Pembrokeshire has produced its fair share of remarkable talent over the years, but it's not every day we get to celebrate a local connection to the Academy Awards.

Russell Bowen grew up in Pembrokeshire before pursuing his dream of working in film. Now based in Vancouver, Canada, he's spent 17 years climbing the ranks of the visual effects industry, working on blockbusters including Star Trek Beyond, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Disney+'s Star Wars series The Acolyte.

This year, Russell and his team at beloFX received an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for their extraordinary work on The Lost Bus. Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, the film tells the true story of a school bus driver who saved a group of children during California's devastating 2018 Paradise wildfire.

We caught up with Russell to find out how he reacted to the nomination, what it was like recreating one of America's deadliest wildfires, and how a technology teacher in Pembrokeshire helped set him on the path to Hollywood.

Congratulations on your nomination for an Academy Award for Visual Effects, for your part of a team working on The Lost Bus. Can you let us know, how did you find out the news – is it something the team were hopeful of achieving or was it a surprise?

This usually surprises everyone I tell, but we actually find out the same way everyone else does, either by watching the Live Announcement ceremony or the media outlets reporting it. We knew we were in the top 10, as the Academy voting process brings all the submissions (370+ this year) down to the Longlist of 20, then the Shortlist of 10. The top 10 then head to LA, at the beginning of the year, to what they call the Oscar VFX Bake Off. Sounds like we should be cooking in a tent with Paul Hollywood, but actually, here we get to present to the entire membership of the Academy VFX Branch our work in more detail. The competition was fierce and we found ourselves in awe of the work all the other shows presented. After that I never expected to actually get a nomination. So the shock was very very real.

It's not the first time you've worked on a Paul Greengrass film – having previously been part of the Captain Phillips crew. How did your experiences differ between the two films and can you explain briefly what the work process was like, working on The Lost Bus?

I would say that Paul Greengrass' film making process hasn't changed between the two projects, his documentary style is iconic and well developed by now. However, the two required very different approaches. The Lost Bus depicting the real-life Paradise wildfire disaster and a real-life hero who saved a bus full of children from certain death, was an important story to tell and the accuracy of that story was the single most important aspect to Paul, staying true. We helped him from a very early stage, way before cameras were rolling, to visualize the entire movie from the first spark that caused the raging blaze to the final scenes when the fires destroyed more than 150,000 acres and claimed 88 lives. We built everything in realtime 3D software, 50KM of natural forest and used satellite images from the day of the disaster to map out the exact spread of the fire and the path the bus needed to take to get the kids to safety. With that data, the filmmakers could plan every scene, from the choreography to the lighting. It was a huge team effort across every department to pull together such a complex and large scale movie. Once the movie was shot, hundreds of artists at beloFX (the company I'm with) along with ILM, Rise FX, Outpost and others worked tirelessly to craft photorealistic fire and environments that spanned 90 minutes of VFX.

You've certainly risen through the ranks as a VFX Supervisor, getting to work on some fantastic projects such as Disney+'s Star Wars Original series, The Acolyte, Star Trek Beyond, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and many more. Can you share with us how your journey into the film industry began? How did you go from Pembrokeshire to the world of Hollywood?

I knew from a relatively young age that I wanted to work in film, but it wasn't until I watched a behind the scenes DVD featurette from Lord of the Rings that I realized VFX was my path. I had a very supportive Mum, who told me she'd do anything to get me there. Couple that with a technology teacher in school called Meirion Owen, who guided me through school towards Art, Technology and Science. I ended up at Teesside University studying Visual Effects and from there I was lucky enough to land myself a Runner's role (tea and mail etc) at one of the biggest VFX houses in London. 10 years ago I moved across the pond to Vancouver, Canada, to try something new and fell in love with the country and the people. Over the last 17 years, I've worked my way up through the creative ranks in the VFX industry to the role I now play as Visual Effects Supervisor.

You can watch The Lost Bus now on Apple TV+. To find out more about Russell's work and the team at beloFX, visit belofx.com.

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