Actor Will Forte was on the red carpet at the Centre for the Performing Arts last night (September 26), as the Vancouver International Film Festival kicked off with its gala presentation of Nebraska. The film has been gathering an almighty buzz since Bruce Dern was given the best actor award at Cannes this year for his starring role.

While it’s unlikely that Bruce Dern has ever given a bad performance (including The Burbs), the widescreen, black-and-white film has also been praised for some of the more daring choices made by director Alexander Payne. Chief among them is the casting, which includes comedians Bob Odenkirk and Forte as Dern’s sons.

Sharing as much screen time as Dern, Forte is a revelation.

“I had the best seat in the house, and I’m a lot of times a foot, two feet away from watching this guy give the performance of a lifetime,” he told the Straight earlier in the day, during an interview at the Sutton Place Hotel. Describing himself as a “classic overthinker-slash-neurotic,” Forte laughed as he added, “I was very aware that I could fuck it all up. That was something that did go through my head from time to time.”

As has been noted wherever the elegaic Oscar-contender has played, Forte did anything but fuck it all up. Nebraska screens again today at the Centre for the Performing Arts at 3 p.m.