Our region has a winning streak when it comes to forging connections to Academy Award-nominated movies.

Proud Roanoke mom Jackie Logan let us know about her son Bill Logan , who worked as props master for the independent magical realist movie “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

A 1998 graduate of North Cross School, Bill Logan discovered an interest in art under the tutelage of teacher Shirley Johnson . He’s pursuing a master of fine arts degree at the New York Academy of Art .

He spent more than four months building sets in Louisiana for the reported $1.8 million production. Set in a bayou community flooded by a hurricane, the movie took the film festival circuit by storm, so to speak, winning the Grand Jury Prize for drama at Sundance and the Caméra d’Or award at Cannes.

The Academy Awards ceremony takes place tonight (WSET, Channel 13, starting at 8:30). The film’s Oscar nominations include best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best actress for star Quvenzhane Wallis , who at 9 years old is the youngest ever to be a candidate for the category.

She was 6 when she acted the part of Hushpuppy, a girl who faces down both her temperamental, fatally ill father and prehistoric creatures released from the polar ice caps.

A behind-the-scenes photo shows Logan and Quvenzhane clowning together, both striking strongman poses.

In an interview at thenovoproject.com, he said he gets artistic inspiration from everyone around him, and writes that the love of his life is “either paint or all the people I’ve known.”

Weather Journal

53 mins ago