NFF Alums Take Home Oscar Gold

Nantucket Fest Alums won big at Sunday night's Academy Awards.

Writer/director, Tom McCarthy, received two awards, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (SPOTLIGHT), along with co-writer, Josh Singer.

Also honored were, Brie Larson, Best Actress (ROOM), who had a breakout performance in the 2013 indie standout, SHORT TERM 12, which played at the Festival.  In her acceptance speech, Brie paid homage to film festivals' role in helping to launch films. 

Pete Docter's Pixar hit, INSIDE OUT, was awarded Best Animated Feature, Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala's BEAR STORY won Best Animated Short, and Asif Kapadia, director of AMY, won for Best Documentary Feature.  Kapadia's SENNA was a Festival favorite in 2011.

Pete Docter at the 2016 Academy Awards

Pete Docter at the 2016 Academy Awards

During Tom McCarthy's visit to the Festival in 2006, he talked about the crucial importance of screenplays and screenwriters:  

Without a great script there is no way you can make a great movie. […] It is funny how sometimes the screenwriters get left off the important list, but I think most directors worth their salt, and producers for that matter, that that screenwriter and that screenplay is crucial. So it makes a lot of sense, and it says a lot about the people who run this festival to honor the screenwriter. […] It’s really the beginning of it all, and any actor will tell you that. You just can’t turn in a great performance without a great story and without great words, and as an actor that’s not your job. Your job is to show up and honor the screenplay, and hopefully do it justice or even elevate it in some situations. So, it’s fun to be a part of a festival that gets that.

Cue to 7:05 for Writer/Director, Tom McCarthy at the Nantucket Film Festival.