Atlanta Film Festival helps film gain Oscar nomination

Atlanta Film Festival helps short film get Oscar nomination

The director of 'The Dress' says winning an award at the Atlanta Film Festival played a big role in helping his movie get an Oscar nomination.

ATLANTA - Cast and crew of the short film "The Dress" are celebrating their recent Academy Award nomination — and the writer-director says Atlanta played a big role in helping it happen.

Tadeusz Łysiak wrote and directed "The Dress," which is now nominated for this year’s Best Live Action Short Film Academy Award. Łysiak made the film as a student at the Warsaw Film School in Poland, and it screened at film festivals around the world. But it was the award he won at last year’s Atlanta Film Festival — an Academy Award-qualifying festival in several categories — which allowed the film to be considered for the Oscar.

"I always talk about Atlanta Film Festival because this is the festival that is really close to my heart," says the young filmmaker. "They greeted me really warmly in Atlanta, even though it was online only, because of COVID-times. I really have a strong emotion about Atlanta Film Festival, and I’ve talked about it with the director of the festival. And he invited me to go there sometime and maybe do a screening of ‘The Dress’ … I’m really hoping we can arrange that."

"The Dress" stars Anna Dzieduszycka and centers on a woman of short stature and her desire for love, and the way she’s treated by others around her. Co-founder and chancellor of the Warsaw Film School Maciej Ślesicki shares the nomination with Łysiak, and the team plans to attend the Academy Awards ceremony on March 27 in Los Angeles.

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