Australia's most intriguing Oscar campaign this Hollywood awards season may not involve A-list hopefuls Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie or Nicole Kidman.
It likely belongs to Australian husband-and-wife Sean Meehan and Sam McGarry.
The Los Angeles-based filmmaking couple took a major gamble by pouring $A100,000 of their hard-earned savings into a film they shot in minus 14 degrees Celsius weather at the base of the Canadian Rockies on a ridiculously brief schedule.
Next week they will discover if their short film, Lost Face, is in the running for the Academy Awards.
"We worked our asses off on commercials to make the money, tightened our belts and saved up," Meehan, 44, told AAP.
Lost Face has blazed an impressive trail at film festivals around the world, winning 46 awards including 26 best film prizes.
A win at the Edmonton International Film Festival qualified it for Oscar consideration and next week the Academy will cut 160 eligible films in the short film category to 10.
The final five will be announced on January 23 at the Academy's official nomination ceremony.
Battling and beating the odds with Lost Face is not new for Meehan and McGarry.
"We did the hard yards on this one," Meehan said.
The 14 minute film is based on author Jack London's short story of the same name.
It is set in the mid-1800s and follows the plight of Russian fur thieves captured by members of a North American tribe.
Meehan and McGarry only had enough money to shoot Lost Face in three days and unlike many short films, they paid all of their actors and crew.
Every scene was outdoors and because it was December there were only seven hours of daylight per day and the temperature never rose above freezing.
"When you're looking at 14 minutes of screen time and having just 21 hours to shoot it, it is not much," he said.
The couple moved from Sydney to LA seven years ago and have a 10-year-old daughter, Ruby.
They are in demand worldwide for shooting TV commercials with clients including McDonald's, Volkswagen and Tourism Australia and will be in Portugal next week to shoot a Samsung ad.
They are hoping their $A100,000 gamble on Lost Face will not only lead to an Oscar nomination, but convince Hollywood they have the talent to make feature films.
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