Local film makeup artist up for Canadian Screen Award

A North Bay film and makeup artist has been put forward for a nomination for a Canadian Screen Award. 

Kim Bean was born and raised in North Bay, and over the past decade, she says she has completed more than 50 feature films and TV shows.

See: The Art of Beauty and Storytelling in Film and TV with Kim Bean

Her recognition comes from All the Lost Ones (2024), a Canadian indie feature directed by Mackenzie Donaldson and shot in North Bay, which is in consideration for multiple 2026 Canadian Screen Awards, with voting open until February 12, 2026.

The consideration category for Bean’s potential award is: Achievement in Make-up. 

“So they emailed me and said, ‘We’ve got wonderful news, All the Lost Ones has been submitted for this year’s Canadian Screen Awards, and you’ve been nominated for your category,'” Bean said.

“On that film, I worked as head of department makeup, but I also did special effects makeup in addition to designing the regular makeup looks that everyone would have. That was a little bit of a departure from what I was doing at that point.”

Yes, Bean runs her own beauty makeup company locally, so trying to make people look disturbing is far from the norm for her. 

“I was very much known for doing beauty makeup locally because I have my own business,” said Bean about her business www.whatsbeanhappening.com

“I was mostly known for doing like pretty makeup or commercials – everything that was like standard beauty. I hadn’t done much gore. And then I got this opportunity where there are people who are shot, there are people who are stabbed, and there are corpses,” she said about the film. 

She says making someone look awful was a challenge. 

“It was very much (a challenge),” she said.  

“I think it was nice to have the opportunity to prove myself, because a lot of people – not just within the film industry – but in general were like, ‘she’s not going to be able to do that. Like, that’s too hard,’ and it is, and it’s an independent film, which means the budget is small. You’re working in very small quarters,” added Bean, noting she worked on bigger budget projects like Black Phone 2, which starred Ethan Hawke.  

Bean says the first project she worked on, in which she did special-effects prosthetic makeup, was Star Trek: Discovery in Toronto.

When Bean isn’t on set or offering her beauty makeup services locally, she’s also a social media content creator with more than 20,000 followers. 

“I talk about beauty, fashion, food, and travel on my blog in addition to my online shop that sells professional beauty products, sustainable vintage clothes, and locally handcrafted jewellery,” she said.