A modern-day western directed by a Perthshire film-maker is in the running for a Best Picture Oscar.
Hell or High Water, one of the US’s most successful independent films, has been nominated for the top honour at this year’s hotly contested Academy Awards.
Director David MacKenzie, who is originally from Trinafour, near Pitlochry, will see his big-screen drama go up against – amongst others – La La Land, Arrival and Manchester by the Sea.
The film has also scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Jeff Bridges, who recently said the movie helps explain “why the election went the way that it did”.
It is also nominated for Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay by Sons of Anarchy actor Taylor Sheridan.
MacKenzie, who completed a photography degree at Dundee University’s Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in the early ’90s, has missed out on a Best Director nod, however.
Before moving to America, the film-maker honed his skills with his first film The Last Great Wilderness, largely shot on a sheep farm near Dunkeld.
His father was a naval officer who became a driving force in the campaign to conserve wild Scottish salmon, while his mother was a member of the family who had once owned Jenners department store in Edinburgh.
His brother Alistair is best known for a starring role in TV series Monarch of the Glen.
Sadly, another Tayside Oscar contender didn’t make this year’s list.
Dundee songwriter Gary Clark, who sprung to fame in the late 1980s as frontman of pop band Danny Wilson, was in the provisional nomination line-up released earlier this year.
He was long-listed for a Best Original Song award for the track Drive It Like You Stole It from the movie Sing Street.
Modern-day musical La La Land is this year’s favourite with a record-equalling 14 nominations.
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are up for best actor and actress for their roles in the Hollywood-set romance.
Science fiction film Arrival and coming-of-age drama Moonlight each have eight nominations.
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will host this year’s show at the Hollywood and Highland Center on Sunday, February 26.
