North Texas Native, SMU Alum Win Academy Award

By Reginald Hardwick and Elvira Sakmari

A real North Texas moment at the 84th annual Academy Awards.

1991 Richland High School graduate Brandon Oldenburg and Southern Methodist University alum William Joyce won best Animated Short Film for "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore."
 
Oldenburg and Joyce had a real Texas touch to their appearance. Fort Worth-based Dickies, known for their work clothes, made a special tuxedo for their big night.
 
The company used its classic black twill from Dickies work pants but added orange satin to line the sleeves and inside of the tuxedo.
 
"It was funny on the red carpet yesterday. You know all the fashionistas are there checking you out and we would open our lapel and go 'look, look' and they would look at it like at it totally confused like 'what is that?' They just didn’t get it," said Brandon Oldenburg.
 
Oldenburg and Joyce worked on the film together at Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, La.
 
They took the stage together to accept the Oscar, this was their acceptance speech:

Joyce: "Look we're like two swamp rats from Louisiana and this is incredibly grand. We love the movies, we love the movies more than anything. It's been a part of our lives since we were both kids."
 
Oldenburg: "It's been a part of our DNA ever since we were children, and it's made us storytellers."
 
Joyce: "And there's thousands of men and women through the generations since the beginning of cinema who have inspired us... movies that moved us more than we ever knew you could be moved and it's everything we try to do everyday, is to honor those people, those films, and we're just down there in Louisiana, we're gonna keep on trying and going. And thank you to the Academy."
 
Oldenburg: "Thank you our wives, thank you our families."

Joyce: "Especially my kids."

Oldenburg: "The Academy."

Joyce: "And Elizabeth, and you guys (points at the audience) and THANK YOU!"

NBC 5's Andrew Tanielian contributed to this report.