Growing up in Potterville, Michigan, 26-year-old Sam Davis had big dreams.
After graduating from Potterville High School in 2011 and then going to Grand Valley State University for a year, Davis headed west where he attended University of Southern California.
Not long after graduation, Davis and his girlfriend, Rayka Zehtabchi, got involved with a project of students making difference in Hapur, India.
That project led to a film focusing on women in India making and selling sanitary products to fight the stigma menstruation has in India. That film, led to an Oscar.
“And the Oscar goes to ‘Period. End of Sentence,'” Awkwafina said after opening the envelope at the 91st Academy Awards on February 24th.
“I like completely blacked out when I was up there,” Davis said.
He accepted the award with Zehtabchi, who directed the film, among others on the team.
‘Period. End of Sentence’ was one of the five films selected out of thousands in the final stages before the Academy Awards.
“Our hearts all sank before that because, actually, the favorite to win the entire thing hadn’t been called yet,” he said.
His mother, Laurie, went to L.A. to be with him, leaving dad at home.
“We flipped a coin and I lost,” father, Paul Davis, said
But he didn’t mind.
For Sam, the journey isn’t over. He has plans to go back to Potterville and shoot a film about the Potterville Train Derailment of 2002.
He had a casting call in February where over 700 people showed up.