Halifax filmmaker Ben Proudfoot prepares for this weekend's Academy Awards

The 96th Academy Awards will held in Los Angeles on Sunday, and a popular East Coast filmmaker will be in attendance in the hopes of leaving with an Oscar.

Halifax’s own Ben Proudfoot is no stranger to the Oscars. He was first nominated back in 2020 for directing “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”

In 2022, he became an Academy Award winner in the Best Documentary Short Subject category for “The Queen of Basketball.”

This year, Proudfoot is going to the Oscars with a nomination for his latest film called “The Last Repair Shop” which takes a look at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s musical instrument repair shop and the people who work and benefit from it.

Proudfoot says he and his crew will arrive to the awards in something that fits with the film.

“We decided to forego the limo, and we’re going to pull up in a school bus on Sunday because the movie’s about a public school’s musical repair shop,” Proudfoot told CTV’s Katie Kelly during an interview Friday morning.

Ben Proudfoot accepts the award for best documentary short subject for "The Queen of Basketball" at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)Despite this being his third Academy Awards, Proudfoot says the nerves are still present.

“There’s a few fewer unknowns than the first time I went, but it’s still as exciting, you know, it’s like your birthday or winning a game or whatever, it’s such a thrill to just be there, it never diminishes,” said Proudfoot.

“No less exciting than the first time,” he added.

Proudfoot says each Academy Award is a brand new experience.

“It’s a new story and a new group of people each time that you’re representing, our category is not an individual nominated or individual winning, it’s the best film, so it’s an exciting thing to lead that group,” he said.

Ben Proudfoot, winner of the award for best documentary short subject for "The Queen of Basketball," poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)This year, Proudfoot says there are a few names he’s specifically excited to see.

“I’m excited to see everyone, Martin Scorsese will be there, of course Stephen Spielberg, but I don’t want to bother him too much, I sort of accosted him in the five minutes after winning a couple years ago,” Proudfoot said.

“It’ll be exciting to walk amongst them and pretend like I’m not completely intimated,” he added.

“A Concerto Is a Conversation” also helped launch a fundraiser which hopes to raise around $15-million to endow the repair shop, with investments and donations being taken through the film’s website.