Oscar winners share their unlikely, inspiring journey at Xposure

Moderated by media expert Aidan Sullivan, the talk centred around working on the films that brought them glory, including Hollywood’s most prestigious honour in the industry.

Martin Desmond Roe, a British-American film, television and commercial director who has won an Oscar, multiple Emmys and a Cannes Golden Lion during his 15-year career, said together with Travon he won the Academy Award for a short film called Two Distant Strangers. 

“Travon pitched the idea and nine months later we made it. It was shot during the pandemic in 2020 and won the Oscar in 2021. The reason it felt magical was the speed with which we could achieve it.” He spoke about the criteria that an Oscar nomination needed to meet, including a theatre screening, which did not happen because of pandemic permit restrictions. 

Travon said receiving an Oscar was the most incredible feeling as there is no advance information on it. He stayed awake knowing that his short film was among the five in the final list and received a call at 5am, which confirmed the win. Free, who began his career doing standup comedy and commercials, said an Oscar was not even a dream as it was far beyond his personal realm of possibilities. “You grow up feeling incompetent and not knowing how far you can dream. It is not the kind of thing that happens in my world. So that was what made it exciting because it was never a thing that I was hoping for, or that one day I would be on the same stage that has honoured the filmmaking world’s biggest talents.”

Brent Homman, American animation director who worked on blockbuster Disney films like films Bolt, Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Frozen, remembered how he was hired for a five-month gig for Bolt which was nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature. “Disney was always shortlisted but did not win anything for a long time,” he remembered, adding that Frozen won the best animated feature in 2014.

Organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), Xposure 2025 runs until February 26. To learn more about the global celebration platform for visual storytelling, visit https://xposure.net/.