Two Film Nerds, The Oscars, & Indie Film
Featuring a check in with Andrea Gavazzi, Cinematographer of the Oscar-Nominated Short Film A Lien
Unpacking The Oscars
By Heather Elaine Abbott
This March kicked off with ‘Hollywood’s Biggest Night’, The 97th Academy Awards, marking the end of the awards season. It’s been a few weeks since the surprise Emilia serenade, the Sean Baker sweep, and the strange homage to James Bond. Our watch party cheered and groaned throughout the night in equal measure. While we would have been over the moon to see Sing Sing win a single Academy Award, it was sadly not in the cards. (But you really need to see Sing Sing if you haven’t yet. Coleman deserved that award y’all.) When Anora won Best Picture, there was a sudden shift in the vibe of the room. Some of our guests hadn’t seen it, some liked it, and one person was extremely frustrated by the win. It seemed obvious to me that the night would go that way after Baker took the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Direction. Those three elements together are a pretty certain recipe for a Best Picture win, especially when you throw in the Best Actress win for Mikey Madison.
But was it the Best Picture? Who’s to say! Art is subjective as hell! Zoey would say that Sing Sing was the Best Picture of 2024 and I would say that it was I Saw The TV Glow. However, I just don’t think that is the most interesting question to ask. Why was Anora the darling of the Oscars? That is the needling little thought that I was left with and can’t help but return to! Was it the $18 million spent by Neon on the film’s Oscars campaign? Perhaps! There is no way that didn’t have some effect on the voters. However, there is a small, hopeful part of me that wants to read something else from this outstanding recognition given to Baker’s film.
There were ten films nominated for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars and only two of them had budgets under $10 Million. Both of those films won big on March 2nd - Anora ($6 Mil) for Best Picture and I’m Still Here ($1.5 Mil) for Best International Feature Film. The highest budgets for this category were for Wicked ($145 Mil) and Dune: Part Two ($190 Mil). Full transparency, Zoey and I were SEATED for these major event films and you know we will be purchasing a Dune Popcorn Bucket from Ebay the second that we become fabulously wealthy. There will always be a desire for films with an emphasis on the spectacle. However, there is something exciting to me about the largest film award going to an indie film with a low-midbudget.
We’ve talked plenty on the podcast about how we are feeling serious fatigue around the franchisification of the film industry. The return of the midbudget film has been proposed as a solution to the growing difficulty for filmmakers above and below the line to survive in this field. I can’t help but heartily co-sign these suggestions from people far smarter than I! The quality of art is not defined by how much money you throw at it. Creativity thrives in limitation. Could the exorbitant acclaim that a 6 million dollar indie film received send the message that Hollywood needs to rethink the current structure of the industry? I really fucking hope so.
Speaking of the Academy Awards & indie films, we checked in with Andrea Gavazzi, Cinematographer of the Oscar-nominated short film A Lien, about his experience attending the Oscars this year!
Q: What was it like to attend the Oscars?
Andrea: It was absolutely surreal and at the same time it did normalize that side of our industry that I rarely get to see. At the end of the day it is just people!
Q: How did you decide what to wear to such an iconic event?
Andrea: I had my friend Santa Bevaqua style me. I wanted to wear something classic but that had a punk edge. My tuxedo was from Armani.
Q: Was there a moment during the night that really stood out to you?
Andrea: Definitely seeing the footage I shot on the big screens and hearing them announcing our category, seeing our film there, it was so incredible and emotional.
Q: How do you come down from such a huge moment—was it back to work the next day, or did you take time to celebrate?
Andrea: It was back to work the next day, I flew to Kansas City for a commercial and back to reality!!
Q: If you could go back and tell your younger self that you'd be an Oscar nominee, how do you think they would react?
Andrea: I think I would not believe myself because I would have a hard time even believing that I made it to work in the movie industry!
Q: It’s been a few weeks since we’ve chatted, what’s next for you? Any exciting projects on the horizon?
Andrea: I am now back into the commercial world craziness, flying every week or two to a different place and I'm chatting about a few projects later this year. Hopefully a feature!
You can watch A Lien here! You can follow Andrea Gavazzi at @andgavazzi on instagram & check out his website to keep up with his career.
Listen to our interview with Andrea Gavazzi about his work on A Lien!
In this episode, Zoey and Heather dive into the art of shooting a short film, the challenges and triumphs of independent filmmaking, and, of course, what it feels like to be nominated for an Oscar… and that’s just the beginning!
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
Listen on Spotify:
A Crafty Crash Course in Indie Film
By Zoey Danielson
Let me set the scene: it was the spring of 2017, and I had just wrapped up my first year of film school at Columbia College Chicago. One of my many film professors approached me with an opportunity—an indie lesbian vampire flick. The catch? The only kiss in the movie was between a man and a woman. The other catch? It was going to be shot in just one week. But none of that mattered to me. This was a FEATURE, and I was desperate to get on any and every set I could. The idea felt like magic—exciting, chaotic, and exactly what I had dreamed of.
My professor asked me to join the film as the ‘crafty department,’ and to my naïve first-year filmmaker brain, that meant I’d be doing crafts for the production design team. Incredible! Hell yeah! Sign me up. What I didn’t know was that "crafty" actually meant snacks. I was in charge of feeding the crew—still cool, still important. Every film set lives and dies by its snack table.
By the end of production, I had somehow become a casting assistant, the entire art department, a costume wrangler, a boom op—basically, whatever the day demanded. My first lesson in indie filmmaking? On a small production, anyone can be anything—as long as you're interested, willing to put in the work, or simply standing in the right place when someone inevitably drops out at the last minute.
Case in point: the production design team. One day, I was meeting up with the lone survivor of what had once been a full department, and the next, I was being handed two duffel bags stuffed with hand-whittled wooden stakes. No context. No instructions. Just me, the stakes, someone else’s vision, and the sheer chaos of indie film. It was exhilarating.
Day one on set is burned into my brain. One of my best friends, Nick, had also been roped into the production, and by that point, I had already expanded far beyond just handling crafty. We were on location at a gun range in the middle of nowhere, and I was laying out costumes—hastily ordered from Amazon—in a flurry of last-minute prep.
The day kicked off in a whirlwind: walkie-talkies crackling with frantic voices, actors sweating in makeup chairs under the sweltering sun, and—just to keep things interesting—a missing camera. You know, a minor issue.
As night fell, the chaos gave way to exhaustion. The camera department stayed busy, but with the space so tight, most of us were stuck outside, shivering in the cold, doing our best to stay awake. It was the kind of first day that could make or break you—and somehow, I was already hooked.
The longer we waited, the loopier we became. Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe it was the cold bean stew we were served for dinner (which, for the record, was not part of my crafty setup). Or maybe we had fallen into some kind of indie film rite of passage. Nick and I parked ourselves on a set of stairs, and as people passed, we decided there was a toll: a secret. If they wanted to pass, they had to tell us something juicy. For a night, we were like characters in a fantasy novel—mysterious gatekeepers hoarding whispered confessions.
It’s still one of my favorite nights ever.
The rest of the week unfolded exactly as you’d expect—beautifully chaotic. Late nights bled into early mornings, fueled by an excessive amount of subpar coffee. In my sleep-deprived delirium, I was convinced I was witnessing the greatest film ever made. I watched people rig exploding, blood-soaked vampire stab wounds, stood in awe of a kickass 1st AD who ran the absolute hell out of the set (I still channel her bad-assery when I need it), and spent my downtime hanging out in the back rooms of some of Chicago’s kinkiest gay bars. Just your standard indie film experience.
After that week, there were a few pickup shoots—more long nights, more abandoned apartments filled with frantic lighting setups, and more scenes that had strayed so far from the original script that I couldn’t even begin to piece together how they fit.
In the end, the film never had its grand debut—no festival run, no underground cult following, no mysteriously resurfaced VHS tapes. But honestly? That didn’t matter. It was a crash course in indie filmmaking, a trial by fire that taught me more than any classroom ever could. I walked away with confidence, experience, and an unshakable appreciation for a well-stocked crafty table.
And, of course, two duffel bags full of hand-whittled stakes—because you never know when that’ll come in handy.
Recommendations
What are we watching?
Heather: I have a confession to make… I had never seen a David Lynch film until this month. For some reason, his extensive filmography was a huge gap in my film nerd history. When he passed away in January, so many people in my life were deeply affected by the loss and it spurred me to finally dive in. Soon after his passing, Alamo Drafthouse announced a David Lynch series aptly titled, ‘In Dreams’ and I was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing my first Lynch film in theaters. So I got a ticket for Wild at Heart and prepared to ‘meet’ this iconic filmmaker. Was it weird? Of course! Will Willem Dafoe’s teeth live in my nightmares until the end of time? 100 percent! Will I ever stop quoting, ‘This world is wild at heart and weird on top’? Unlikely! Wild at Heart was a lot more accessible than I expected it to be and it tickled the part of my brain that loves to spin around abstract art, digging for every bit of meaning. After this first foray into Lynch’s work, I am excited to keep exploring. As a companion to Wild at Heart, I watched Maggie Mae Fish’s Lynch Pins episode that covered the film. I always love her film analysis and this discussion validated a lot of my thoughts while also expanding my understanding of where it sits in the greater pantheon of his filmography.
In terms of new film releases, I absolutely loved Opus. I don’t want to tell you a single thing about it - please go in knowing as little as possible! Just go see it, in theatres, right now! Black Bag, the newest Soderbergh film, was a delight as well! Spy movies don’t tend to be my genre, but this one is tight (93 minute runtime), darkly comedic, sufficiently intriguing, and sexy!
TV-wise, I was SAT for the finale of Traitors and that led to me starting an exploration of Survivor! I’ve now watched Season 18 (JT!!!) and Season 20 (Parvati was robbed). Adolescence was a stand out for me (and everyone else on the internet). Compelling and tense, I found myself watching all four episodes in one evening without the urge to look away and scroll on my little phone. The one-shot episodes are an impressive technical feat that support the greater narrative. I am a sucker for the form of a piece of art deepening the audience’s experience of the meaning. Film nerds simply must stan. Speaking of stanning, SEVERANCE SEVERANCE SEVERANCE. After some pacing issues in the back half of the season, the finale brought me back to everything that I love about this show. I’ve already said way too much in this section, so I won’t get into the weeds here. But I am pleased with the season as a whole and counting the days until I get to hang out with my Innie friends again.
Zoey: Currently, I’m watching Long Bright River with Amanda Seyfried, and I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do—but it’s completely surprising me. I have two episodes left, and if the killer is who I think it is… I might have to call up Amanda Seyfried and have some words with her. Totally not because I secretly just want to hang out or anything…
On another note, I cannot stop thinking about Wheel of Time Season 3. If you’re a fantasy girly and haven’t started this yet, PLEASE get on it—it’s one of the best fantasy shows I’ve ever seen. My advice? Don’t let the silly, goofy Trollocs in episode 1 scare you off. This show, in part, is led by Rosamund Pike as our wise and magical elder, stepping in to inform a group of angsty teens that, surprise, they have a quest to go on. It’s everything I want from a fantasy series and more. I rate shows based on how often I jump up and yell at the TV, and let’s just say… Wheel of Time has me out of my seat a LOT.
What are we reading?
Heather: It was a tough read but The House of My Mother by Shari Franke is worth the labor, if you’re in a place to handle the many content warnings. It reminded me a lot of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died. Unfortunately, I’m sure that their experiences of exploitation, grooming, and emotional abuse are not at all uncommon for the many children who have been churned into ‘content’ by the caregivers who should have protected them. It is becoming more apparent every day that there need to be more laws surrounding the protection of children in all levels of entertainment.
Zoey: I’ve been on a tiny little reading hiatus—March has been packed with Last to Leave interviews and family visits, so I haven’t had much time to read. That said, I’m oh-so-close to finishing The Trial of the Sun Queen series. I’ve enjoyed my time in this world, but I’m ready to return to where I truly belong… and that is? Any book with dragons.
My girlfriend Emma, is on the last book of The Auralian Cycle, my all-time favorite series, and I’ve decided to reread the final book alongside her. It’s been so much fun hearing her thoughts and experiencing the world through her eyes. Now, if we’re lucky enough, maybe one day our cats will sprout wings, grow to the size of dragons, and take us on an adventure of our own. A reader can dream, right?
What are we listening to?
Heather: 2 Black Girls 1 Rose has become my most recent podcast hyperfixation! My neverending need for more reality tv recaps & analysis led me to check out one of their LIB episodes, and Justine & Natasha’s vibe hooked me quickly. I went deep into the backlog so I could keep listening! I’m especially enjoying their ongoing series on Sex and the City.
Zoey: I am still fully in my Maude Latour era, and I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE. I saw her live at The Metro in Chicago, and let me tell you—it was hands down the best show I’ve ever been to. Her voice? Stunning. Her songs? Straight to the depths of my soul. Seeing her live with two of my favorite people? Pure magic.
And let’s talk about Maris, who opened the show. I could have sworn Freddie Mercury himself had taken the stage—her energy was electric, her presence was effortless, and the way she glided across that stage? I will envy it for the rest of my life.
There is nothing better than seeing your favorite artist live and realizing they’re somehow even better in person. I beg of you, check out Maude Latour and Maris—they are exceptional.
Another fabulous read! You guys ROCK!!! ❤️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻