“You Can’t Really Plan for Getting an Oscar”: A Chat with Hubbel Palmer

Ninety-Five Senses, a 2023 short film with traces of Utah embedded in its DNA, is collecting many accolades this awards season. The visually lush and emotionally poignant film illustrates how our life experiences are shaped by our five senses. The project has struck a chord with numerous festival juries and audiences worldwide and, most notably, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Hubbel Palmer, one of the film’s co-writers and Assistant Professor in the Film & Media Arts Department at the University of Utah, looks back at his nomination with a sense of nostalgia, saying, “I have been an Oscar fan since I was a kid, you know. Like, it’s one of the first TV things I have a memory of watching. I just thought it was so fun and neat to see all the movie stars together … It was just a real obsession of mine. And so to finally go to the Oscars, it’s going to be fun.”

However, like all indie films, Ninety-Five Senses’ path to the Academy Awards wasn’t a straight line. The film received rejection from numerous large-scale festivals in the beginning. While thinking back on the initial reception of the film, Palmer explains, “It was sort of like, ‘People just aren’t responding to this, maybe it’s not that good. Maybe it’s not connecting.’” Evidently, somewhere along the way the film turned a corner. Palmer continues, “It’s been surprising to watch it eventually take off and get into a bunch of festivals and finally  get whittled down from, like, a hundred films that were qualified for Oscar consideration.”

“I have been an Oscar fan since I was a kid, you know … It was just a real obsession of mine. And so to finally go to the Oscars, it’s going to be fun.”

Ninety-Five Senses’s sensitive approach to its subject matter is due in part to the fact that the film is experienced entirely through the lens of Coy (Tim Blake Nelson, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), a death row inmate enjoying his last meal and looking back on his life. Palmer explains that although most of the time he and his writing partner Chris Bowman are tasked with adapting a pre-existing idea or body of work for the screen, Ninety-Five Senses came about from watching a series of interviews with inmates on death row—originally for a horror project. “The surprising thing is that some of them who are older, it’s like they were a completely different person when they were put away for their crimes. And so, they’re relatable in their old age, because you kind of can see that they’re just like any other older person, they look back on their life with a mixture of regret and nostalgia,” Palmer points out.

When asked what he believes people walk away with when they see Ninety-Five Senses, Palmer recounts a story of one of his friends whose grandmother was extremely affected by the film. “She’s in the process of slowly losing her eyesight and it really resonated with her because it’s about savoring the senses and the input you get through your senses,” he explains.

Reflecting on his upbringing in the Salt Lake Metropolitan area and how it’s affected him as a writer, Palmer laughs, “It’s funny, no matter where you grew up, it kind of marks you in a way. Either for good or bad, it either becomes a place that you never want to go back to, or the memory of it just grows sweeter with each passing year. And I guess that’s how the neighborhood I grew up in is. I visit it all the time.” In reference to the types of themes Palmer likes to integrate into his work, he expands by saying, “That sort of, like, Twin Peaks quality or that David Lynch-duality-of-life. Idyllic on the surface, but then you’d hear about something really dark happening. It’s almost like you would be haunted by it. You couldn’t get it out of your head,” he says.

“Don’t get discouraged if early on people aren’t responding to your film or not quite getting it, because that doesn’t mean that you’re that you’re doomed.” 

After chatting about the Oscars and the duality of man, I asked Palmer what advice he would give to someone in his current situation. He says, “You know, you can’t really plan for getting an Oscar. In fact, a lot of movies that try that or short films that try that don’t end up doing so well,” After thinking back to Ninety-Five Senses’ ominous start, he concluded by advising, “Don’t get discouraged if early on people aren’t responding to your film or not quite getting it, because that doesn’t mean that you’re that you’re doomed.” 

Fundamentally, Ninety-Five Senses is a story about savoring what you have before it’s taken from you. Every experience, good and bad. Ninety-Five Senses (which is currently available to stream online) is not only a touching story in and of itself, but the story behind its success is also easily recognizable to many aspiring filmmakers. Just as Palmer said, even though failure can feel unexpected, so can success.

Read more from local filmmakers here:
That’s A Wrap: Post Credits Champions Independent Films
Support Short: The Davey Foundation’s Impact on Local Indie Film