Last modified: Saturday, February 24, 2007 1:07 AM EST Our man at the Oscars BY REBECCA KEISTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Most movie and celebrity-watching fans will tune into Sunday's broadcast of the Academy Awards to check out who wins big on Hollywood's big night. But some, including Wrentham native and Hollywood transplant Kurt Mattila, will watch just as closely the broadcast's opening sequence and montage tributes - the ones that Mattila helped create. "It's pretty trippy," Mattila said. "I just watch them every year; and in Los Angeles, it's sort of like a national holiday." It's just one more step in the 32-year-old King Philip Regional High School grad's burgeoning Hollywood career. Since moving there in the late 1990s after a successful student filmmaker stint at the Rhode Island School of Design, he's worked as an editor helping to create title sequences with industry heavy-weight Imaginary Forces and with Steven Speilberg, editing the dream sequence in "Minority Report." Last fall, he and Acton native Matt Checkowski released their co-directorial debut, "Lies & Alibis," starring Rebecca Romijn and James Brolin. The DVD recently was released. The last big project the team finished was reinventing the opening sequence for ESPN's Monday Night Football package, in which celebrities in different cities introduce the weekly games. And now there's this little Oscar thing. Mattila has been working on, as he tells it, editing "a cohesive piece" with graphics and music, the "In Memorium" sequence where the Academy of Motion Pictures honors those who have died in the past year, along with a tribute to Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, who will receive an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Morricone, whose film credits include "The Untouchables," and "Bugsy," is only the second film composer in Oscar history to receive the award. "I have the daunting task of helping to create his life work in four minutes," Mattila said. "I love (his work) and it's emotional - sort of, how does it help honor his achievements." The opportunity came Mattila's way through Prologue Films, a Malibu-based film and broadcast design company that is in charge of the graphics package for the Oscars. He's also helping with the show's opening sequence, based on the Academy Awards' movie quote campaign. The Academy and Internet movie rental giant Netflix have been running a promotional tune-in extravaganza, highlighting on Netflix.com and on billboards famous movie quotes. For the record, Mattila's is "May the force be with you." "The sequence takes and builds to this big, dramatic opening," Mattila said. Though he isn't sure where he'll be watching the big show, he's definitely tuning in. The night is so big in Hollywood, he said, that you'd be out of luck trying to do anything else. "Who doesn't love the Oscars," he said. "It's fun, and the entire city shuts down. You go to a supermarket and no one is there. It's all about the Oscars."