A number of Bournemouth University graduates are celebrating as their work was included in the announcement of Oscar nominees.

Graduates from the University’s National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) have worked on four out of the five films nominated in the Best Visual Effects Category.

Andrew Lockley is among the graduates who could be celebrating on the night of the Academy Awards as his work on the film Interstellar has been nominated. If Interstellar wins, it could be Andrew’s second Oscar, having won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2011 for his work on Inception.

BU graduates also worked on the special effects for films Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, also nominated in the visual effects category alongside Interstellar and Captain America.

Speaking to the Bournemouth Echo, Sofronis Efstathiou, a lecturer in Computer Animation at BU, said, “We are very proud of all our former students. We have been running for 25 years and were one of the first animation courses in the country. Some of our former students are now in senior positions and we like to keep track of their progress.”

BU has a long history of producing graduates who have gone on to work on Oscar-winning films, with graduates involved in the visual effects for Avatar, Gravity and The Lego Movie among others.

Originally posted on BU News