MacKinnon and Saunders’ Pinocchio puppets may have been the only Northern success story at last night’s Oscars, but the North of England is no stranger to Hollywood’s glitziest night.
We don’t have to look far back in the history books to find more Northern Oscars involvement, so here’s a brief guide to some other Northerners who have made their Oscars mark in recent years.
Danny Boyle
Manchester’s resident Oscars-botherer-in-chief has three nominations to his name, including a coveted Best Director win for 2009’s Slumdog Millionaire and nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for 2011’s 127 Hours, where he lost out to The King’s Speech and The Social Network respectively.
He doesn’t seem to have let the 127 hours disappointment get him down too much. The following year he directed the spectacular opening ceremony for the London Olympics, and hit films since have included 2017’s well-received T2: Trainspotting sequel and the cheeky 2019 Beatles-inspired comedy Yesterday.
Currently, Boyle can probably be found deep inside Manchester’s soon-to-open Factory International planning for his October opening ceremony which it’s safe to assume, due to it not being in London, will outshine his Olympic spectacular by some distance.
