A Surprise From Oscar: Rivers Alum Earns Academy Award Nod

Independent filmmaker Sara Nesson ’93 wasn’t sure how she’d react if and when she got the good news. On Tuesday morning, she received a phone call from her editor at HBO Films, and knew from the first word (“Congratulations!”) what had happened: her 38-minute film Poster Girl had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film Documentary.

 

“It didn't really sink in until I went to the official website to confirm,” she recounts. “When I saw it on the list, I started screaming, 'I'm going to the Oscars!'"

 

“Poster Girl” profiles Sgt. Robyn Murray, a former cheerleader turned Iraq War machine gunner, and her post-combat experience dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

 

Nesson says that she was immediately struck by Murray’s outgoing nature when she spent time with Murray and other veterans who had returned from the war.

 

“One reason we are so clueless about what vets are going through is that they are often afraid to talk about their issues,” says Nesson. “It takes a brave person like Robyn to lay it all out on the table.”

 

Nesson remembers making her first film at Rivers with Christian Ericson '93 as part of the senior banquet. Before beginning her independent video projects, she worked as principal editor for the PBS child-labor documentary Stolen Childhoods, an experience that crystallized her interest in more future collaboration. She says that she has always viewed her filmmaking less as a vocation and more as a vital outlet to throw herself into whole-heartedly.

 

“Whenever I need to escape, I put myself in my filmmaking,” she says. “That’s where I feel the most challenged and elated.”