alumnus and award-winning commercial and film director Bryan Buckley 鈥�85 was among the nominees announced Thursday, Jan. 10, for the 85th Academy Awards. Buckley directed the short film 鈥淎sad,鈥� which was nominated in the Short Film/Live Action category. It is Buckley鈥檚 first Oscar nomination.
Presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars will be announced on Sunday, Feb. 24.
鈥淎sad鈥� was shot in Africa with an all-Somali cast of refugees and was honored as the Best Narrative Short at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Since then, the film has been touring the globe and winning awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Michael Moore鈥檚 Traverse City Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival, among others.
Buckley, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in advertising design from VPA鈥檚 Department of Design, was dubbed 鈥淜ing of the Super Bowl鈥� by the New York Times. He has directed more than 40 commercials for the big game since 2000. In addition to winning more than 40 Cannes Lions, he has earned six Emmy nominations and the distinction of being named Commercial Director of the Decade in a 2010 Adweek readers鈥� poll. Creativity Magazine also named him one of the 50 Best Creative Minds of the last 25 years. Numerous pieces of Buckley鈥檚 work have been inducted into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for their cultural relevance, and he has been honored by the Directors Guild of America as the Commercial Director of the Year.
In 1997, with partner Hank Perlman, Buckley co-founded the commercial production company Hungry Man in New York. By 2004, the company had won the prestigious Palme d鈥橭r at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
