A Holocaust survivor and a Bronx teenager were brought together by a violin. The story of their friendship is the subject of a documentary that is up for an Academy Award on Sunday. Our Michael Scotto has the story.

93-year-old Joseph Feingold and 14-year-old Brianna Perez sound like they are related as they flip through old photos in Feingold's Upper West Side apartment.

Their unlikely bond was forged by a 100-year-old violin -- bringing hope to a Holocaust survivor and a teen living in the South Bronx.

The violin's incredible journey from Germany to the Bronx became the subject of  "Joe's Violin," one of five nominees for Best Short Documentary at Sunday's Academy Awards.

Feingold bought the violin for a pack of cigarettes in 1947 while living in a displaced persons camp in Germany. He took the it with him to the United States, and played it until two years ago when he decided to donate it.

"With my age getting older, and less flexible, my fingers, my arm, I found it more and more and more difficult to play," Feingold explains.  

The instrument ended up at a charter school, the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls. A different student in the music program would be selected each year to use it. Perez was the first. 

"I never, never expected this would happen," Feingold says in the documentary.

Feingold was a 5-year-old growing up in Poland when his mother encouraged him to take up the violin. During World War II, they were separated. His mom and a brother died in the Treblinka concentration camp. Feingold, his father and another brother survived. 

Brianna says Feingold's story inspires her to always persevere.

"It reminded me that Joseph had hope. And if he had hope, I should have hope, too," she says.

Brianna and her old music teacher, Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan, will travel to Hollywood for the Academy Awards ceremony this weekend. Feingold will watch from home.

Even if the film doesn't win an a Oscar, their story already has a happy ending.

"Brianna, Joseph and I and all of the members of Joe's Violin team are forever bonded," Tanaka-Suwan says.  

"Everything," Feingold says, "was so unexpected." 

Adds Brianna, "I love Joseph so much."