Ivel Hernández, the Mexican who celebrated the Oscar of “Dune” for her special effects

Ivel Hernández is a young Mexican woman who was part of the visual effects team that won the 2022 Oscar in the category of “Best Visual Effects” for the film starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, Dune.

Through her Tiktok account, she shared a video clip of just under 1 minute when she made a live broadcast on her Twich channel when the young designer, who collaborates in video games and cinema, celebrated the moment when the film directed by Denis Villeneuve won the golden statuette for “Best Effects” visuals”.

The young visual effects professional, who began working since 2017, did not hide her excitement after learning that she would be part of the select group of Mexicans who have won a golden statuette for their backstage work: “Thank you for your support”, you can read during her video.

In a last interview with CNN en Español, the designer, who is 28 years old and is a resident of Mexico City, a graduate of the Monterrey Institute of Technology, in Animation and Digital Art, shared how was the selection process to join the ranks of the project that brings together a great cast such as Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, among several others.

“I was working at the video game company doing the Gears Tactics thing, I was going to finish the project and I didn't want to be left without a job. I applied to several companies and DNEG answered me almost immediately. They call me, I have the interview and basically the next week they tell me 'We are going to give you a contract for a while in what the project ends'”, he recalled for the international portal.

The designer emphasized that it was her effects on Detective Pikachu, the reason she was hired for Dune. Although at first I did not know the subject matter of the project directed by Denis Villeneuve, but he already had a job and he succeeded in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the seventh art sector hard.

“Then, I start working at DNEG. They give us a week of training and the next they tell us 'You're going to be working in Dune'. And I'm like that, 'Oh, what a father! ' , that is, I didn't think they were going to give me that much of the project,” Ivel stressed for CNN en Español.

It was in 2017 that Ivel Hernández began practicing with visual effects for 'MPC', and thus moved to Academy of the same company, but residing in Canada. This is after their professor Ángel Villaseñor, from the Monterrey TEC, informed them of the call that would change their professional career.

Thanks to this company, which gave him the opportunity to make his first in the field of film design, Ivel Hernández was able to participate in various productions such as: Justice League, A Wrinkle in Time, The New Mutants, Skyscraper, Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog and Maleficent.

During the 94th Annual Academy Awards, Denis Villeneuve's production performed well, winning several awards even before the Oscar ceremony began, as The Academy decided to remove eight categories from the televised portion of the event.

The production took home six awards over the course of the Academy Awards and was the film with the most victories of all the films presented: “Cinematography”, “Film Edition”, “Original Score”, “Production Design”, “Sound” and “Visual Effects”.

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