Filmmakers With #1 Movie In U.S. During Pandemic Aiming For Oscar

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — An enterprising pair of young filmmakers who found a loophole and managed to have the #1 movie in America during the pandemic are now going for gold — they're aiming for an Oscar.

Back in June, Christian Nilsson, of Westhampton Beach, and YouTuber Eric Tabach came up with an ingenious plan that sent their film straight to the top of the charts.

The duo decided that if they rented out a theater — what the film distribution world calls "four-walling" — they could keep every dollar they made from ticket sales.

"If we bought every seat, the money would funnel right back into our own pockets," Nilsson said.

The next day, Nilsson wrote a short horror film titled "Unsubscribe." He shot it a week later, completely over Zoom.

"Eric and I bought out a theater in Westhampton Beach and screened to an empty audience," he said. "The next day, it was the number one box office movie in America, as reported by 'The Numbers.'"

And now the pair is planning their next coup: They're taking on the Oscars.

"This whole process is a bit different than the box office stunt we pulled in June," Nilsson said. "In the case of the box office, we identified an absurd loophole and then exploited it. For the Oscars, we recognized the playing field had changed and now we're following the rules to a T. Any other year, our short film wouldn't have a shot at an Academy Award, but because the normal paths to eligibility have been near impossible — we saw an opportunity."

Traditionally, there are two ways to qualify for the "Best Live Action Short" at the Academy Awards, Nilsson said. "You can either win an Oscar-qualifying film festival or have your film run for seven-consecutive days at a recognized theater in either New York City or Los Angeles. Well, the pandemic forced nearly every festival to cancel and theaters in NYC and LA have been closed for most of the year. We figured if we could somehow get qualified, the numbers would be in our favor," he said.

Their initial plan was to get the Skyline Drive-In in Brooklyn to screen their film in the middle of the night — the Oscar eligibility guidelines didn't say anything about people actually showing up, he said.

"But then I noticed that the fine print of the Oscars rulebook had quietly changed and they'd added Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami to the list of qualifying cities. I started calling every theater in those cities until one said 'yes,'" he said.

Finally, Nilsson got the Davis Theater in Chicago to agree to a seven-day run, but while he and Tabach were on their way there, they received an email alerting them that the theater had had to close due to loss of business.

"We both started re-calling all the theaters in Chicago and — serendipitously — the Music Box Theater agreed. We started our qualifying run the next day," Nilsson said.

Reflecting on June, Nilsson said it set the proverbial stage for this next chapter in what could go down in history as perhaps the pandemic's greatest caper.

"Eric and I didn't expect our box office stunt to blow up the way that it did," Nilsson said. "People really seemed to get behind the idea of two people taking advantage of a system that is generally not so welcoming to outsiders. And I think we were all tired of being stuck in lockdown and needed a good news story to hang onto."

The two were doing an interview with CBS This Morning when the host jokingly suggested we "'go for an Oscar next,'" Nilsson said. "Eric and I looked at each other and smiled. Without saying anything to each other, we knew what we were going to do next."

While some believe their ideas are born out of sheer ingenuity, Nilsson said it probably said more to do with the ample amount of time he's had on his hands.

"I have a strong feeling everyone will eventually be looking back at this period of our own lives and really do a stock-take in regards to what we did with this time. Maybe we put it into self-care, self-improvement. Or perhaps we put it towards our families. I'm sure some saw it as a chance just to relax — and that's fine. To each; their own. For me, I recognized my excuse of 'I don't have enough time' was just that: an excuse. For the first few months, I had nothing but time yet I still did nothing," he said. "Eventually, I called myself on it. I guess, I'm still calling myself on it."

Describing the film, Nilsson said he wanted to create something that was "equally borne out of this moment. I started thinking: 'What would happen if there was a Hitchcockian 'Rear Window' moment on a Zoom call? What would the other participants on the video call do? So I wrote 'Unsubscribe', a 29-minute horror film about a group of YouTubers who join a group call for their friend's birthday, but they quickly realize something is off and they're being hunted and haunted by an internet troll."

The response has been overwhelming, both agreed.

"The story was published in hundreds of major outlets all over the world. And not just for the box office stunt, but for the film itself, too," Nilsson said. "In fact, Eric and I were approached by a Hollywood producer to make a feature film version of 'Unsubscribe'. Instead, we pitched an original concept and we just wrapped production on that."

To other young filmmakers with a dream, Nilsson offered words of advice.

"It's not profound or original to point out this has been an incredibly tough time for people all over the world," he said. "There is no right or wrong way to be spending your time right now. But to anyone who's been dreaming of making movies, I'd tell them the barrier to entry has just been lowered. Do with that whatever you will."

To watch "Unsubscribe," on Vimeo, click here.