but still told me the day after how it felt to receive a standing ovation from the crowd. Among those standing and clapping he noticed Christopher Nolan, the recipient of the best director award, whose movie Oppenheimer would win the Oscar for best picture. And he got to shake Steven Spielberg’s hand on the way to the stage.
There, Bowers gave a powerful speech extolling the importance of music education before they were hustled backstage for 45 minutes of portrait taking and other publicity rituals.
Only in an elevator afterwards did Proudfoot get a chance to shake his head, say “crazy” and embrace his codirector.
“Our category isn’t a best director or best actor, it goes to the entire film,” said Proudfoot.
“It is a validation that this thing we felt worthy of celebrating was worthy of celebrating and that is very special.”
FIVE-YEAR PROJECT
The team at Breakwater Studios, Proudfoot’s production house, worked on The Last Repair Shop for nearly five years. So, the sense of elation was high as they watched the other Oscars being handed out and at the star-studded Governor’s Ball after the ceremony, where Proudfoot stood next to best actress winner Emma Stone as they had their names engraved on their Oscars.
He also had a chance to chat with Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Co., which was meaningful to Proudfoot for two reasons: Disney owns Searchlight Pictures, which, along with L.A. Times Studios, bought The Last Repair Shop and made it available for free on multiple platforms; and
Breakwater Studios, which works for clients looking to tell their story in a different way, as well as making award-winning documentaries, works out of the same building where Walt Disney’s first offices were once located.
The booze flowed freely at the ball but Proudfoot, who still had media to do, abstained to keep a clear head.
Not so much at the Vanity Fair party, so exclusive that the only way to gain entrance is to roll down a car window and flash an Oscar statuette.
Proudfoot said that he “danced the night away” there and that it was 3 a.m. when his head hit the pillow. Two hours and 45 minutes later his first media interview of the day began.
‘100 PER CENT NOVA SCOTIAN’
For all of that, he sounded sharp a few hours later when we spoke about his big night and about how so many people in Halifax, where the son of a lawyer and academic grew up in the city’s south end, have played a role in his career.
That list ranged from Proudfoot’s music teachers at the Halifax Grammar School, Queen Elizabeth High School and Citadel High to Nancy Marshall, the musical director at QEHS, and Patrick Drake, his mentor in the art of sleight of hand. (Before attending film school at the University of Southern California, Proudfoot won international magic competitions, performed at cocktail parties and busked for tips down on the Halifax waterfront.)
I wrote an earlier column on how growing up where he did helped forge Proudfoot’s artistic vision.
“I am as 100 per cent Nova Scotian as donair meat,” he said.
Since the Oscar, his phone has “exploded with texts with a 902 area code,” and there has been “a lot of love and support from the people back home,” he said.
Proudfoot hoped to get some sleep after we spoke but there was a weekly allhands-on-deck meeting at Breakwater.
There were things to talk about. The company, as always, has a host of projects in the hopper, including a documentary about Chris Hesse, the former personal cinematographer to Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first prime minister and president.
Maybe there was a little something else to talk about, too.