Two New Yorker Films Receive

2024 Oscar Nominations

Source: newyorker.com

“The Barber of Little Rock” and “Knight of Fortune” will compete in

the Best Documentary Short Film and Best Live Action Short Film
categories at the ceremony on March 10th.
By The New Yorker
January 23, 2024

Videos courtesy Story Syndicate and Jalabert Production

The 2024 Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning,
including two nods for films released by The New Yorker.
Representing the magazine in the Best Documentary Short Film
category will be “The Barber of Little Rock,” about a Black small-
business owner fighting racial discrimination in banking. “Knight of
Fortune,” an offbeat comic drama set in a morgue, will compete for
Best Live Action Short Film. The nominations mark the sixteenth and
seventeenth times that films released by The New Yorker have
received a nod for an Academy Award. Winners will be announced
on March 10th, in Los Angeles.

“The Barber of Little Rock” tells the story of Arlo Washington, an

Arkansas man striving to help fellow African Americans overcome
bias in banking. Washington operates a barber college where students
learn to cut hair and run their own businesses; he also manages People
Trust, a credit union dedicated to serving the Black community,
whose members face extra barriers in receiving loans and other means
of financial support. John Hoffman, a winner of four prime-time
Emmys, co-directed the film with Christine Turner, and the retired
N.B.A. star Dwyane Wade served as one of the executive producers.
The directors told The New Yorker, “While the racial divides in our
country remain dauntingly complex and seemingly impossible to
overcome, Arlo Washington shows us a way forward—a way, as Arlo
says, ‘to level the playing field and create economic justice.’ ”

The fictional “Knight of Fortune” follows two men who forge an

unlikely bond after they meet in a morgue. The director, Lasse
Lyskjær Noer, told The New Yorker that he hopes the Danish-
language film will inspire viewers with its unconventional perspective
on grief and loss, and that viewers will respond by connecting with
loved ones. “We all need support from friends and family, and my
two main characters have neither,” Noer said. “They have to find it in
each other.”

The New Yorker débuts short narrative and documentary films each
month. The nominees, along with The New Yorker’s full slate of short
films, are available to screen at newyorker.com/video, and on the
magazine’s YouTube channel. To receive future New Yorker films in
your in-box, along with movie reviews, profiles of actors and
directors, and commentary on the 2024 Oscars race, sign up for the
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