Senior Fellows and Radio-Television-Film alumna Gigi Causey, and her husband Andrew Bowler, were nominated for a Best Live Action Short Film Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards.
While they dressed up and prepared a speech for the event, the duo also wanted their friends and family to see their unscripted reaction to the nominations. Clad in pajamas, the couple recorded themselves viewing the nominations list at 5:30 a.m. in late January.
Their ebullient reaction upon learning “Time Freak” had received a nomination for Best Live Action Short Film went viral, even landing a spot on Good Morning America’s “Play of the Day” segment.
“Time Freak” is an 11-minute comedy about a time machine and the power of nagging regret. Consumed with remorse, a neurotic inventor creates a time machine and gets lost traveling in his past. The inventor becomes so consumed with perfecting every minute detail of the previous day that he is unable to realize he has the power to do great things.
Debuting in 2010 at the American Film Institute Fest, “Time Freak” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short at the Seattle International Film Festival in June of 2011.
The jury called it "A hilarious, original take on time travel that reminds us all to embrace the moment.”
“Time Freak” also received the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Comedy at the TriMedia Festival; Best Comedy Short award at the Route 66 Film Festival; Jury Award for Best Short at the Stony Brook Film Festival; and Best Science Fiction award at the Poppy Jasper Film Festival.
Following the Academy Awards show, more than 200 theatres began screening the short films nominated for Best Live Action, Best Animation and Best Documentary. For more details and a list of theatres, visit http://theoscarshorts.shorts.tv/locations.php.
The films have also been released on iTunes and are available through cable’s Movies On Demand (MOD), Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse, Cablevision and Cox Communications.
