'Just to be nominated for an Oscar is incredible'
SuppliedA visual effects supervisor said just to be nominated for an Oscar, regardless of a win, was "quite incredible".
Teesside University creative digital media graduate Russell Bowen was one of a team of four to receive a Best Visual Effects Academy Award nomination for The Lost Bus, based on a rescue mission during the 2018 Californian wildfires.
Bowen, from Pembrokeshire but now based in Vancouver, said: "Amazingly, we're up against some of the very people who inspired me to go into the industry."
He said he was inspired by staff and guest speakers at the university to follow a career in visual effects, and that he would attend the awards in Hollywood on 15 March.
He shares the nomination with Charlie Noble, David Zaretti and Brandon McLaughlin for the survival drama which follows a bus driver who helps 22 children to safety from the inferno.
Bowen studied BA (Hons) Creative Digital Media and graduated in 2009.
"When guest speakers used to come up to do talks for students about their work in film, I knew I'd found my career and Teesside was going to help me get there."
He said hundreds of artists "poured their hearts and souls" into creating the visual effects in the film.
"I'm proud to represent them at the most prestigious film awards night on the calendar," Bowen said.
"When I heard we'd been nominated, I went through the motions of shock which turned into overwhelming joy."
Bowen spent 14 years with visual effects company DNEG working on films such as Venom; The Fate of the Furious and Star Trek Beyond.
More recently he joined beloFX, working on projects including Star Wars: The Acolyte, and is currently working on horror film The Mummy with Blumhouse and Warner Brothers.
