While some SF State students get jitters thinking about what to do with their post-graduation lives, three SF State alumni have gone on to receive one of the greatest honors in the cinema community: Oscar nominations.

Ethan Van Der Ryn (B.A., ’85) and Christopher Boyes (B.A., ’85) were both nominated for their audio work in the film “King Kong,” and Steven Okazaki (B.A., ’76), an independent filmmaker, produced “The Mushroom Club,” which was nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Although all three film production majors have previously been nominated for and won Oscars, the 78th Annual Academy Awards marks the seventh year in a row that SF State alumni have been nominated.

This is Okazaki’s third nomination. He received the news when he was in bed at 6 a.m.

His wife, Peggy Orenstein, was getting ready for an early morning workout on Jan. 31 and thought they would receive a phone call if Okazaki’s documentary had been nominated. There was no call, so she went online to see which documentaries were in the running - one of them was “The Mushroom Club.”

“I don’t think he expected it,” said Orenstein, who is listed as an executive producer in the documentary’s credits. “It’s always a wonderful surprise and honor.”

While he was honored by his first nomination, Okazaki said he was sure he would lose.
The second time around, he felt he would win. Both of these premonitions were true, although he said
he is not sure what his chances are with this nomination.

Okazaki owns his own production company, Farallon Films, which allows him to produce for HBO and make his own documentaries. He has come to find that by independently making documentaries, he is able to produce films that he has a genuine interest in.

“This is a way of following my passion and extending myself out into the world,” Okazaki said.

Boyes, an eight-time Oscar nominee and three-time winner, bought a bottle of wine for each member of his crew when he got word of his nomination for Achievement in Sound Mixing.

Boyes recalls having an interest in storytelling through images at just 6 years old. His passion for audio was aroused by a homework assignment at SF State: to make a movie using sound, but not image.

Through the assignment, Boyes learned that there was more to audio than simply collecting sounds and he soon became enamored with the post-production process of mixing and placing sound within film.

Van Der Ryn, nominated for Achievement in Sound Editing, said that working on “ King Kong” reminded him of being a film student.

His crew, made of people stationed all around the globe, decided to record and collect sounds from scratch instead of using a library of sounds collected for previous movies.

“The guerilla filmmaking is what I really like,” he said, recalling a moment in Borneo when he sat in the treetops, recording the sounds of the jungle transitioning from day to night.

Van Der Ryn and Boyes both originally attended UC Santa Cruz. They had been neighbors in the small town of Inverness, Calif., but weren’t friends until they went to college.

Van Der Ryn got into a serious car accident that made him rethink many aspects of his life. He and Boyes then decided to transfer to a film program. They drove Boyes’ VW van all over California, looking at programs and eventually chose SF State.

To Boyes, who made $5.50 per hour at his first sound editing job, this nomination is euphoric but bittersweet.

“The reason I’m nominated is because I had an incredible crew,” he said. “The overwhelming reality is that the reason you’re there is because of the people not on the ballot: your crew.”

The Academy Awards, hosted by Jon Stewart, will be presented at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. It will air Sunday, March 5 on ABC at 5 p.m. P.T.