Canadian trio wins Oscar for ‘The Shape of Water’ production design

Three Canadians have won an Academy Award for best production design on The Shape of Water.

This was the first Oscar nomination for Paul Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin and Shane Vieau.

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Austerberry is credited for production design while Melvin and Vieau did the set decoration.

The trio also won in the same category at the recent British Academy Film Awards.

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The Shape of Water, about a woman who falls in love with a merman, was shot in Toronto and Hamilton but was set in 1960s-era Baltimore.

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Besides director Guillermo del Toro, the cinematographer and some of the actors, every person who worked on the film was Canadian.

“It used to be in the business we would bring a lot more crew from the States,” Austerberry said in a recent interview.

“Now the business has evolved and the quality of the staff and quality of the crew that is available in Canada and Toronto… is just equal to anywhere else.”

Melvin got the set materials he needed from places including an abandoned hospital in Toronto and online classified ads.