Fresh off of receiving a Best Live Action Short nomination for “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson has teamed up with Netflix to host a double feature screening of the Oscar-nominated film alongside his debut short “Bottle Rocket.”
Anderson was just a recent University of Texas grad who had made the short with a pair of then-unknown actor brothers Owen and Luke Wilson.
After its festival run, The Sundance Institute invited Anderson to its Screenwriters Lab, encouraging him to expand “Bottle Rocket” into what would be his first feature length film.
Anderson also made a surprise virtual appearance at the 2024 Sundance Film Fest awards ceremony to announce the Short Film Grand Jury Award winners.
Before the filmmaker read off the names of Grand Jury Prize winner “The Masterpiece,” U.S. Fiction winner “Say Hi After You Die,” International Fiction winner “The Stag,” Nonfiction winner “Bob’s Funeral,” Animation winner “Bug Diner,” and special Directing prize winners “The Looming” and “Pisko the Crab Child is in Love,” Anderson reflected on his first Sundance experience putting up stickers and posters promoting “Bottle Rocket” around Park City. “I don’t really know why, there was only one screening of it,” said Anderson. “I think they’d sold the tickets [already].”
