And the Emmy goes to ...

On Sept. 21 at Lincoln Center in New York City, those words will be rife with possibility for one BYU documentary filmmaker.

Brad Barber, who teaches film at BYU, has been nominated for an Emmy award in editing for his work on the documentary "Resolved," a film about four high school debaters. The film has also been nominated for a second Emmy, though Barber is not named in that nomination.

"It was really exciting," Barber said. "I'm not going to lie and tell you that this is a normal event in my life."

The nominations were announced Tuesday. To find out if he wins, Barber will be in the audience of the 30th Annual Emmy Awards for News and Documentary in New York City.

"This is big time," said Rodger Sorensen, chair of BYU's Department of Theatre and Media Arts. "This is something we have not had in this department ever. It is a great honor for Brad and his work, and it is representative of the quality of Brad's work and the faculty we have in TMA."

At just 32 years old, "this will follow him around his whole life," said Sorensen with a laugh. "He will have to live up to this his whole life."

Barber worked on the documentary for three years as an associate producer, editor and cinematographer. He came to be involved in the film after a friend dropped out of the project and recommended Barber to the director.

The film made its debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where it won the audience award, Barber said. That got the attention of distribution companies, and the film was eventually picked up by HBO, where it aired initially on June 16, 2008 and then was repeated throughout the summer and fall.

"To have a film that I worked on, on HBO was a huge thrill," Barber said. "They are pretty consistently one of the top tiers of innovative film."

This spring HBO notified those who worked on the film that they were going to enter the documentary for Emmy consideration, Barber said. That meant re-editing the 90-minute film to under an hour to comply with Emmy requirements. Sample segments also had to be submitted, and Barber had to write an essay on why the film was Emmy-worthy.

"It was a little strange," Barber said of writing the essay. "It is never fun to toot your own horn."

The nomination hasn't gone to Barber's head.

"I'm just really lucky and blessed that some people happened to like it -- that is all any award means. But it does feel nice to have your work recognized at this level."

Barber, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hopes his nomination will show his students "that they can do something like this, that LDS filmmakers belong in the arts and filmmaking is not a decision between working in the arts and being a member of this church."

Ironically, HBO is not allowed on campus and not available at his home, Barber said. Many of his friends and family have congratulated him but have not been able to see it yet. That is beginning to change because the film has now been released on DVD.

Barber is now working on a series called "Beehive Stories," which he hopes will be picked up by KBYU. The series will feature short films about one "everyday" person in each county in Utah. He is also working on an ongoing project about a Mormon student attending Harvard.

For information on "Resolved," visit DebateMovie.com. For information on the work of Brad Barber, visit BradBarber.net.