CFA’s Julianne Moore, Roy Conli, among 2015 Oscar Winners

Julianne Moore (CFA’83) accepts her best actress Oscar at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday night. Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP

Two College of Fine Arts alumni took home Oscars Sunday night at the 87th Academy Awards ceremony.

Julianne Moore (CFA’83) won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of a Columbia University linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in the film Still Alice. And Roy Conli (CFA’87) was the producer of Big Hero 6, the winner in the best animated feature category. The film, about a teenage prodigy and his puffy robotic pal, has earned more than $525 million at the box office worldwide.

Moore, the favorite to win the Academy Award Sunday night, had already won the Golden Globe, the National Board of Review, and the BAFTA awards for her role as Dr. Alice Howland.

“I’m so happy, thrilled actually, that we could shine a light on Alzheimer’s disease,” Moore said in her acceptance speech. “So many people with this disease feel isolated and marginalized, and one of the wonderful things about movies is it makes us feel seen and not alone. People with Alzheimer’s deserve to be seen, so that we can find a cure.”

On a lighter note, Moore joked during her speech at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, “I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer. If that’s true, I’d really like to thank the academy, because my husband is younger than me.”

Still Alice, based on the best-selling novel by Lisa Genova, was Moore’s fifth Academy Award nomination—and first win. She was previously nominated for Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, Far from Heaven, and The Hours. She joins a distinguished list of other BU-trained actresses who have won Oscars: Geena Davis (CFA’79, Hon.’99), Olympia Dukakis (SAR’54, CFA’57, Hon.’00), Faye Dunaway (CFA’62), and Marisa Tomei (CFA’86, Hon.’02), who cut short her undergraduate career to take a role on a TV soap opera.

Moore “was always to my memory someone who did her homework very well, who was into the research for a role,” says Judy Flynn, retired School of Theatre assistant director, who knew both her and Conli as students. “That shows in Still Alice.”

“I was in awe at her, how she could progress with the disease” in the role, says Flynn, who recently lost a cousin to Alzheimer’s. “What she did was so real. I thought about my cousin a lot when I saw the movie.”

Conli, who earned a master’s degree in directing at BU, is a producer with Walt Disney Animation Studios. Among his other producing credits are Tangled, Treasure Planet, and Disney’s 1996 animated The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His award underscores the rich connection between the University’s School of Theatre and Hollywood’s animation community, says Benjamin Juárez, dean of CFA.

This is the second year in a row that a BU alum has won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Peter Del Vecho (CFA’80) picked up last year’s Oscar for Frozen, another Walt Disney Animation Studios product.

Juárez says that “everyone is very excited” for both alums. Moore has been very generous with her time, he says, recalling that when she was honored with Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award three years ago, Moore spent an entire morning with students at CFA. “She has given good, pragmatic advice to our students,” he says. “She was very clear about the need for students to find their own voice and their own path, and also to be realistic about the opportunities that can happen.”

Also nominated for Oscars last night were Nora Grossman (COM’05), producer of best picture nominee The Imitation Game, and Bonnie Arnold (COM’78), producer on another animated feature nominee, How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@bu.edu.