When this year's Oscar nominations are announced on Tuesday, there's a good chance some Canadians will be prominently in the mix, most notably Quebec director Denis Villeneuve and London, Ont.-born actor Ryan Gosling.
The in-demand duo, who are working together on the upcoming sci-fi film noir Blade Runner 2049, has already racked up a long list of honours separately on the awards circuit.
Arrival, La La Land
Villeneuve's aliens-have-landed thriller Arrival is up for nine British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) and got two Golden Globe nominations. The Directors Guild of America also nominated Villeneuve for its outstanding directorial achievement award.
Meanwhile, Gosling won a Golden Globe for his role as a jazz musician in the dreamy musical La La Land, which took home seven awards in total. He's also up for BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards for best leading actor.
Arrival director Denis Villeneuve talks to Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner on set. (FilmNation Entertainment)
"Ryan Gosling, when you look at his body of work, he's an artist that makes no compromise," Villeneuve said during an interview at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards earlier this month.
Our (Blade Runner) crew is very Canadian. It's kind of funny, just everyone apologizing to each other all the time for no reason." - Ryan Gosling, actor
Gosling has equal praise for Villeneuve. "He's very inspiring and he's a gentleman, to boot," Gosling said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year.
"He's very Canadian. Our (Blade Runner) crew is very Canadian. It's kind of funny, just everyone apologizing to each other all the time for no reason."
Indie darlings to Hollywood A-listers
Villeneuve and Gosling are both well established in their careers: Gosling's honours include an Oscar nomination in 2007 for Half Nelson, and Villeneuve got a BAFTA nomination in 2012 for the mystery-drama Incendies and a Palme d'Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for Sicario.
But their profiles have really skyrocketed lately, with their current projects landing them major features in high-profile publications that have declared the indie darlings as bona fide Hollywood A-listers.
Ryan Gosling, right, and Emma Stone in a scene from, La La Land. Gosling won a Golden Globe for his role and is poised to snag an Oscar nod as well. (Dale Robinette/Lionsgate/Associated Press)
"I was happy to see Ryan Gosling win that (Golden Globe). He's oh so charming," said Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson, whose fake documentary Operation Avalanche was up for a TFCA Award and is nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards.
"He's the biggest star in the world."
'High level of craft'
Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan praises Villeneuve's ambition.
"Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors that are working right now and I've just been in awe of all of his movies, starting with Polytechnique and Incendies," he said in an interview at the TFCA Awards.
Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan says Villeneuve is "one of the best directors that are working right now." (Mark Blinch/Reuters)
"He's working at such a high level of craft and being able to work with these amazing performers and create this very distinct visual language."
Funding future filmmakers
Villeneuve, whose other films include Enemy and Prisoners, has also benefited from a strong support system in Quebec, said Brian D. Johnson, a journalist and outgoing TFCA president.
"That's how you get a Denis Villeneuve, that's how you get a Jean-Marc Vallee — is by funding hundreds of young filmmakers" -Brian D. Johnson, outgoing TFCA president
"(Villeneuve's success), to me, is a perfect example of how a really, really strongly funded, local film movement can have massive global effects, and by that I'm talking about the French-Canadian branch of Telefilm," he said.
"They're so supportive of first filmmakers, they're so supportive of young talent and they're so good at continually funding people before they break out as opposed to, I think, the more senescence system we have in English Canada where we're funding the people who have long since broken out and not those that are up-and-coming.
Director Xavier Dolan's film, It's Only the End of the World, was selected to represent Canada as a possible nominee in the Best Foreign Film category at this year's Oscars. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)
"That's how you get a Denis Villeneuve, that's how you get a Jean-Marc Vallee — is by funding hundreds of young filmmakers who eventually are going to find their feet and then make these huge splashes that you're seeing now."
Also in contention for a nomination is Xavier Dolan, whose film It's Only the End of the World is one of nine movies still in the running for a best foreign-language Oscar nod.
Ryan Gosling, Denis Villeneuve among Canadians likely to get Oscar nominations
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