A New Zealand filmmaker is acknowledging what another Academy Award nomination means to him.

Anthony McCarten is up for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Two Popes, which chronicles the events leading to Pope Benedict's resignation and his relationship with Pope Francis. 

He's been nominated in the past for The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour.

McCarten told Tim Dower he's humbled by this latest nomination.

"It's always incredibly gratifying to get recognition when it comes from your peers, and the Oscars just has a certain magic about it as well, and you get to go to the ball." 

McCarten says he was raised in a strongly Catholic family that helped with his work.

"I kind of know the terrain, its in the bloodstream, but I wasn't wanting to soften the Catholic Church or take them down either, I wanted to be very imbalanced about it." 

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