The Australian son of Maltese immigrants has been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Netflix gothic-western film The Power of the Dog.

Film editor Peter Sciberras has described his "blue collar upbringing" after his parents moved to Australia from Malta and how film has always been his passion.

Starting out from a career in marketing, with several high-profile ads under his belt, Sciberras has received high praise for his work on other feature films, including 2019’s The King, a visceral historical drama about the battle of Agincourt.

In an interview with Awards Daily, Sciberras said that despite his humble upbringing, he always knew he wanted to work in film.

“I’m the son of two Maltese people who moved to Australia so I’m a first-generation Australian and I grew up in an area that wasn’t very creative, a very blue-collar neighbourhood. Doing anything creative kind of seems like a crazy thing to do, so I was trying to figure out what to do and film was always my passion, since I was a kid,” he said.

“I was living with a good friend who has made music videos and I tried editing when he couldn’t find an editor for one of his music videos. Then the next day I started calling all the editors I could find in Melbourne and started interning straight away. I stopped all my other retail jobs and just did editing full-time from that day on and I haven’t done anything else since. I just instantly loved it the second I did it.”

Award winner Peter Sciberras with The Power of the Dog star Kirsten Dunst at The 11th Annual Hamilton Behind The Camera Awards hosted by Los Angeles Confidential Magazine. Photo: AFP

The Power of the Dog is leading this year’s Oscar nominations with nods in 12 categories, including Best Director for Jane Campion, who was last nominated for her 1993 film The Piano. Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee were also nominated for their acting work on the film, which has also been nominated for Best Picture. The film has already earned Campion the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice International Film Festival last year.

Sciberras is nominated in the Best Film Editing category and goes up against Hank Corwin for Don't Look Up, Pamela Martin for King Richard, and Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum for Tick, Tick... Boom!

He has already won awards for his editing work on the film, picking up the Hamilton Behind the Camera Award for Best Editor in November. 

The Academy Awards ceremony is set of take place on March 27.