Oscar nominee from Rockford, Bing Liu, shares Academy Awards adventures

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Oscar nominees won't be bringing home a statuette, but they had a great ride.

It all started at the Sundance Film Festival, where filmmaker Bing Liu's film, "This Indie," which he started shooting in Rockford as a teenager, turned into one of the best reviewed films of any kind last year.

A higher profile documentary got the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, but his documentary "Minding the Gap" has the heart and passion of any winner.

ABC 7's Janet Davies talked to Liu and his producer, Diane Quon by Skype Monday.

"It's weird waking up it felt like a dreamlike did that really happen," Liu said.

"Talk to me about going down the red carpet and all those cameras and the press," Janet Davies said.

"Being documentary filmmakers, our experience is talk to two outlets and walk in," Liu said.

"When you're in the same room as Lady Gaga it's not quite the same," Quon said.

"It's like Ryan Seacrest pushing you out of the way for Lady Gaga," Liu said. "My favorite moment was holding Diane's $10 thousand dress up when we were going up the escalator."

"You got yourself pumped you were the second category and then you heard another name called," Davies said.

"For me it was the film I thought was gonna win; you know I've become friends with all of them," Liu said.

"You guys looked pretty good with your skateboards and everything, is that something you planned," Davies asked.

"I think everyone tries to goad us into bringing our boards and incorporating it into shots, but we were into it. It was kind of fun to skate round in our tuxes, Liu said.

"For me it's been being able to share with Bing, he's such a good guy and I'm so proud of him. To have gone through all of this with him, it's been great," Quon said.

"It's bittersweet because so much of these past few months have been spent leading up to this event. Now, it's just like that in one night, it's like a reset," Liu said. "We both have other projects, so it's like back to the salt mines for us."

Bing will return to Chicago Thursday. He said he needs to do a month of laundry, start his taxes, and get back to work on his new film.