Oscars: Where Were the ‘Boyhood’ Nominees in 2002?

Boyhood is up for six Academy Awards, with the drama that was shot over 12 years one of the most-praised films of 2014.

On Sunday, it will compete for best picture, best director (Richard Linklater), best supporting actor (Ethan Hawke), best supporting actress (Patricia Arquette), best original screenplay (Linklater) and best editing (Sandra Adair).

While Hawke had already had a brush with Oscar glory before embarking on the lengthy project, at the time Linklater and Arquette were yet to be nominated. Here’s what they were up to when shooting commenced in 2002.

Ethan Hawke

Hawke was the most recognizable star of the Boyhood team, hot off a best supporting actor nomination for Training Day (2001) and already more than 15 years into his big-screen career. Hawke was also a Linklater veteran, with Before Sunrise (1995), The Newton Boys (1998), Tape (2001) and Waking Life (2001) under his belt.

Patricia Arquette

She was still a few years away from acclaim for CBS’s Medium (she won an Emmy for the role is 2005). When she joined Boyhood in 2002, the most recent award she’d won was a Razzie for the Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky (2000). Her most recent credits when starting Boyhood were Michel Gondry‘s Human Nature (2001) and the Billy Bob Thornton-starrer The Badge (2002). She had a brush with Oscar in 1996, when then-husband Nicolas Cage thanked her during his best actor acceptance speech for Leaving Las Vegas.

Richard Linklater

The director was already an indie icon thanks to Slacker (1991), which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic at Sundance, and Dazed and Confused (1993) when he started Boyhood. He was also poised to shoot the 2003 hit School of Rock for Paramount. In addition to the above collaborations with Hawke, he’d also directed SubUrbia (1996).

For more from Boyhood, read The Hollywood Reporter‘s behind-the-scenes story of the epic making of the drama.