TORONTO — Champagne was flowing Tuesday morning in Montreal as key members of the sound team on “Arrival” marked the sci-fi film’s eight Academy Award nominations.
Sound editor Sylvain Bellemare says a small group of colleagues gathered in a local production studio to see whether they’d be in the running for Hollywood’s most prestigious golden statue.
Sitting near them was a bottle of bubbly they pledged would only be opened if their film secured nominations in both Oscar sound categories.
“Champagne this early in the morning? It’s OK,” Bellemare reasoned.
“We can start the day like that.”
It only took a few minutes into the nominations before Bellemare’s name flashed across the screen in the sound editing category.
A moment later, Bernard Gariepy Strobl watched his name appear on the list of sound mixing nominees, alongside his collaborator Claude La Haye.
“Arrival” went on to get nominations in other key categories, including best picture and director for French-Canadian Denis Villeneuve. The film also racked up a number of other nominations in the technical categories.
The cork was popped and the sound nominees marked their first Oscar nominations.
“It was a lot of joy,” Gariepy Strobl says.
– The Canadian Press