LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Berenice Chavez grew up in Las Vegas and credits the city — and a UNLV professor — with setting her on the path to Hollywood's biggest night.
Chavez was 16 when her family moved to Las Vegas. After finishing high school, she enrolled at UNLV unsure of what she wanted to do with her life.
"I finished high school and I just didn't know what I was gonna do with my life, so I went to UNLV just to kind of do something like figure out what I was gonna do and, and from there I just slowly started exploring film classes and ended up loving it," Chavez said.
She found more than a major at UNLV. She found a community and a professor who would change the course of her life.
"Everyone was so helpful, and I think everyone, like I stayed in touch with one of the professors who has been pushing me since then, and her name's Brett Levner, and she's been amazing. They really want you to like move forward with what you want to do within this art department, and I think that's what really inspired me to like not give up on that dream and keep pushing," Chavez said.
That persistence eventually led Chavez to director Ryan White and a documentary called Come See Me in the Good Light. The film follows Andrea and Meg, a couple navigating Andrea's terminal cancer diagnosis with humor, love, and grace.
"So many people have said they haven't watched it, and I saw that Stephen Colbert did a Q&A with them in a New York screening, and he was like, I didn't want to watch it cause I thought it was a sad film about cancer and then you watch it and you're just like, oh, it's not, it's about really loving life and this love story between these two people and their like unexpected humor," Chavez said.
The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and is one of five documentaries nominated for an Academy Award Sunday night. For Chavez, the moment she found out about the nomination was one she will never forget.
"I was actually with my parents when I found out. My dad got really sick, and so I was in Mexico with my parents, but my producer did text me, and she was like congratulations, we got nominated for the Academy Award and I told my dad, and he was like really happy," Chavez said.
Chavez said her heart remains in Las Vegas.
"My heart is in Las Vegas because of that, because I was able to find the person that I am today there in that, in that community," Chavez said.
You can watch the Oscars on Channel 13 on Sunday at 4 p.m.
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