🇨🇦 Congratulations to fellow Canadian Ben Proudfoot (@bgproudfoot), and co-director Kris Bowers, whose film THE LAST REPAIR SHOP has won the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Film https://t.co/zWKMqsXpAJ
— National Film Board of Canada (@thenfb) March 11, 2024
Ben Proudfoot won his second Academy Award last night at the 96th Academy Awards for co-directing The Last Repair Shop, the film that won Best Short Documentary Film. Proudfoot win his first Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for The Queen of Basketball (2021).
He also co-directed (with Kris Bowers) the short documentary film A Concerto Is a Conversation, nominated for an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) in 2020/2021.
If you are from the "'tis an honour just to be nominated" school of thought, there was a lot to celebrate at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles last night.
Ryan Gosling had a good night if you don't counting him not winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Barbie. Gosling lost out to Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer. Gosling and Simu Liu (right, below) were a part of the best performance of a nominated song with I'm Just Ken. The song itself lost out to What Was I Made For? also from Barbie.
Celine Song was up for Best Original Screenplay in her directorial debut Past Lives. Song lost out to Anatomy of a Fall. Her film was also up for Best Picture, losing to Oppenheimer.
To Kill a Tiger made the cut for Best Documentary Feature Film but lost out to 20 Days in Mariupol.
The late Robbie Robertson was nominated for his soundtrack work on Killers of the Flower Moon yet lost out to Oppenheimer.
Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron were up for Invincible for the live action short category. The film lost out to The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Troy Quane and Julie Zackary were up for Nimona for Best Animated Feature Film. The Boy and the Heron won that award.
Stephane Ceretti (Guardians of the Galaxy 3) and Jeff Sutherland (Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One) were both up for Best Visual Effects. They lost out to Godzilla Minus One.
Canada has some fun with Oscars presenters. Catherine O'Hara presented for makeup and hairstyling as well as production design. Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock presented for the international film category.
Gosling also participated in a tribute to stunt performers. Brendan Fraser, last year's winner for Best Actor for The Whale, was one of the presenters for Best Actor.
We saw a brief sample from Navalny, last year's Best Documentary winner for Daniel Roher. Alexei Navalny passed away on February 16.
Canadian film case study: To Kill a Tiger
Ryan Gosling, Celine Song, To Kill a Tiger get Oscar nominations
Stories We Tell and the documentaries inspired by the Canadian film
Canadians Oscars nomination scoreboard
Rojek misses the Oscars shortlist cut for Best International Feature Film
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom) won the Best International Feature Film award. The film beat out The Teachers' Lounge (Germany); Io Capitano (Italy); Perfect Days (Japan); and Society of the Snow (Spain). I saw 3 of the 5 entries (Germany, UK, and Japan). While I really loved Perfect Days, The Zone of Interest is a very powerful film.
The Zone of Interest got 5 Oscar nominations and also won for Best Sound. The sound is very significant in the film. This film is the first British film to win the international award. The previous Top 5 nominees were Hedd Wyn (1993) and Solomon & Gaenor (2000).
Anatomy of a Fall was not nominated for Best International Feature Film since France went in a different direction. The film won for Best Original Screenplay and nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress for Sandra Hüller, Best Director for Justine Triet, and Best Editing. Hulu announced that Anatomy of a Fall will be available on March 22.
Speaking of non nominated films, Green Border would have been the talk in this category if Poland hadn't chickened out and picked a less controversial film.
Film is the most powerful tool for change when it's in the hands of audiences everywhere.
— To Kill a Tiger (@tokillatigerdoc) March 10, 2024
Today is a day we've looked forward to since we began filming Kiran & Ranjit's story.
🔥 It brings us great pride to say TO KILL A TIGER is now available globally on Netflix! #StandWithHer pic.twitter.com/HbpLqtgplo
Those outside Canada can (finally) find out for themselves about To Kill a Tiger. I thought Four Daughters was a better film; hopefully, you will get a chance to see both plus 20 Days in Mariupol.
Celine Song wins Best Director for Past Lives at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Looking back on Canadians nominated for screenplay Oscars
One key area where you see international variety at the Oscars is in the acting categories. This jingoistic news story from an ABC station (ABC carries the Academy Awards) points out the hometowns of the American nominees for acting this year. Like we should root for an actor based on where they grew up.
The story mentions 13 Americans. Danielle Brooks, Bradley Cooper, Da'Vine Joy Randoph, Colman Domingo, Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Robert Downey Jr., Robert De Niro, America Ferrera, Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Annette Benning, and Mark Ruffalo.
The story fails to mention Paul Giamatti, born in New Haven, Connecticut as well as Jeffrey Wright, born in Washington, DC.
The 5 not from the United States include Best Actor winner Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) raised in Ballintemple, Cork, Ireland; German actor Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) from Oberhof and Friedrichroda in what was then East Germany; Carey Mulligan (Maestro) from London originally though spent some childhood time in Düsseldorf in what was then West Germany; Ryan Gosling (Barbie) from London, Ontario, Canada; and Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) from London, England.
Actors from around the world come to work on American films. Barbie has 3 male Canadians in the cast: Gosling, Simu Liu, and Michael Cera.
Sarah Polley gets Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay but not Best Director
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
For the second year in a row, Canada had a male with an acting nomination and a female with a screenplay nomination. The difference was that Brendan Fraser and Sarah Polley won last year while Ryan Gosling and Celine Song came up short. Still an impressive feat.
Canada also had a Best Documentary nominee but like the other categories, a Canadian won last year and not this year.
All those Canadians with nominations should be proud. To Kill a Tiger might not have had a Netflix deal without an Oscar nod.
Twitter captures: @thenfb; @tokillatigerdoc
photo and video credit: ABC
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