Calabasas High grad wins Oscar
By Joann Groff joann@theacorn.com

Ari Sandel

Martin Scorsese may be the most publicly celebrated director this year, winning his first Oscar after getting beat out five times, but a local filmmaker is on cloud nine after also taking home an Academy Award himself.

Ari Sandel, a Calabasas High School graduate, took home the golden statue for best live action short at the Oscars late last month.

"It was a completely outofbody experience," said Sandel, 32. "I remember walking up there and walking back, that's it. It was completely surreal."

But Sandel's cellphone confirmed that his win was a reality.

"By the time I had sat back down after the speech, I had 215 text messages," Sandel said. "And I've gotten over 3,000 e-mails from all over the world, Jewish women who married Arab men, short-film makers, girls who want to know if I'm single, fifth-grade teachers, friends from college. It's really been touching, some of the letters I've received."

Sandel was raised in Calabasas and graduated from University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television in 2004. "West Bank Story" was his feature film for USC.

The 22-minute musical uses a love story between David, an Israeli soldier, and Fatima, a Palestinian fast-food cashier, to look with humor at the region's age-old problems.

Fatima's family, who owns Hummus Hut, becomes enraged when the next door Kosher King encroaches on their property. The King's owners, David's family, respond by building a wall between the two restaurants. Fatima and David admit to their families how they feel about one another, which fuels a literal fire- both restaurants burn to the ground- but then serves as encouragement to work together.

Sandel said he wanted to make a film with a pro-peace message that would get attention and make people laugh.

"I wanted to address the situation in an evenhanded and balanced way so that Jewish and Arab audiences would feel fairly represented enough to let their guard down and laugh with the characters from the other side," Sandel said. "I thought if we can make a movie that Israelis will watch and like the Arab characters, and that Arabs will watch and like the Israeli characters, then that will be something valuable."

"West Bank Story" has won 24 film festival awards in 20 countries, including the special mention award at Calabasas' Method Fest last year. Despite the many accolades, Sandel said he had never thought he would win.

"In the weeks before, you sometimes think you might win, but a second later decide you'd never win," Sandel said. "Then you get there and you see how people are seated, and you think, 'That director is by the aisle- is that because they know he's going to win?' Everyone says it, but once I found out I was eligible, I was just so glad to be nominated."

"West Bank Story" was the only American film nominated in the live action short film category. Sandel took some time during his acceptance speech to acknowledge the makers of film shorts.

"I know a lot of people in America are probably watching and asking, 'What are the short films?'" said Sandel during his acceptance speech. "Well, a lot of them are made by directors who are trying to get noticed, and I think in a lot of ways we represent the little guy because we don't have big studios behind us or big name actors or a lot of times the budgets we need, and it relies on perseverance and stick-to-itiveness and hustle and dedication and loyalty from a cast and crew who are doing it for pennies, if not for nothing. . ."

Sandel also directed the fulllength documentary "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show," which was picked up by the Weinstein Co. at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival and will be widely released in the spring.

Sandel was born to an Israeli father and an American mother, and has traveled extensively in the Middle East. Before earning his master's in directing, Sandel studied media arts at the University of Arizona, Tucson, where he received a special certificate in Middle Eastern studies.

He now resides in Hollywood and is developing several feature comedies.