An Oscar-Nominated Short Film About Illness, Loss, and Karaoke

When a man walks into a bar near the start of “On My Mind,” a new short film by the director Martin Strange-Hansen, it’s the setup not for a punch line but for a story about love and loss—and, less conventionally, the cathartic powers of karaoke. Shot in Denmark during a period of heavy coronavirus restrictions, the film mixes memoir and fiction and is nominated, in the Best Short Film (Live Action) category, at next month’s Academy Awards.

For Henrik, the film’s main character, the deserted bar offers a brief respite from a hospital room, where his wife may be in her final hours. After gulping down a quadruple shot of whiskey, he spots a karaoke machine and asks to perform. The friendly bartender assents, but the owner refuses, insisting that the machine can be switched on only during weekends. (It’s before ten-thirty on a weekday morning.) Henrik persists, and suspense builds over whether he’ll get his wish, and why he’s so determined to sing “Always on My Mind,” the song of longing and regret that has been a hit for artists including Elvis, Willie Nelson, and the Pet Shop Boys.

Out of pandemic-era necessity, “On My Mind” was produced quickly. But the story is the product of a long process of reflection for Strange-Hansen, who has been living with its themes since his daughter’s grave illness, twenty years ago. The scene in the bar, which makes up the bulk of the film’s eighteen minutes, is partly a reënactment of the director’s own life. “There was this one period where we were in the hospital, and we knew that tomorrow we were going to have this very, very serious talk with the doctor. Maybe we were saying goodbye,” Strange-Hansen told me recently, speaking via Zoom from Copenhagen. Exhausted after several sleepless weeks, the worried father found himself at a bar, hoping that a bit of alcohol would bring him a good night’s rest. What struck him about the experience was the gulf between his state of mind and the drunken chatter around him. “There were these two guys—the only other people in the bar—and they were talking about something really surreal, about tying a rope around the entire globe,” he said. “You can be so close in proximity but still be in two different universes at the same time. You never know what your fellow-man is going through.”

One of two films released by The New Yorker to receive a 2022 Oscar nomination—the other is “Affairs of the Art,” nominated for Best Animated Short—“On My Mind” marks Strange-Hansen’s second trip to the Academy Awards. Now fifty, he received the film industry’s top prize following his previous nomination, in 2003, for the short comedy “This Charming Man.” For the past decade, he has been away from the director’s chair, working in development, mentoring younger directors, and serving as the head of the Association of Danish Film Directors. When the pandemic temporarily shut down local film production, Strange-Hansen turned his attention to his own project, writing the script for “On My Mind” and lining up its tiny cast, who leapt at the chance to work after a forced hiatus.

Despite his long break from directing, Strange-Hansen said that his role in the production felt natural. “It’s like an old horse at the circus,” he joked. “You smell the ring, you get in there and feel alive and at home again.” The pandemic also reacquainted him with his Oscar statuette, which he found in a closet. Stuck at home, he cleaned and reorganized and decided to place it out in the open. “He’s happy to be able to breathe free air again,” Strange-Hansen said.