FORT WORTH, Texas — Dallas-based filmmaker Clint Bentley stopped by a North Texas movie theater Sunday, March 1 to discuss his Oscar-nominated film “Train Dreams.”

Bentley directed the Netflix film and co-wrote it with Fort Worth native Greg Kwedar, based on Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name. The film is up for four trophies at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, including best picture and best adapted screenplay.

Dallas’ Texas Theatre hosted two screenings of the film on Sunday, March 1. Bentley spoke at a Q&A after the sold-out 5 p.m. screening and stuck around to introduce the film before the 7:45 p.m. screening.

Bentley talks working with Kwedar on ‘Train Dreams’

“Train Dreams” is the fourth film Bentley and Kwedar have worked on together.

The duo have been creative partners for around 15 years and co-write all their films. Kwedar directed their first film “Transpecos” in 2016, followed by Bentley helming “Jockey” in 2021. Kwedar was back behind the camera for 2024’s “Sing Sing.”

There’s no exact contract for who gets to direct what, Bentley said. Typically, one of them will get excited about something and the other will join in.

It may seem like there’s a deal of who gets to direct the next film, but Bentley acknowledged that it naturally comes that way.

When Kwedar was wrapping up and promoting “Sing Sing,” Bentley was working on “Train Dreams.” As Bentley was finishing and promoting “Train Dreams,” Kwedar was shooting his next film “Saturn Return,” which comes from Netflix and will premiere later this year.

“We’re just trying to keep it going, so when you make a bad one, you can just skip over it,” Bentley joked.

Bentley and Kwedar landed best adapted screenplay nominations for “Train Dreams.” The film is also nominated for best picture, best cinematography and best original song.

Bentley on adapting ‘Train Dreams’

Denis Johnson originally published his novella “Train Dreams” in 2011.

Having been a fan of Johnson and the book for some time, Bentley said a lot of things about the source text lit a fire under him to adapt the story for the big screen.

The book and film follow Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th century. Bentley was fascinated by telling a story of someone that history would ultimately forget, but lived a long and deep life.

“The book, and what I hope to do with the film ... shows the beauty and the depth of that person’s life,” Bentley said.

The film will hopefully elicit something in folks where they will go about their day thinking about everybody else around them. The family in the corner of a restaurant. The person walking on the sidewalk. Anyone they come across.

“That was the thing that I really got excited about, taken from the book to the screen,” Bentley said.

Bentley on making a movie in Texas

While he was born and raised in Florida, Bentley has called Texas home for at least a decade.

Since he and Kwedar both have connections to the Lone Star state, one of the audience members asked if Bentley had plans to shoot a movie here. The duo’s “Transpecos” is set in Texas, but filmed in New Mexico because of the state’s better film incentives.

Texas’ incentive program was not great back when they made that movie, but Bentley mentioned how things have changed in the state since. Just last year, the Texas lawmakers passed a bill that injects $1.5 billion into the state’s film incentive program over the next decade.

“It’s really nice now,” Bentley said.

As for if he plans to make a movie in Texas, Bentley said his wife keeps asking him the same thing.

“I would love to do something [in Texas], but I don’t decide where the stories are set,” Bentley said.

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“Train Dreams” is streaming on Netflix.

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