THIS is the heartwarming moment a British Oscar nominee shared the news that he had been shortlisted with his 99-year-old grandmother.
Max Marlow was a producer on the 2023 short comedy drama Good Boy, which has been shortlisted for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The 28-year-old worked alongside Ben Whishaw – who famously plays the current iteration of boffin Q in the James Bond films – and shared the moment he told his grandma the big news.
Video shows a grinning Max, dressed in a blue pulled up hooded jumper and a black coat, facing the camera as he calls his grandmother.
The phone can be heard ringing as Max answers in reply to an off-screen pal: “I’m already filming myself. She might be asleep.”
Max’s grandmother eventually answers, saying: “Oh, Max. Hello. How are you, darling.”
Max replies: “I’m all well. I’ve got news for you. Are you sitting down?”
The elderly grandmother then says to Max: “Wait. I’m going to sit down.”
He waits patiently as the OAP shuffles around to turn her television off and ready herself for the news, before she jokes: “Hold it. I’m nearly there.”
Max smiles at his pal as his grandmother jovially announces: “I’m now sitting down.”
Max smiles before saying: “Hello, Nanny. You know I made that little movie in Somerset with the man from James Bond?”
His grandma confirms her memory of the film as Max reveals: “Well, we’ve just been shortlisted for an Oscar award for Best Short Film.”
He smiles as his grandmother takes a minute to digest the good news before repeating “the Oscars” back to him to ensure she has heard him right.
Max grins and replies that she heard him correctly before his kind-hearted grandmother then softly says: “What a wonderful thing.”
Max then says, “But yeah. Just thought I’d let you know” before his supportive grandmother says replies: “Oh, lovely. Lovely. I’m so happy for you.”
In true grandmother style though, she then adds: “Don’t drink.”
Max promises her that he won’t drink as his grandmother replies: “Alright, good because you’ll get ill.”
She then wishes him well as Max can be heard saying: “Bye, Nanny. I love you lots.”
His grandmother then replies: “I love you too. Bye.”
Max took to social media last month to share the moving footage, writing: “She’s made comments about seeing me at the Oscars one day, ever since I first wanted to make films.”
The post received over 34,000 likes and hundreds of comments from users left touched by Max and his gran’s heartwarming conversation.
One person wrote: “This made me cry. She sounds exactly like my nan. I miss her so much. Thank you for sharing this. What a precious moment.”
Another said: “Take her with you to the Oscars.”
A third commented: “Congratulations, man. This made me think about every time I used to call my nan and tell her my achievements – would do anything for that moment again.”
A fourth added: “This is so wholesome, your nan sounds so sweet. Also, congratulations.”
Speaking today Max said: “My grandma – we call her Nanny at home – is 100 this March and I’ve been seeing her every Sunday I can since I was a little boy.
“My interest in film ignited in her living room when all she had to entertain me with on Sunday visits was a VHS copy of Titanic I’ve seen more times than any other film to date.
“She’s always been so supportive of my dreams of making films for a living and every Sunday of recent, is always asking to hear more of my updates – even if they’re little things such as a film I made got 20,000 views on YouTube.
“She has stories and photos from visits to California from the 50s and 60s and she’d tease me with comments of how I’m going to have to visit those same places when I’m in Hollywood and when I’m at the Oscars, ever since I began focusing on filmmaking in my late teens.
“Now 28, I’m so lucky she’s still here at such an impressive age with her mind still so quick, so I made sure to recognise this blessing in letting her know over the phone the night we got shortlisted for an Oscar for Good Boy in Best Live Action Short Film.
“To have come this far, pending nomination aside, is a huge feat for myself on this journey and puts in me a belief in myself that my nanny had in me all along
“I put it on [online] with no expectations to share the cute call with mates and chucked a viral track behind it but didn’t expect nearly half a million views and stories upon stories of people and their grandmas who meant so much to them – it’s really sweet.”
Good Boy is a short comedy drama film that first premiered at Leeds International Film Festival.
It features main character Danny who is determined to reshape his life despite the emergence of people from his past threatening to stop him from doing so.
