EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
Joseph Cedar's film about a father-son rivalry over Talmudic studies has been nominated for a foreign language film Oscar.
SOUNDBITE: Joseph Cedar, director, saying, (Hebrew):
"I feel like a lucky guy, really, there's no other way to explain it."
"Footnote" tells the story of a cranky academic who's spent his entire career exploring a narrow study of the Talmud.
His biggest academic competitor is his son, who ends up with great public respect when he wins the Israel Prize.
In one of the most powerful scenes in the film, the father gets an accidental phone call telling him that it was he who won the prize - only later he finds out that the call was meant for his son.
During a news conference, Cedar said that scene helped him cope with the pressure of being nominated.
SOUNDBITE: Joseph Cedar, director, saying, (Hebrew):
"Just like in the film, there is always a double feeling: on the one hand great excitement and pride, and on the other hand a constant fear that maybe there was a mistake."
The competition between Cedar's film and Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation", is generating much buzz in Israel.
Reporters even asked if he would walk hand in hand with his Iranian counterpart.
SOUNDBITE: Joseph Cedar, director, saying, (Hebrew):
"I hope to walk (down the red carpet) hand in hand with my wife or maybe one of the producers, but the hand of the Iranian (director) will probably be taken. I'm not sure that all of the attention should be focused on these two films but I admit that there's something poetic in the fact that we're both there."
The 84th Academy Awards will take place on February 26th in Hollywood, California.
Alicia Powell, Reuters.