Halifax director Ben Proudfoot wins Oscar for ‘The Queen of Basketball’ 

Nova Scotia director Ben Proudfoot has received the most effective documentary brief Oscar for “The Queen of Basketball.”

Proudfoot claimed the Oscar at an hour-long ceremony instantly earlier than Sunday’s star-studded broadcast the place Quebec director Denis Villeneuve was among the many homegrown contenders chasing a greatest image win for “Dune,” “The Energy of the Canine” and “Nightmare Alley.”

Proudfoot’s 22-minute lengthy movie centres on the story of Lucy Harris, the one lady to be drafted by the NBA and the primary Black lady inducted into the Basketball Corridor of Fame.

“This proves that Lucy Harris’ story, after 45 years of being ignored, does certainly imply one thing profound to America and the world,” he instructed The Canadian Press when reached by textual content on the bash.

“From a quiet city in Mississippi to the world stage, Lucy Harris, The Queen of Basketball, has at all times and can at all times belong on the prime. Her’s is a report that may by no means be damaged.”

The Academy of Movement Footage Arts and Sciences introduced the early win on Twitter, however footage of the displays and acceptance speeches have been held for an edited model that was set to air later Sunday as a part of the dwell ABC/CTV telecast.

The brand new format noticed early trophies handed out in eight classes, half of them together with Canadians: documentary brief, movie enhancing, make-up and hairstyling, authentic rating, manufacturing design, animated brief, dwell motion brief, and sound.

The academy has mentioned the change was meant to maintain the three-hour broadcast “tighter and extra electrical” for viewers, nevertheless it drew intense criticism from many within the movie neighborhood, together with Proudfoot who was additionally nominated final 12 months for his brief documentary “A Concerto is a Dialog.”

Main as much as this 12 months’s bash, Proudfoot had mentioned the transfer “debases sure classes.”

Proudfoot’s rivals this 12 months included Toronto producer Geoff McLean for his movie “Audible,” a few deaf highschool soccer participant grappling with the loss whereas getting ready for the ultimate homecoming sport.

Others Canadian contenders within the pre-telecast included Saskatoon’s Tamara Deverell and Halifax’s Shane Vieau, who shared a nomination for greatest manufacturing design on “Nightmare Alley;” and two “Dune” artists from Montreal _ make-up artist Donald Mowat and manufacturing designer Patrice Vermette. The Nationwide Movie Board’s Canada/U.Ok. co-production “Affairs of the Artwork” misplaced within the animated brief class and in addition had sturdy phrases concerning the revised ceremony.

In a press release within the days main as much as the present, the NFB predicted the change “will serve to additional marginalize brief movies, which already wrestle to seek out massive audiences.”