Former Singleton High student Martin Tlaskal (pictured far left) has been awarded the famed statue for excellence in film technology.

Mr Tlaskal, who grew up living at Broke, collected his Academy Award on February 20 making him Singleton’s one and only home grown Oscar star.

He accepted the award, part of the Scientific and Technical Awards held at the plush Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel, alongside three of his colleagues from UK based company FilmLight including Darrin Smart, Steve Chapman and Dr James Logie, from UK based company FilmLight.

He was recognised for his “contribution to the development of Baselight colour correction system, which enables real-time digital manipulation of motion picture imagery during the digital intermediate process.”

Mr Tlaskal’s father George, a retired IT consultant, who lives at the family home at Broke, said it was a fitting reward for a country boy who loved computers.

“Naturally, we are extremely proud,” Mr Tlaskal (snr) told The Singleton Argus.

“He did and achieved what he wanted to do,” he said.

Mr Tlaskal (snr) said from an early age his son had been interested in computers.

“I don’t know what he would do if computers weren’t invented,” Mr Tlaskal said.

“He got his first computer at 11.

“He wanted to program games, he was very keen on games, he wanted to program games in 3D.

“I said that would be very nice but you would need a lot of money,” he laughed.

For the record, he did program the 3D games onto his computer.

“Now he doesn’t do games but he does films,” he added.

Mr Tlaskal (snr) said his son’s success was an inspiration to local students particularly at his old school.

“It’s not very often that a graduate of Singleton High School travels to Hollywood to receive an Oscar,” Mr Tlaskal said.

“It’s a good achievement,” he said.

According to Mr Tlaskal (snr) his son has worked on films such as The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Nick Cave’s The Proposition.

“When they were filming The Beach, in the middle of the bay was an oil rig,” he said.

“The whole film was filmed with the oil rig in the bay so to remove the oil rig they used the software from Martin’s company,” he said describing his son’s work.

Mr Tlaskal attended Singleton High School from 1985 to 1990 with his twin sister Philipa Tlaskal.

He was dux of the school in 1990.

Mr Tlaskal (snr) informed The Argus that his son still comes home once or twice a year to visit and always at Christmas.

This year he’ll be bringing an extra piece of luggage home when he makes his visit home to Bulga.