Sarah Polley, Domee Shi among top Canadian Oscar nominees
CTV
Hours after learning she had snagged an Oscar nomination for best animated feature, stunned Toronto filmmaker Domee Shi said the nod offered welcome 'validation' that stories led by diverse characters can succeed.
Hours after learning she had snagged an Oscar nomination for best animated feature, stunned Toronto filmmaker Domee Shi said the nod offered welcome "validation" that stories led by diverse characters can succeed.
The Pixar writer-director spotlights the coming-of-age anxiety of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl in "Turning Red," and is among a select group of Canadians up for Oscar glory including fellow Torontonian Sarah Polley who vies for best picture and best adapted screenplay with her drama "Women Talking."
Shi credited a bit of superstition to snagging the second Oscar nomination of her career with her Toronto-set, music-driven feature, noting she purposefully ignored Tuesday's announcement because she did the same when her animated short "Bao" earned a nomination and win in 2019.
"I didn't want to jinx it so I decided to sleep through the nominations being read again and just rely on friends and family texting and calling me to know if we got the nomination or not," Shi said in a video call from Oakland, Calif.
Shi said the honour was especially meaningful because "Turning Red" represented so many firsts in her career, including Pixar's first film to be led by a predominantly female team and the first film to have an Asian Canadian female lead.
"There was a lot of pressure that I put on myself for this movie to not just succeed financially, but just to be recognized critically," said Shi, who was nominated alongside Lindsey Collins, going on to describe what Oscar attention means to her.
"It's that validation, but it's also this evidence just to show big studios that look: You can make universal stories that star a diverse protagonist and feature a diverse creative leadership and these stories are universal stories."
