The National Film Board is up for two Oscars at the 77th Academy Awards. Nominated in the best short animation category is Chris Landreth’s Ryan, and first-time director Hubert Davis’ Hardwood is up for best short doc, marking the NFB’s 67th and 68th Academy Award nominations. Meanwhile, Annette Bening’s best actress nomination for her performance in Istvan Szabo’s Being Julia marks the first time in two decades that a Canadian film has been nominated in an acting category.

Ryan, a 14-minute portrait of legendary Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who worked at the NFB 30 years ago, has already won more than 30 awards internationally, including the special jury award at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France and the Grand Prix for best animated short at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Coproduced with Toronto’s Copper Heart Entertainment, Ryan is Landreth’s second film to receive an Oscar nom. His animated short the end was nominated in 1996.

The NFB doc Hardwood explores how Davis’ father’s career as a Harlem Globetrotter influenced him and his family. The doc won a Golden Sheaf at the Yorkton Film Festival and best short doc at the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival.

Up against Bening for best actress are Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace, Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake, Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby (who beat Bening for the prize in 1999) and Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Bening was expected to get a nomination. Now that it’s official, domestic distributor ThinkFilm is gearing up for a wide release of the film across Canada. On Jan. 28, Being Julia hit about 70 screens across the country. While U.S. distributor Sony Pictures Classics was unavailable for comment at press time, it is likely the film will get a wider release in the U.S. as well.

Toronto-based ThinkFilm began a limited platform release of Being Julia Oct. 15, starting with an exclusive engagement in Toronto, then building to a total of 22 screens by the end of the month. As of Dec. 17, eight weeks into its release, the film had grossed just over $500,000 at the Canadian box office. At the same time, its U.S. take stood at around US$3.3 million.

Andrew Austin, ThinkFilm’s SVP of Canadian distribution, says he suspected that Being Julia would really start to shine come awards season and reserved a wide release in anticipation. Even before Academy Award nominees were announced, Austin said he was fairly sure an Oscar nod to Bening would be forthcoming.

Bening’s performance in the US$18-million Canada/U.K./Hungary copro from producer Robert Lantos, has already won her a Golden Globe and a best actress award from the National Board of Review. The Screen Actors Guild has also nominated Bening for best actress.

In other Canadian Oscar connections, Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, which leads the pack with 11 nominations, was shot in Montreal in 2003. And one of the uncredited composers on Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ – up for best musical score – is Canadian musician Jack Lenz, founder of Toronto-based Lenz Entertainment. Among the seven noms for Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby is one for best adapted screenplay for Ontario-born Paul Haggis. On the down side, while la Face cachée de la lune was an Oscar hopeful for best foreign-language film, the Quebec feature comes away empty-handed.

The 77th Academy Awards will be held Feb. 27 at L.A.’s Kodak Theatre.

-www.oscars.org