Oscar-Nominated District 9 Prize Pack
District 9, co-written by Vancouver Film School graduates Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, is up for Best Picture this weekend at the 87th annual Academy Awards.
It’s no secret that Vancouver Film School students are mighty talented and this Oscar nod is a pleasant (and warranted) surprise. To celebrate, VFS has given me a District 9 prize pack to give away to a reader this week.
To enter to win this prize pack, please leave a comment naming your favourite movie that has Vancouverites in the credits (or was filmed in Vancouver). This could be the star, the writer, director, or one featuring the recognizable Marine Building.
I’ll do the draw tomorrow night at 5:00pm and the prize pack will be mailed out to the winner. The Oscars will be shown on CTV this Sunday and there are a few parties in town (at Players Chophouse or the OPUS Hotel) where you can join in the fun.
Update: I have just drawn the winner randomly and it’s Dale, congratulations!
Fine print: Participants must live within BC and be able to confirm their prize within 48 hours.
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My favorite made in Vancouver movie so far has been New Moon because I spent time at most of the sets and it was fun to see these shots in the finished movie.
The Fantastic Four, in which Vancouver shows up as New York!
Battlestar Galatica (the made for TV movie) was well done and disguised Vancouver pretty well.
Hard Core Logo! Based on Michael Turner’s book.
Very cool!! Best movie of 2009 by far. Best movie with a Vancouverite would be Back to the Future… best movie filmed in Vancouver are the Final Destination series, they have some amazing shots of the city and back country.
Not sure this qualifies, because it is a TV series, but BSG is what pops out, as well as Caprica (the spin-off). More prevalent with Caprica when you see your neighborhood as a background for a city that’s not even on this planet…
X-Men 3… LOVE the shot of mutant Angel flying off the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown 🙂
so many to choose from, but oddly enough when I think of movies shot in Vancouver, I always remember Jackie Chan’s ‘Rumble In The Bronx’, where Vancouver is sold as New York City, Coast Mountains and all…
I’d say any of the Marvel movies filmed here in Vancouver (some of the X-Men series, Fantastic Four), but I think the one that sticks in my mind as the first movie that I remember knowing for sure that it was filmed here in Vancouver was Romeo Must Die. It was in the scene where Jet Li arrives and hails a cab, there’s an old Vancouver bus just behind the cab.
The X-Men movies. I actually saw Hugh Jackman at the Milestone in Yaletown while he was filming here. One hot man! 😀
my favorite vancouver movie is actually a short film entitled “Everything’s Coming Up Rosie” [psst, it’s playing at the Canada International Film Festival later this month at the Evergreen casino in Vancouver]. It stars Jodelle Ferland, Ian Tracy and Julia Benson and is written/directed by Vancouver’s own Jereme Watt.
88 minutes because it annoyed me while at UBC blocking my way and changing my librarys name, then bombed horribly.
whoops, i meant to say EDGEWATER casino, not evergreen
As some others have picked TV series, I am going to pick the biggie, The X Files, which for 7 years was filmed entirely in BC and was made to look like it was all over the USA. A tribute not only to the excellent producers and location scouts, but also to BC’s varied terrain. I have a couple of books which detail where different episodes were filmed and it is always cool when a place I know (in my severely limited knowledge of BC) is shown and I recognise it.
I saw District 9 for the first time when I was flying to Canada as a landed immigrant 7 weeks ago.
21 Jump Street LOL. Old-school.
Oops! That was a tv show. I will change it to Final Destination 1, since Devon Sawna was a Canadian.
Favourite Vancouverite movie: Any of the Star Treks with James Doohan! If he’s not close enough to the “star” to count, then I’d have to say the movie Jumper with Hayden Christensen. Christensen may have also done some other minor sci-fi-related thing I can never remember the name of…
The first movie to come to mind that was filmed here was the 6th Day. I’d never paid attention to where it was filmed until I saw it a few months after moving here and started recognizing places. That was a thrill, even if the movie itself wasn’t all that great.
Back to the Future is such a classic with a Vancouverite. As for TV, I once had a 1-liner on the show Street Justice & have fond memories of that! good times (anyone remember that one? so old school!)
Sex and the City… kim catrall not technically vancouver, but she’s BC!
I gotta go with Distric 9 itself, as my husband used to live with Julian Clarke, the Oscar-nominated editor of the movie!
Hot Tub Timemachine looks like it will turn out to be a modern classic, and Jumanji is in all our hearts but I’d have to say my favourite right now is The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassis.
Don’t forget BARBED WIRE starring Pam Anderson!
I’m going to go for Back To the Future II – those hoverboards man! And the horrifically complicated plot. Genius.
A great movie series often filmed in Vancouver is X-Men!
I gotta say X-Men, as it was very cool to watch it and see Vancouver all throughout!
mine is Rumble in the Bronx
The criminally underseen “The Nines” starring the very talented (not to mention easy on the eyes) Ryan Reynolds. One worth digging up:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810988/
Everything’s Gone Green – it’s like a love letter to our fair city 🙂
Battlestar Galatica, more then a few seen where in Vancouver. one of the most obvious ones was in the first episode at SFU.
Best vancouver movie has got to be the Back to the Future trilogy. Michael J Fox all the way.
Fido! It was filmed in the interior but has many Vancouverites in the credits. And how many movies can you describe as “a delightful zombie flick”?
Never Ending Story was filmed partly in Vancouver.
Juno was decent. I’m pretty sure it was filmed here.
The Watchmen.
All the movies listed above are awesome! The movie I like to bring up is Driven starring Silvester Stallone! Remember the Molson Indy??? I miss it!
New Moon, because it draws a sense of familiarity and brings me closer into the sceneries of the movie since I have been to many of those places that they were filming at. So it brings another dimension into the experience of watching this movie as I felt like I could relate to it more.
Happy Gilmore!!!
Does Battlestar Galactica count? If so- LOVED IT! and of course, District 9. Fantastic film 🙂
On the Corner, which is actually about Vancouver too!
District 9 was great. New Moon also has many shots of Vancouver (our forests) and Vancouverites in the credits.
Juno!!!
21 Jump Street was great at showing off Vancouver in the 80’s.
Hot Rod is a good one with Andy Samberg. Bird On A Wire with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn was another good flick.
As for Vancouver based stars/actors, I think Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars movies is pretty good too!
District 9!
Happy Gilmore – it’s a classic.
Bird on a Wire, way old and before Mel Gibson went nuts but still a fun yet stupid movie 🙂
The Sixth Day, simply because I get to see the downtown library blow up at the climax. I love the library, but loved that scene in an otherwise terrible movie.
I’ve been wanting to see this movie. I’d love to win. I like how X-Men was filmed in Vancouver.
I’ve always been a fan of Michael J. Fox in the Back to the Future series.
My Fave movie filmed in Van and featuring Vancouverites has gotta be: X2: X-MEN UNITED! 😀
Bird On A Wire. An oldie, but Goldie bought a house here right after the movie.
The Crush with a very young Alicia Silverstone!
Butterfly Effect was filmed in Vancouver. Such a great movie based on a neat idea!
Hmmmmm…. aside from District 9 and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, I would say…The NeverEnding Story! A classic movie from my childhood and you can see downtown Vancouver in the last scene!
Watchmen!
And it’s worth mentioning, as many others have already, Battlestar Galactica. Incredible show that couldn’t have been made without Vancouver’s homegrown talent and diverse landscape
40 Days & 40 Nights was a funny movie.
Firewall! Because Harrison Ford is awesome and the movie… was made here
I would say the X-men series. But the most fun just because of how funny it was to see crazy fan girls would be New Moon and Eclipse even though it hasn’t come it.
But best movie I would go with District 9. Best storyline and well everything!
I, Robot.
New Moon!
The Chronicles of Riddick.
I would definitely say the up and coming film The A-Team, I am definitely stoked for it. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, it was pretty well done. Heath ledgers real last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Ooooh, and the movie 2012, but I’ll pretend I didn’t say that one. It thought it was just all effects, bad acting terrible story. And at the person who said District 9 was filmed in Vancouver. Wasn’t it just edited in Vancouver?
Rumble In The Bronx, Jackie Chan’s best film.
Watchmen! Filmed in Vancouver AND a ton of VFS grads worked on the special effects for it.
My favourite movie has to be Juno hands down. Filmed in Vancouver and the setting was delightful.
“Everything’s Gone Green”, by far! It’s about as Vancouver as Vancouver gets (penned by Douglas Coupland!) and features a great Canadian cast and terrific shots from around the city proudly throughout its story!
new moon !
District 9!
Whenever someone mentions films shot in Vancouver, I can’t help but think of the first movie I saw that featured a distinct Vancouver building: The Groundstar Conspiracy with George Peppard. Sequences were shot at SFU and it was released in 1972 (10 years before First Blood). I first saw it in late night reruns many years later and totally don’t remember if it was any good. It’s memorable because part of SFU gets blown up 🙂
Carpool! i remember being 13 and watching Tom Arnold film a scene on Lonsdale Avenue in North Van. So funny 🙂
A sci-fi tie between The Matrix with actress Carrie-Ann Moss, and Serenity with actress Jewel Staite.
District 9
How about The Imaginaruim of Dr Parnassus which was partially shot here but has another Vancouver Film Maker nominated for an Oscar, Costume Designer Monique Prudhomme.
Also a few classic, Stallones First Blood or how about 1971 Robert Altman film McCabe and Mrs Miller starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie.
The first Night at the Museum in which we turned a little field in Langley into Central Park for the big stagecoach chase scene.
Just sayin….
Oh yeah, let’s not forget that every movie and TV show made here has Vancouverites in the credits. It’s not just directors, writers, editors There are a lot of extremely talented crew members that bring these films to fruition. From PA’s to producers we’ve got some great film makers in this city.
Aging myself: Back to the Future (Micheal J Fox star).
I Robot!
Juno for sure!
New Moon!
Have to go with X-Men, not because the series are my fave movies, but just because anything with the library in it makes me happy. I love spotting local Vancouver scenes in movies! 🙂
As for the Oscars, I’d love to see District 9 win. Anything but Avatar, really!
Fantastic Four! Loved the motocross scene at BC Place
I’m going to go with I,Robot – not that it used Shaw Tower and I’m biased or anything..
Double Jeopardy had great views and Ashley Judd 🙂
my favourite has to be X-men Origins: wolverine. I got to see alot of the actors at UBC!!
I have to say fantastic four also. I could barely recognize vancouver in the movie, they did a good job!
District 9 as well
District 9!
I have to admit, I’m a sucker for the first two X-Men movies. Does that make me a bad person?