Sci-fi blockbuster Gravity triumphed at the Oscars last night winning a total of seven Academy Awards, including Achievement in Visual Effects, Achievement in Cinematography and Achievement in Film Editing.
The celebrations were in full swing at the Hollywood event hosted by Ellen Degeneres, but a handful of people were also celebrating on the other side of the pond.
Gravity was filmed in the UK with the help of graduates and lecturers from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BournemouthUniversity and Arts University Bournemouth.
They worked on the movie, which was directed by Alfonso Cuaron, when visual effects company Framestore began recruiting.
Gravity also had success in the UK being named outstanding British film at the Baftas earlier this year. Despite featuring Hollywood superstars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, Cuaron is adamant that this is a British film.
Speaking after picking up the Oscar for best director, Cuaron said: “’It’s very obvious the amazing quality and sophistication of the British film industry made this film happen and I am speaking specifically about Framestore and the amazing crew I worked with.”
Gravity uses photo-real CGI to create its spectacular visual effects, one aspect of the film that the Bournemouth graduates worked on.
AUB graduate Lars Erik Eriksen worked as a paint and roto artist. Speaking before the ceremony, he said: “It was such an amazing opportunity to be working on a Hollywood movie right on the AUB campus.”
Another graduate Sam Salek, this time of Bournemouth University said: “When we started working on it, we all felt that we were working on something very special, yet no-one really anticipated the phenomenon it became.”
Adam Redford, a Senior Practice Fellow in Computer Animation at BU added: “The NCCA at Bournemouth University has a great reputation for producing graduates that go on to achieve amazing success in the feature film visual effect industry all over the world.”
While Gravity currently takes centre stage NCCA graduates have worked on projects for the silver screen before including Avatar and Inception.
