This filmmaker is the first Post-9/11 vet to be nominated for an Oscar

Henry Hughes deployed twice to Afghanistan as an airborne infantry officer and is now hoping his debut short film, "Day One" will bring home an Oscar on February 28.

Day One, which follows a female Afghan-American interpreter named Feda on her first day of patrols in Afghanistan, is Hughes' first movie.

"I didn't think it would happen this quickly," Hughes told WATM about being nominated for an Oscar for his first film. "It's a wonderful, serendipitous, golden ticket-type thing."

In the film, the interpreter and the infantry platoon she works with go to the home of a suspected insurgent. At the house, the mission quickly gets complicated as the insurgent's pregnant wife goes into labor. The interpreter, the platoon leader, and the insurgent all have to navigate the needs of the mother, the child, and the social and religious customs of Afghanistan.

It's complicated stuff and very intense.

The story is inspired by real events, and most of the details come from Hughes' experiences in Afghanistan with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. He decided to focus on the interpreter instead of the platoon leader so the movie would feel fresh to audiences used to seeing things from a soldier's point of view.

"On my second tour I had a female interpreter," he said. "She is an American, an Afghan-American. And I kind of just realized that if I was going to tell a story about our community, about our experiences, we needed a new way to get into it."

Following this woman who was new to the war gave him a chance to show the dual nature of combat.

"I thought, maybe we hadn't seen something that was as enlightening as some of the moments in combat felt to me," Hughes said. "Very sublime, hyperbolic. Where things are beatiful and kind of harsh at the same time. And I thought a way to do that would be to go through this woman who has to deal with both these gender issues and the culture issues."

Learn more about the movie at its website and check out the trailer below. "Day One" will be available as a streaming movie for rental or purchase March 15th on Vimeo.