NBA stars Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets and Mike Conley of the Utah Jazz were among the executive producers for “Two Distant Strangers,” which was awarded the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film during Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony.
According to IMDb, Durant and Conley were two of 10 executive producers on the film, which dramatizes police brutality as an inescapable time loop like a tragic “Groundhog Day” for Black Americans.
The film was directed by nominees Martin Desmond Roe and Travon Free, a former college basketball player at Long Beach State.
“Big time!! Congrats @TwoDistantFilm,” Durant tweeted after Free and Roe accepted the Oscar.
Big time!! Congrats @TwoDistantFilm https://t.co/r3I3ubJPlT
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 26, 2021
In 2018, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and Disney animator Glen Keane took home the Academy Award for their animated short film “Dear Basketball,” based on a poem Bryant wrote in 2015 announcing his impending retirement from basketball.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.