Christian Bale, the Welsh born actor won his first Oscar for 2011’s The Fighter, and is this year nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award for his role in The Big Short. The supporting actor category this year is dominated by Brits – with Bale going up against his nemesis as Batman: Bane, played by Tom Hardy for The Revenant – and Mark Rylance gaining a nomination for his role in Speilberg’s Bridge of Spies. Mark Ruffalo for Spotlight and Sylvester Stallone for Creed complete the list for the Supporting Actor Nominees.
Less high profile but certainly no less an achievement are Oscar nominations in the Short Documentary and Make-up/Hair categories. Colwyn Bay’s Kimberley Warner has gained a nomination for her short documentary Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah; and Cardiff’s Sian Grigg picked up a nomination for her make-up work on the multi-nominated The Revenant. Ffilm Cymru Wales’s Development Executive, Kimberley Warner, started her career as a script consultant. She has been Head of Acquisitions and Development for two distributors: Journeyman Pictures and Mercury Media, and worked with highly renowned filmmakers, including Ken Loach… and she’s not even 30 yet. In a statement on the film’s Facebook page, the director, Adam Benzine says of Warner “[she’s] my co-producer, supporter and second in command”. Kimberley told me on Twitter how surreal the whole thing feels, and how “great [it is] to see that everyone’s hard work is being recognised”; she also said she’s looking forward to the after party, after the ceremony: “one of the most nerve-wracking nights of my life”.
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah is the story of Lanzmann’s Shoah, a nine hour documentary featuring interviews with Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and German perpetrators.
Sian Grigg is an award winning make-up artist with nearly 25 years experience in the movie industry. Winning a BAFTA for her work on The Aviator, Grigg is nominated for an Academy Award, again for her work with Leonardo DiCaprio, on The Revenant. DiCaprio himself is in the running for the Best Actor award, already winning a Golden Globe, in the acceptance speech for which he thanked Ms Grigg saying “My make-up artist, Sian Grigg – you are an unbelievable talent. Thank you for all the genius you brought to this movie.” Grigg studied at Cardiff Art College before then going on to specialised in make-up at London Fashion College, she has also worked on Ex Machina, another movie that gained nominations this year.
words CHRIS WILLIAMS, photo ANDREW BOWDEN