Vancouver-spotting at the Oscars: District 9, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

If you’re tuning in to the Oscars on Sunday night (March 7), here are a few Vancouverites to keep an eye on (and cheer for).

Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros
Does District 9 have what it takes to beat Avatar? If so, it will be a triumph for Vancouver’s visual effects industry.

Vancouverites Dan Kaufman and Peter Muyzers of Image Engine, and Robert Habros of the Embassy were named, along with Matt Aitken of Weta Digital in New Zealand, for the best visual effects Oscar for their work on District 9. They are up against only two other films: Avatar and Star Trek.

Unfortunately, District 9’s team lost to Avatar at the BAFTAs and also at the Visual Effects Society Awards. At the VES awards, Avatar led the winners by collecting a total of six awards.

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
This Vancouver screenwriting couple (who are Vancouver Film School alumni) is up for best adapted screenplay at the Oscars. They were nominated for a best motion picture screenplay at the Golden Globes, but lost to Up in the Air’s Sheldon Turner and Montreal-born Jason Reitman.

They also competed against Up in the Air at the BAFTAs, losing to Reitman and Turner as well. However, they weren’t nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, unlike Up in the Air, which won best adapted screenplay.

Julian Clarke
This UBC film-production grad was nominated for an American Cinema Editors best edited dramatic feature film award for his work on District 9.

Alas, he lost to editors from The Hurt Locker. The same happened at the BAFTAs, for which he was also nominated in the editing category.

At the Oscars, he’ll be up against The Hurt Locker and Avatar again (the latter includes James Cameron as part of the editing team), in addition to Inglourious Basterds and Precious (which weren't named at the ACE Awards).

District 9
The film, which had a lot of Vancouver crew working on it, itself is up for the best picture Oscar. (Producers Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham are named for the film.) However, it is competing against nine other features, as the category was expanded from 5 to 10 this year.

Monique Prudhomme
Originally from Montreal, Prudhomme has lived in Vancouver for the last few decades and she recently won the award for excellence in fantasy film at the Costume Designers Guild Awards on February 25 for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which was partly shot in Vancouver.

She had previously been nominated for a CDG award for her work on Juno.

She's up for the costume-design award at the Oscars.

However, this time around, she’ll be competing against The Young Victoria’s Sandy Powell, who won a CDG award in the period piece category. Powell also won a BAFTA for best costume design for the same film, and has previously won two Oscars.

Others in this category of all-female nominees were named for their work on Bright Star, Coco Avant Chanel, and Nine.