Oscar Nod, by Design

Longtime Montecito resident Gary Fettis will be on tenterhooks on Sunday, March 4.

Gary, 68, who has lived in our rarefied enclave since 1992, has been nominated for his fourth Oscar for Best Production Design for Christopher Nolan‘s epic $110-million World War II film, Dunkirk, about the May 1940, evacuation of 330,000 troops to safety across the English Channel, starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, and One Direction singer Harry Styles.

His previous nominations date back to 1990 with The Godfather, Part III, Changeling in 2008, and Interstellar four years ago.

“I look forward to the Academy Awards,” says Gary, who is just back from London after attending the BAFTAs, the British Oscars at the Royal Albert Hall, attended by Prince William and his very pregnant wife, Kate.

He has been nominated for three BAFTAs during his stellar career with Interstellar and Changeling, but lost out this year to The Shape of Water.

He is hoping for better luck at the 90th Oscars at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.

“I hope that one of the master storytellers, Christopher Nolan, a man truly in love with filmmaking, will get some encouragement from his peers to keep doing what he loves, and that is to make epic films that rivet us to our seats in large movie theater venues like Cecil B. DeMille and David Lean.

“Dunkirk is not so much a war film as it is a story of survival on a large scale. People helping people. A message for humanity. Strangely similar to what we are experiencing here in our hometown of Montecito.

“The sweeping scale of the film may hopefully reach people of all ages and motivate us to make sure this never happens again. I am certainly optimistic, given it is my fourth and probably last time.”