On the day the 88th Academy Award nominations were announced, Henry Hughes woke up at 5 a.m. He turned on his T.V. and watched as actor John Krasinski, and filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee read off this year’s list of Oscar contenders. He listened to the names of “Leonardo DiCaprio,” “Cate Blanchett” and “Sylvester Stallone,” and then, he heard his own name.
His initial reaction? “I got really scared,” he says.
Hughes, 31, spent five years as a paratrooper in the 173rd Airborne. But it wasn’t jumping out of airplanes or conducting two combat tours in Afghanistan that scared him. No, it was when the Academy of Motion Pictures announced his nomination for Best Short Film (Live Action) for DAY ONE, a movie he wrote and directed.
This year, 144 eligible films were submitted in the Short Film (Live Action) category. Ten made the cut for further Academy Award consideration. Among those 10, five became nominees.
“Once we made the top ten, I assumed that would be the end of it,” Hughes says. “Now just to get the nomination is an accomplishment. My life has turned crazy. I didn’t have a publicist before, now I do. Now I have interviews and screenings.”
Before Henry Hughes There Was Hank
Before Q&A sessions, film festivals and photo shoots, Henry Hughes was just Hank, as he’s known by his friends. Hailing from a strong military family, Hughes attended high school in Fort Knox, Ky., and spent time living in Louisville. His parents currently reside in the Hikes Point area.
Alison Brotzge-Elder, Communications Manager, Greater Louisville Inc., met Hughes after her sophomore year of high school when they both attended the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Christian Leadership Institute together.
“We really became friends later on, attending Boston University,” she says. “We were both in the College of Communications and had several classes together our freshman year. We bonded over being the only people from Kentucky in a land of Yankees. It was great to have someone from home going through the same experiences of adjusting to life in Boston. We would often talk about missing the food at home while at school.”
When the two did hang out in Louisville it was often at Highland Coffee or the City Café in Mid-City Mall. “Typical Highlands hangout spots for the artsy kids,” Brotzge-Elder says.
Back then, Brotzge-Elder describes Hughes as a skater. “Hank was pretty into the skater scene in Louisville. He had the long hair and the hemp necklace before college and was really grinding those curbs before he joined up,” she jokes.
Hughes was in ROTC in college, but always talked about becoming a director and making movies.
“Hank always expressed a strong passion for film. It was such an interesting dichotomy between a person who really has a passion for art and also felt passionately about serving in the military,” says Brotzge-Elder.
“My family history is serving in the army,” explains Hughes. “I wanted to be part of that, but that’s not who I wanted to be. I was always excited about making movies.”
After completing his second tour in Afghanistan, Hughes left to pursue filmmaking. He moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at the American Film Institute (AFI), the pre-eminent school for directing. There, he immersed himself in all things film: he worked with actors, learned the nuts and bolts of storytelling, collaborated with cinematographers and production designers, and even took acting and improv classes. He graduated with an MFA in Directing.
A War Movie With A New Point-of-View
When the time came to make a film, it was no surprise that Hughes wanted to focus on the war. However, his inspiration wasn’t his story, rather an Afghan-American woman from Oklahoma who served as the interpreter in Hughes’s platoon.
“When I finally got out of the army I wanted to make a movie about war, but I really needed a new approach to that genre,” Hughes says. “Most war movies are about a young guy that finds out war is a mixed bag. I had found this one woman in a masculine world both bridging and challenging gender and cultural norms. It’s the same simple story structure, but from this woman’s point of view.”
What resulted is, DAY ONE, which depicts a new translator’s first day accompanying a US Army unit as it searches for a local terrorist.
“I love that the character is an Afghan-American female interpreter,” says Hughes. “This is not the typical person you see in this type of movie. In real life she is a Muslim American. She served. You can’t deny the power of that. She was the most important person in my platoon. She was the voice of every person I met. There was no reason for us to be there without her. I knew I wanted to share her story.”
Hughes and the interpreter, who now lives in Washington D.C., remain good friends. “We’re going to the Oscars together,” he says.
DAY ONE has received much acclaim. It even won the student academy award, making it eligible for that elusive Oscar Nomination. The film can be viewed on VOD, iTunes, Amazon, Verizon and Google Play.
Brotzge-Elder isn’t surprised by Hughes’s success. “Hank is one of the most genuine people out there. When he talks to you, you can tell that he is really engaged and interested in your story. I think that’s what probably makes him a great storyteller. He cares about the subjects he is portraying and truly understanding them,” she says.
Hughes credits much of his movie-making success to his wife of three years, Tabea Soriano. “It was so helpful for my wife to support me emotionally and even financially while we were getting this movie made.”
Finding a Friend & Mentor in George Lucas
He also found an unlikely mentor in George Lucas, the enormously successful filmmaker behind the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” film franchises. Hughes participated in a program called, American Corporate Partners (ACP), a veterans’ initiative the pairs a veteran with a mentor that is an industry professional within the veteran’s desired career field.
“I happen to sign up during big a big PR push. A bunch of people got different celebrities,” says Hughes, who submitted an old film he made and matched with Lucas.
“George has been incredibly kind to me, and offered sound advice,” Hughes continues. Through Lucas, Hughes was able to meet and work with filmmaking experts at Skywalker Sound and Lucasfilm. The two remain in touch.
My Old Kentucky Home
Today, Hughes lives in Silver Lake, a neighborhood he calls the “the Highlands of Los Angeles.” While California may be his address, Kentucky remains home. “I love Kentucky,” Hughes says. “It’s great that my parents still live there. It’s great that I can leave Louisville and come back and see how it’s changing.”
Hughes raves about Louisville’s restaurant scene. “I’m a big fan of Holy Grale and Eiderdown,” he says. “I love the great beauty of walking down Bardstown Road and soaking in the Louisville culture, just checking out Carmichael’s or drinking Heine Bros. coffee.”
For now, Los Angeles is where Hughes needs to be. He’s currently developing a military series with Ian Bryce, a producer of the film Saving Private Ryan.
On Sunday, February 28 when Hughes arrives at the Dolby Theatre for the Academy Awards he will be surrounded by a support system that includes his wife, his muse—the interpreter, his parents and his producer. “My mom was dress shopping in Cincinnati earlier this week,” says Hughes.
Of course, his hometown friends will root for him, too. “It is great that he was able to complete his service to his country and still pursue his dream of making films and on top of that be recognized on the international level,” says Brotzge-Elder. “I think it is a great harbinger of what’s to come. He is just getting started. I am very excited for him; how could you not be?”
Will he still be scared on Oscar night?
“I was an officer in the United States Army. I will be prepared,” Hughes says. Then he laughs, “I practice at every stoplight.”
