Canada had a strong showing at the 75th Academy Awards, with four Canucks receiving top honors in Hollywood.

Topping the list, Canuck-backed Bowling for Columbine won best feature documentary. The doc was coproduced by Michael Donovan, head of Halifax-based Salter Street Films, and financed through Alliance Atlantis Communications.

In addition, two Canadian crew members of best-picture winner Chicago – which shot in Toronto – were also honored. Set decorator Gordon Sim was co-winner in the art direction category, while Toronto-based sound engineer David Lee was one of three honorees in the sound category.

Brantford, ON’s Eric Armstrong, a Sheridan College grad from the animation program, won in the best animated short category for The ChubbChubbs! Armstrong now works at Sony Pictures Image Works as animation director.

Winnipeg-born Nia Vardalos was nominated for her original screenplay for the Toronto-shot My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but lost to director Pedro Almodovar.

As for ratings, Canadians continued to tune in to the Oscar telecast even as their neighbors to the south tuned out. Although ratings sank on both sides of the border, CTV still had 4.25 million viewers, only slightly down from the 4.67 million who tuned in last year.

ABC, meanwhile, saw a drastic drop as people were evidently tuning into cable networks for up-to-the-minute news coverage of the war in Iraq instead of keeping their eyes on the envelopes. This year, ABC’s Oscar telecast drew 33.1 million viewers, a dramatic decrease from last year’s 41.8 million.

-www.oscars.org