Montreal visual effects companies vying for Oscar glory tonight

Severalvisual effects companies based in Montreal are eagerly awaiting Sunday's Oscars ceremony, in hopes that their efforts will be rewarded at Hollywood's biggestnight.

Richard Hoover, a visual effects supervisor at Framestore in Montreal, is nominated for his work on Blade Runner 2049.

"I thinkwe'vegot a really good chance," said Hoover, whose been nominated twice before but has yet to take home the iconic golden statue.

"But you never know how the academy is going to vote."

• 'I don't like to do the same thing twice': Denis Villeneuve says Blade Runner 2049 is his best film

Hoover told CBC's Homerun that he's looking forward to attending the ceremony inCalifornia but that he still gets nervous.

"The butterflies start to form in your stomach as you wait for your category to be called," he said.

Quebec director Denis Villeneuve made a point of working with a number of local companies on the film, which he screened atMontreal's Festival du nouveau cinmain the fall.

Framestore has worked on a number of high-profile projects including Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (for which they received another 2018 Oscar nomination for visual effects), Beauty and the Beast, Avengers and The Martian.

Butthis is the first time they havedonea project that is 100 per cent out of Montreal.

"It means a lot for the Montreal team particularly," said Adrien Saint Girons, a computer graphics supervisor at Framestore.

He said that the Oscar nodmakes all the hours of hard workworthwhile.

The company also recently won an award for special visual effectsat the 2018British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).

Another visual effects company fromMontrealis celebrating notone but three nominations forStar Wars: The Last Jedi,Kong: Skull IslandandBlade Runner 2049.

Adam O'Brien-Locke, who works for Rodeo FX, jokedthat the companyhasa 60 per cent chance of taking home a trophy.

• Montreal visual effects team celebrates Blade Runner 2049 Oscar nominations

The Moving Picture Company (MPC), based in Montreal, also workedon Blade Runner 2049. It wasresponsible for bringing back the character of Rachael from the original film,played by 1982-eraSean Young.

RichardClegg a computer graphics supervisor at MPC said that once the company developed a visual effect using motion capture technology to simulate Young's performance, they put the effect and the original filmside by side and asked Villeneuve to guess which was real and which was fake.

"Some people coin it as the holy grail of visual effects," said Cleggof creating such a subtle, realistic humanoid effect.

"It's one of the thingsthat'snot easy to do...to try and trick an audience into believing it's a real person."

While the movie was well-received by critics, it didn't fare as well at the box office.

The movie's opening weekend brought in a weak$31.5 million US, a disappointment for a film that took $150 million to make.

• Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 wins over critics, loses at the box office

Blade Runner 2049 was nominated for five Oscars total, all of which all are in "craft" categories, not bigger ones like directing or best picture.

Villeneuve said he felt honoured,but disappointed that the academy failed to recognize the soundtrack of his film.

"I think what [composers Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch] did for the movie, the score of the movie, was by far one of the best this year," Villeneuve said.

Villeneuve was nominated for best director in 2016 for his film Arrival, starring Amy Adams. The film won in the category of Best Sound Editing.

The Academy Awards will be broadcast Sunday, March 4 starting at 8 p.m. ET.