Sixto Rodriguez's story could close an arc from obscurity to Oscar during Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast from Los Angeles on ABC, starting at 8:30 p.m.
A movie about the Detroit musician, "Searching for Sugar Man," is heavily favored to snag the best documentary award for first-time filmmaker Malik Bendejelloul of Sweden.
Rodriguez, who recently returned from his latest South African tour, "is definitely really excited about everything and glad that the the movie is doing so well," his daughter Regan tells Julie Hinds of the Freep.
Detroit fans will gather at the Old Miami on Cass Avenue, a spot where he performed last year and located in a neighborhood Rodriguez has been known to frequent. It's having an Oscar viewing party starting at 8 p.m. Sunday night. Food will be served and there will be a champagne toast if the documentary wins.
The director and producer Simon Chinn plan to be at the awards ceremony. It's Bendejelloul's first time at the Oscars or even seeing the show, he tells ABC News.
Bendejelloul, 36, lives in Stockholm, where "it's broadcast at four in the morning," he says. "Since we were kids, it was a world that wasn't really real. It was something for other people."
