It’s Great to Be Nominated

The Motion Picture Academy had a delightful series of programs some years back, called “It’s Great to be Nominated”, where they screened a nominated feature, along with a nominated short, and what was so remarkable about it was that the nominated films were sensational, films that made you wonder why they didn’t get the Oscar.  Then, after the feature and short were screened they would have some of the stars and behind-the-scenes folks from the feature come up on the stage to talk about their experiences.

Well, for one of these screenings they decided to have a panel discussion of the short, since it was a UPA short, and UPA has a special place in Academy history having won some 15 nominations, with one of them holding a trivia record, in 1956 UPA won all three of the nomination, getting a big giggle from the audience when the announced, “and the winner is … UPA.  So, AMPAS Special Events director, Randy Haberkamp called me one day and asked if I could assemble a panel of UPA artists.  We were only able to line up Bill Melendez for that evening, but instead of canceling the idea, Randy asked for Tee Bosustow to join Bill, for a two panel discussion moderated by Randy.  Because Tee was up there too, he was able to slip in a plug for documentary.

Category: Events