Four films shown at last fall’s Bend Film Festival are now Oscar-nominated
(Update: adding video, comments from nominated film's producer, Bend Film Festival)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Movie producer Christian Norlyk will never forget the moment he found out his short film was nominated for an Oscar.
"We were sitting there in a room, big screen, and then we saw the live stream of them announcing it -- and we went crazy," Norlyk recalled Wednesday.
His film, Knight of Fortune, was one of the four films shown at the 20th annual Bend Film Festival last fall that are now nominated for Oscars.
Knight of Fortune was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
"Knight of Fortune won the Audience Choice Award at our festival. And was also part of our opening night shorts block. Pretty much through the whole weekend, everybody talked about that film," said Bend Film Festival Programming Director Selin Sevic.
The dark comedy follows Karl, a man struggling to say goodbye to his wife at the morgue.
"He meets Torben and we call it like, sort of a destined brother, a fellow grieving man. They kind of evolve together, and kind of teach each other how to come to terms with with grief," Norlyk explained.
Norlyk says the film was inspired by director Lasse Noer's personal experiences with loss. The film aims to portray not just the darkness of grief, but its moments of laughter and warmth.
"We love it when films can like touch you emotionally, but also make you laugh." Norlyk said. "I still get the -- I get such a kick out of listening to people -- just like in Bend, for instance, they laughed uncontrollably at times during this film -- which is really funny, given the whole theme of the film."
Many short films, like Knight of Fortune, start out at film festivals. To be considered for an Oscar, the festival has to have Oscar-qualifying accreditation.
Sevic explained, "So if you have a great track record of programing, good films that end up in the Oscars, you can apply to be an Academy-qualifying film festival, which means, the Academy pays attention to the those selected festivals and trust them to make the best programs. And then they can then take those films and consider them for the Oscars."
The other nominees shown in Bend include:
Anatomy of a Fall has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
May December is nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
The Eternal Memory is nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
The 96th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
The 21st annual Bend Film Festival is set for October 10-13.
