Two Oscar nominations in six years?

Growing up in Kitchener and attending art classes at Waterloo's Bluevale Collegiate in the '80s, director Chris Williams had no idea what lay ahead.

First it was "Bolt," the canine odyssey flick he co-directed for Disney, nominated as Best Animated Feature at the 2009 Oscars (where it lost to "WALL-E").

This time it's the heartfelt, humorous "Big Hero 6," a dysfunctional superhero tale that features an inflatable caregiver who looks like a cross between a giant marshmallow and the Michelin Man.

Nominated in the same category, some pundits are predicting it could take the top prize, though it's not a question Williams, 46, spends a lot of time thinking about.

"The idea that I'm a two-time Oscar nominee is totally weird," the low-key filmmaker laughs over the phone from Los Angeles hours after Thursday's announcement. "Growing up in Kitchener, I didn't foresee this."

It's a thrill he says, and "a career boost," though he sheepishly confides his two young children had little interest in the news ("I just kinda got these blank expressions.")

But when you talk to the University of Waterloo fine arts grad for any length of time, you realize that in typical Canadian fashion, he's less impressed with the nomination than what it represents for the people around him.

"My first thought was for the crew who poured so much of themselves into it," he says of the hundreds of animators working under him and co-director Don Hall.

"We've been working a lot of years, so this nomination is validating — an affirmation."

"The other thing I thought about was my mom, who introduced the Oscars to me and was always glued to the TV set watching it, so it seemed important. She's also the one who encouraged me to pursue animation before it exploded the way it did."

His mom, Elizabeth Williams, says that while she always had faith in his talent, she's still floored by the nomination.

"You never expect when your kid is growing up in Kitchener-Waterloo that he's going to be an Oscar-nominated person," she noted from her current home in Sidney, B.C. "So when it happens, it feels totally surreal."

Even more surreal is the fact that — because Williams was born in Missouri and moved to Kitchener as a baby — the national media has no idea he's Canadian, having overlooked him in every rundown of Canadian Oscar nominees published immediately after Thursday's announcement.

This makes him, in an ironic way, Canada's best kept animation secret.

"I fell in love with animation at (Oakville's) Sheridan College," he confides, noting two of his fellow nominees — Dean DeBlois ("How To Train Your Dragon 2") and Graham Annable ("The Boxtrolls") — are also Sheridan grads.

But if you're expecting competition, forget it.

"It was an amazing year for animation," said Williams, still involved in the rollout of "Big Hero 6" overseas. "I'm very humbled to be in that company."

Win or lose, Oscar night will be exciting, he says, as it was six years ago when he hobnobbed with A-list celebrities like Clint Eastwood and John Travolta.

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"For one night you're sandwiched in a room with every famous person in North America."

With typical humility, he concedes one night is probably enough.

"It's great to be in a place to visit those worlds, and then leave and go back to your regular life."