A New Holland native was among the Thursday, Dec. 12, nominees for a Critics Choice Award for his work on one of the season’s blockbuster films.
David Shirk, a 1985 Garden Spot High School alumnus and previous Oscar winner, is on the team nominated for a Critics Choice award for his work as animation supervisor for the musical film “Wicked.”
The nomination for best visual effects for Shirk and others on the effects team — Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould — is one of 11 Critics Choice nominations for “Wicked.” The film is tied with “Conclave” for the most nominations in the film awards given by the Critics Choice Association.
Shirk, who along with Corbould was on the team that won an Oscar for special effects on the 2013 film “Gravity,” is an animation supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic, the San Francisco-based special-effects company founded by George Lucas and owned by the Walt Disney Co.
A special effects team including Shirk was also nominated for an Oscar for the 2018 film “Ready Player One.”
David Shirk, shown here in 2014 at the Industrial Light & Magic headquarters in San Francisco, is the animation supervisor for the new film “Wicked.” He and three others on the ILM team are nominated for a Critics Choice Award. Shirk, a previous visual-effects Oscar winner for the movie “Gravity,” is a graduate of Garden Spot High School.
The Critics Choice Awards, which honor achievement in film and television, will be held in Santa Monica, California, Sunday, Jan. 12. Hosted by Chelsea Handler, the awards will air from live from 7-10 p.m. on the E! channel and stream the following day on Peacock. “Shōgun” leads the Critics Choice TV nominations, announced Dec. 5.
READ: Oscar-winning New Holland native supervised animation for new ‘Wicked’ film
Voice actor nominated
In other awards nomination news, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, Kelly Brennan, a Lititz-based voice actor, was up for a Voice Arts Award for the third year in a row.
Brennan was nominated for outstanding audio description — TV or film — best voice actor for her work on the 2023 Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
At the awards show, presented by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California, Thomas Reid won that category for the TV series “The Chi.”
From her home studio, Brennan does voice descriptions for movies and television shows to benefit those who are visually impaired.
She won a Voice Arts Award in 2022 for best voice actor for her description work on the HBO show “Westworld,” and was also nominated that year for outstanding voiceover website — English, for her KellyBrennansVoice.com.
In 2023, Brennan was nominated in best voice actor category in 2023 for her description work on the NBC TV show “The West Wing.”
On Friday, “Elton John: Never Too Late,” a documentary on which Brennan did voice description for the production company ZOO Digital, began streaming on Disney+.
2 other local nominees
Two other artists with local ties are also nominated for awards so far this season.
As one of the stars of the 2023-24 Broadway musical revival “Merrily We Roll Along,” Ronks native Jonathan Groff is among those nominated in the Grammy Award category of best musical theater album.
Groff, a Conestoga Valley High School alum, won the Tony Award in June for his role of film producer Franklin Shepard. Groff, along with “Merrily” co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, are nominated for the Grammy as principal soloists on the cast album.
Groff previously won a Grammy as a soloist on the “Hamilton” cast album; and had two previous Tony nominations and an Emmy nod for the Disney+ film of “Hamilton.”
And Madi Diaz, a singer-songwriter who lived in Mount Nebo, Martic Township, and now currently works and lives in Nashville, Tennessee, received her first two Grammy Award nominations this year.
Her album, “Weird Faith” — songs from which she performed at West Art in Lancaster in September — was nominated for best folk album. Diaz is also nominated for best Americana performance for the song “Don’t Do Me Good,” which featured country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves.
The Grammys will be held Feb. 2 in Los Angeles.
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