Once a year, talk about movies trumps almost anything else.
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In the spirit of the 85th Academy Awards ceremony during which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honours the best films of the year in the United States, we award our own OSQARs recognizing achievements in North America's energy industry.
Category: Director
OSQAR winner: Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA)
Never before in the history of cinema have 14 high-priced stars of this magnitude converged for a project. They come from different dramatic traditions and represent a range of acting styles. Most are used to working alone. All have healthy egos, exotic special requirements, and dedicated entourages of temperamental executives, lawyers, scientists and publicists. They are Canada’s oil sands developers.
Production on this epic started almost a year ago, under the capable direction of COSIA. Like a great auteur, COSIA has largely kept order on the set, coaxing the talent to deliver career performances. While public release is some time away, work on a foundation for accelerating environmental performance in the oil sands is steadily taking shape.
Category: Production design
OSQAR winner: Tight oil producers in the U.S.
Technology is always changing our lives. Before James Cameron stepped up with Avatar in 2009, we used to enjoy most of our science fiction epics in two dimensions. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?
Just as Avatar’s stunning visual effects and giant blue aliens changed film forever, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized tight oil production in the United States. Now the International Energy Agency has forecast that the U.S. would be energy self-sufficient by 2035.
Category: Short film
OSQAR winner: Cenovus ad
Fellow Canadian oil sands developer Cenovus took to the airwaves with a television spot which stirred our patriotic fervor.
Themed “Canadian ideas at work,” the piece does a masterful job reminding us that Canadians are a determined people, who have tackled and overcome huge challenges. Oil sands development, the ad implies, is similar to other nation-building projects of the past and well within the scope of our capability.
(It originally appeared that Suncor’s short film entry, created to celebrate the 100th edition of OSQAR, won this category. However, an audit of the judging process uncovered voting irregularities.)
