Tuesday’s Oscar nominations struck close to home for Ghana. Filmmaker Sandy McLeod of Boulder earned a nod for best documentary short subject for her film "Asylum," the story of a Ghanaian refugee seeking political asylum in the United States.

"It still feels totally unreal to me," McLeod said of her first Academy Award nomination. "My husband got up really early this morning and looked online. I found out (about the nomination) when heard him screaming in the kitchen. I thought something horrible had happened."

McLeod, who works out of New York City, directed the 22-minute film about a woman who flees Ghana to avoid female genital mutilation only to be detained by American immigration officials who discover her false passport.

The nomination is the first for McLeod, who previously worked on Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film, "Stop Making Sense," and recently directed the second unit during production of John Sayles’ "Silver City" in Denver and Leadville.