Wes Anderson thanks team and his chance meeting with Owen Wilson in Oscars acceptance remarks from Germany

Jordan Hoffman
·3 min read
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Wes Anderson was not in Los Angeles on Sunday night to accept his Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film. But it turned out he had a pretty good excuse. The filmmaker was in Germany, prepping his next film, “The Phoenician Scheme,” which is set to begin shooting (checks pocket watch quirkily) today!

The writer-director-aesthete did send a message via Netflix, the producers of the award-winning “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” one of four shorts based on Roald Dahl stories currently streaming on the platform.

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“If I could have been there, I (along with [producer] Steven Rales) would have said “Thank you” to: the family of Roald Dahl, the team at Netflix, Benedict [Cumberbatch] and Ralph [Fiennes] and Ben Kingsley and Dev [Patel] and Richard [Ayoade] and Bob [probably cinematographer Robert Yeoman] and Adam [Stockhausen, Anderson’s long time production designer] and Jeremy [Dawson, producer] and John [Peet, producer] and Jim [yeah, we don’t know] and Rich [not sure] and Jim and Polly [this is probably a shout-out to James L. Brooks and the late Polly Platt, who were influential in Anderson’s early career] and more.”

Anderson continued, “And also I would have said: if I had not met Owen Wilson in a corridor at the University of Texas between classes when I was 18 years old, I would certainly not be receiving this award tonight — but unfortunately Steven and I are in Germany and we start shooting our new movie early tomorrow morning, so I did not actually receive the award or get a chance to say any of that.”

Anderson’s next picture, “The Phoenician Scheme,” stars Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera, and, back in the Anderson fold, Bill Murray. (Murray was notably absent in his last feature, “Asteroid City,” with Tom Hanks filling in a very Murray-esque position in the cast.) Anderson has teased that the new movie is an “espionage thriller.”

The prize for Live-Action Short was Anderson’s first Oscar win after seven nominations, including Best Original Screenplay for “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Moonrise Kingdom,” Best Animated Feature for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Isle of Dogs,” and Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which ended up winning four awards—Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score, for Alexander Desplat.

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