Spokane set and filmed, ‘Train Dreams’ nominated but does not win at Oscars

In an Oscars that was a two-horse race, locally filmed “Train Dreams” did not make it to the station.

Most of the night’s awards were won either by “Sinners” or eventual Best Picture winner “One Battle After Another.” “Train Dreams,” which filmed in parts of Eastern Washington, including Spokane, did not win any of the categories for which it was nominated . Those were Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song and Best Picture.

“Train Dreams” is about a man who lives in Bonners Ferry during the 19th and 20th centuries. The film tracks his 80 years of life as a railroad worker – experiencing flashes of contentment amid melancholic grief for the film’s 90-minute runtime.

Despite its nominations, the film received few mentions during the Oscars ceremony. Host Conan O’Brien warned that might be the case ahead of the broadcast. On a Wednesday night appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” O’Brien said he was struggling to come up with a joke for the sad period drama.

“I think they’ve written 5,000 jokes about ‘Train Dreams.’ Not one of them is any good. And these are very good writers, so I blame ‘Train Dreams.’ I think it’s the fault of the movie,” O’Brian said during the late-night talk show appearance.

True to his word the comedian escaped the night without any cracks at the film.

That did not stop a local crew of Spokane filmmakers who worked on the film. An Oscars watch party at Spokane’s Poole Public House attracted a wide range of artists who helped bring the movie come to life.

“Train Dreams” assistant costume designer Dakota Keller said she would have watched the Oscars with her friends anyway. But it was “fun to have that connection” to the proceedings.”

“We can only hope it brings attention to the locations and talented crews that are here,” she said

Assistant decorator Dan Byer said he was “very proud” and “still quite surprised” a film he worked on showed up on Oscars night at all.

“It is a big thing for us local folks. I don’t know if this type of thing has happened to us before,” he said.

Byer hopes the film’s beauty will draw other films to the region, which has been overlooked too long by Hollywood.

“A lot of folks out of the area don’t even realize Spokane is a city. But we’ve got everything. We got city, we got desert, we got mountains. I think this will be a big eye -opener for a lot of folks,” he said.

Spokane Public Radio movie critic Nathan Weinbender said that attention might be coming to Spokane because of the nominations.

“I’m really hoping that the attention for ‘Train Dreams’ makes people want to come shoot here, because it’s one of those movies where the landscapes are so important to the movie,” he said. “If you don’t have those locations, you almost don’t have a movie.”

Weinbender described “Train Dreams” as the Spokane “film with the most critical attention” to date.

Spokane filmmaker and North by Northwest founder Rich Cowan said the film will “open doors” and get filmmakers to at least “check the place out” when contemplating future locations.

“This place is like a one -stop shop. They don’t need to bring anything. And we have all the gear that’s needed – the trucks and the cameras and the lights and all that stuff,” Cowan said.