Singer-songwriter Abraham Alexander is one of three North Texans who have a shot at taking home an Oscar.
“I’m still catching my breath,” Alexander said when reached by phone Thursday morning after the nominations were announced.
Alexander and writers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley are all nominated for their work with the film Sing Sing, which tells the story of men who find purpose and redemption through a theater program inside the infamous New York prison.
Kwedar, of Fort Worth, and Bentley, of Dallas, were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Alexander’s collaboration with Laredo-native Adrian Quesada, “Like a Bird,” is in the running for Best Original Song.
“It just kind of wrote itself in a way, you know, the essence of what it’s like for us not to see the humanity within people that are incarcerated,” Alexander said. “And I was thinking that this certain group of people are now (seen as) B class citizens … it just struck this chord and the imagery of a bird came to mind.”
Alexander, who released his first full-length album last year called “Sea/Sons,” described watching the film for the first time and hearing his song in it, was like having a weight lifted off of his shoulders.
“It was a concrete, definite answer of I’m in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I don’t really need to worry about what I think needs to happen and other worries that I’m having in my career, but (to) just stay the course. And so seeing the song in the film was a prayer being considered in a way that I didn’t think the prayer would be answered.”
Kwedar could not be immediately reached after the nominations, but previously told the Fort Worth Report that he was inspired to embark on this project after reading an Esquire article called “The Sing Sing Follies (A maximum-security comedy)” by John H. Richardson.
“I was just so taken with the playfulness of this work juxtaposed against the environment it was set in,” Kwedar said in November. “I just wanted to experience some of the joy that these men have in the process, so that was the beginning of the journey.”
Colman Domingo, who plays the film’s protagonist, is also nominated for “Best Lead Actor.”
The award ceremony will air live on ABC March 2.
