SEATTLE — “Sugarcane,” co-directed by Bremerton resident Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, received an Oscar nomination Thursday for documentary feature film. “Sugarcane” examines the history of abuse at Native American boarding schools, specifically at St. Joseph’s Mission in Williams Lake, British Columbia.

Other nominated documentary features include “Black Box Diaries,” “No Other Land,” “Porcelain War” and “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat.”

“Sugarcane” was a deeply personal film for NoiseCat, a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq̓éscen̓ who spent much time in the Williams Lake area growing up, hearing horrifying stories about what happened to Indigenous children at St. Joseph’s. The film, which includes poignant interviews with members of NoiseCat’s family, grapples with the hellish legacy of St. Joseph’s — and the 2021 discovery of evidence of unmarked graves around the school.

“Sugarcane” won numerous awards during its time on the film festival circuit last year, receiving honors from the Sundance Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Hamburg (Germany) Film Festival, the Bergen (Norway) International Film Festival, the National Board of Review and many others. In October, 2024 Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (who also has local ties, as a graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School ) signed on as a “Sugarcane” executive producer.

The Academy Awards ceremony will take place March 2, broadcast on ABC and Hulu beginning at 4 p.m. PT.

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