On Sunday, while most of us debate whether to do our taxes, brave the Trader Joe’s weekend rush, or hike up Sanitas for the 300th time, one Boulderite will be getting the glam treatment, then will gear up to walk the red carpet at the 97th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood — as a nominee.

Boulder-based film producer Paula DuPré Pesmen’s latest film, “Porcelain War,” is up for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Pesmen isn’t new to this stage. In 2010, a film she worked on took home an Oscar. “The Cove,” directed by fellow Boulderite Louie Psihoyos, is a gripping documentary that not only won Best Documentary Feature but also exposed the dolphin-hunting industry in Japan and forced a global reckoning. Now, 15 years later, she’s back at the Academy Awards with a film that is, in many ways, even more urgent.

“Porcelain War” is a feature-length documentary that follows three Ukrainian artists who refuse to let war erase their culture, and it’s already snapped up loads of awards. Taking home dozens of honors (40 to be precise), “Porcelain War” snapped up the 2024 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for U.S. documentary, it also nabbed Best Documentary Feature and People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Boulder International Film Festival.

Now, it’s one step away from one of the biggest honors in filmmaking — an Academy Award.

For Pesmen, this moment isn’t about glitz and glamour, or awards and accolades. She’s focused on putting stories out into the world that truly impart positive change.

“What we’ve seen in sharing ‘Porcelain War’ with people is that the film resonates because it shows ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges,” Pesmen said. “Yet they continue to see beauty in the world around them — in people, in nature, in their daily lives. They focus on what’s worth protecting: culture, art, the things that make us unique. It’s been incredible to travel with them, share this film and see how audiences connect with it in a way that feels inspiring and hopeful. And I think, especially now, it’s nice to have something like that in the world.”

Co-directed by Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, “Porcelain War” tells the story of three Ukrainian artists who, instead of fleeing, chose to stay behind as war consumes their country. Armed with paintbrushes, cameras and — in some cases — guns, they fight not just for survival but for something even bigger: their art, their culture, their identity.

In the film, by day Leontyev documents the war from the front lines, working with Ukrainian Special Forces to train civilians how to defend themselves. By night, he creates intricate porcelain figures while his wife, Anya Stasenko, awakens the figures with paintbrushes. She turns the devastation of the war into fragile, hand-painted figurines — turning pain into preservation.

Meanwhile Andrey Stefanov, an artist, cinematographer and father, captures the conflict for “Porcelain War” through his lens while working to get his young family to safety.

Pesmen described “Porcelain War” as a film about resilience and resistance — about holding onto beauty in the middle of destruction. Shot on the front lines, the film pulls viewers into the reality of war — not through military strategy or politics, but through the personal stakes of those living in it.

The impact of the film goes beyond the conflict in Ukraine, rather, it explores the importance of preserving what makes us human — something she hopes audiences take with them long after they leave the theater.

“This story is so much bigger than just Ukraine,” she said. “At its core, it’s about the importance of preserving what makes us who we are — our culture, our environment, the things we love and care about. Art, creativity, identity — all of it matters. And I think the film reminds us that it’s important to stand up for the things we truly believe in.”

For Pesmen, that conviction — that storytelling has the power to preserve, to inspire, to remind us of who we are — has shaped every chapter of her career.

Before she was an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, she was making some of Hollywood’s most massive blockbusters. The kinds of films that defined childhoods and cleaned out box offices. The films that most have undoubtedly seen before: “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Rent,” “Home Alone 2” and “Harry Potter.”

But something shifted. After more than a decade working in the world of scripted features, she found herself drawn to stories that weren’t crafted in a writer’s room but captured in real time —stories that carried urgency, consequence and the potential to change the way people saw the world.

Her first foray into documentary filmmaking, “The Cove,” in addition to bagging an Oscar in 2010, the film also exposed the brutal capturing and slaughtering of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, and forced an international reckoning. The groundbreaking documentary put a world spotight on Taiji for killing hundreds of the aquatic mammals for their flesh and for the enertainment industry.

“The Cove” was followed by “Chasing Ice,” “Keep On Keepin’ On” and “Quincy,” each documentary film a testament to Presman’s instinct for championing stories that leave a mark long after the credits roll.

Despite her Hollywood success, Pesmen credits Boulder for shaping her sensibilities as a filmmaker.

“My community has always been really important to me,” she said. “I feel really honored to know so many incredible, collaborative and kind people in Boulder who care about film. Everyone’s always willing to help each other, and that is a really wonderful thing — especially in documentary filmmaking. We really need each other.”

Her husband, Curt Pesmen, has watched that collaborative spirit play out both in her work and in the way she moves through the world.

“As someone who started her movie career working on fun classics like ‘Home Alone 2,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ and ‘Harry Potter,’ Paula learned early and often how to support the true creatives on a film while keeping a sense of family on set,” he said. “That’s rare, and not easy to pull off, in Hollywood.”

That same instinct — to bring people together, to support the stories that need to be heard— led Pesmen to founding There With Care, a Boulder-based nonprofit providing support for families facing medical crises. Inspired by the critically ill children she met through her work on the “Harry Potter” films — and by her own experience caring for her husband Curt during his cancer treatment — she launched the organization in 2005, weaving together the same thoughtfulness, efficiency and fierce commitment to people that she brings to her films.

“Helping others has always been part of Paula’s story,” Curt said. “Whether in fiction films, documentaries, or real life.”

The Academy Awards telecast begins at 5 p.m. Sunday on ABC and Hulu. Be sure to keep an eye out for Pesmen — Boulder’s very own filmmaking force.