In the shadow of the war in Ukraine, the 94th Academy Awards Ceremony is taking place this year. Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes host the big Oscar night at the iconic Dolby Theater.
The race for the famous golden statuette is led by the much-discussed film “The Power of the Dog” with 12 nominations, including the Oscar for Best Director, which is claimed by Jane Campion.
Among the big favorites is the film Dune with 10 nominations, the French film CODA and the Belfast by Kenneth Branagh, which becomes the only one in history to claim an Oscar in 7 different categories, among which the best film, direction and a ‘male role.
This year’s awards, however, will also have a Greek flavor. Nikos Kalaitzidis, of Greek origin, is behind the magical world of the big screen visual effects and speaks exclusively to SKAI and Korina Georgiou shortly before the big night. An exciting career that brought him to the top of Hollywood and now in the top 5 finalists for this year’s Oscars.
He and the Digital Domain team have more than 35 feature films in their assets. Spider-Man, Tron, X-Men, Titanic but also “The incredible story of Benjamin Button”, for which they won the gold statuette.
The interview in detail
You are one of the five finalists for this year’s Oscars in the category of “Best Visual Effects” with the film “Free Guy” with Ryan Reynolds. Tell us, first of all, about this candidacy. What makes the visual effects of this movie special?
I’m really honored to be interviewing you and it’s very flattering to be nominated for an Academy Award for Free Guy. It’s one of those movies that I think we needed during the pandemic. We all spent a lot of these two years that we really need something fun, something unique, something genuine that would make us laugh, let our minds free to be carried away by a movie like this. What we visual effects had to create was a world or universe that so many tech companies like Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Metaverse are trying to create. I think we laid the foundation for what this world might look like in the future.
You were born in New York to Greek parents. Tell us about your first steps. When do you decide to dive into the world of cinema?
Ever since I was a small child I loved taking pictures. I have always loved to learn how light affects people and how light creates shape and form. From a young age I just loved to take the camera, go out and take pictures all the time, and then I started my studies. I would do anything to work in this field, even mop floors.
What is your relationship with Greece? What does Greece mean to you?
I must say that there is not a day that passes and when I open my eyes I do not think about Greece. It’s very special to me. I love Greece, she is a beautiful woman and it means a lot to me.
You were part of the team that oversaw the development of lighting and effects for the ocean in the iconic movie “Titanic”. Tell us about this experience. It was a very impressive film.
That was many years ago. It was kind of an adventure then, because honestly visual effects were something very new compared to what we did with computer graphics at the time and experimented with. We really did not know what capabilities we had and we did not know how much the visual effects would evolve.
Where does reality meet fantasy? How do you achieve balance between these two worlds?
It takes a long time to prepare and “build” a specific scene. A scene that you see in a movie and lasts only 3 seconds, may have taken a whole year to build. It really has to do with preparation. The director wants to have a hero who flies 3,000 feet down, steals a convertible car with a blonde beauty sitting next to him and helicopters chasing him through the city streets. Sean Levy, the director, had these ideas and it was up to us to be able to achieve that.
I know this is not an easy question, but which movie was your favorite?
They are all very special in so many different ways and what makes them stand out is probably the time and place. For example, “Titanic” was very special to me because it was one of my first movies and I met so many amazing people in the movie industry. I have collaborated with many great actors on set. There are many actors who come on set and help the team or bring gifts to the crews. Ryan Reynolds, for example, offered boxes of sweets bearing the “Free guy” logo to all members of the group. I’m working on the movie “Black Adam” with Dwayne Johnson and on set, on his birthday, he brought a truck that distributed guacamole to everyone who worked in the crew.
Are you planning to make a film in Athens or Greece in general?
If it was in my hand, of course, I would very much like to be in Athens for filming. This would be a dream come true.
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