[note: the film won under its original title Shut Up and Sing]
Talk about a rollercoaster. SO... Thursday was just lots of meetings, went to some shows, plastered the town with post-cards, posters and hats. Did a TV interview from a local bar for some cable access thing. Later, there was a big party at the head of my agency Bob Gersh's house. I was told it was an easy walk from town but it was about 3 miles, some of it on highway. Still, no big deal. But when I came in the front door people blanched that I had walked because they had just spotted a LARGE BLACK BEAR before I walked in. I guess that's particularly weird and dangerous as the bears are all still supposed to be hibernating. Would have sucked to have my world premiere and a death by bear mauling in the same weekend.
Friday we had an undergrad a cappella group from UC Boulder drive up and sing on street corners and in hotel lobbies to rally interest in our Saturday screening. They were really great and gung-ho. Saturday was the big day. I did an interview on another local TV show and then waited nervously at the theater to see what kind of crowd we'd get. There are five films playing at the same time so you have to compete for an audience. And some of them are big films like American Dreamz, the new Weitz brothers movie. But word of mouth was great and we packed the house, with people even sitting on the stairs and in folding chairs in the theater. I was a nervous wreck the whole time, sure that they weren't really laughing enough or that they were bored or that it was getting too sentimental or that the sound was bad... But we got a huge ovation after and most people stayed for a Q&A afterwards. Lots of great questions and compliments. Several people again expressed sincere interest in investing (which would be a huge relief as the debt is mostly mine). It was really gratifying.
Then we headed over to the awards ceremony. Robert Wuhl and Jeffrey Tambor handed out jury awards to the live acts and to the short and feature length films (the audience award was to be announced later after they tabulated). I thought we had a good shot at Best Screenplay but it went to Keeping Mum, a British film based on some Pulitzer Prize winning novel and starring Maggie Smith. I'm just gonna say, Pulitzer Prize winners should definitely not be in contention at a comedy festival. But maybe that's just me. Best Director went to the guy who produced Napoleon Dynamite who has a new film called The Dumpling Gang (or something). (whatEVER! me bitter?) Then Best Feature went to Nicole Holofcenter's "Friends With Money" which we were all shocked at. We didn't know it was even in competition and no one from the film was there. I swear Jeffrey Tambor had to tell people to clap. It's a $20 million Sony film starring Jennifer Anniston so it certainly didn't seem like a fair fight. And it had already premiered and been in competition at Sundance (sour grapes, sour grapes). It was a hard comedown from all the accolades I'd gotten at the screening. So I went home empty handed and sulked and bitched and moaned like a baby. It's not so much that I wanted to win an award but that in winning an award I might've had that much better a shot at getting distribution which is really all I care about: getting people to see the film.
A couple hours later I was done mourning and being a cry-baby, got my act together and went out to see some stand-ups (Aziz -- who won the Best Stand Up Award is one funny mofo). While I was sitting there my phone buzzed but I ignored it because I didn't recognize the number. Five minutes later, the head of the film festival came in and spotted me. "Did you get my message?" I hadn't; I was watching the comedians. He whispered in my ear. "You just won the Audience Award." WE WON THE FUCKING AUDIENCE AWARD!!!!!! The one real people vote for! I tried not to scream during someone's performance. What a thrill. What a relief.

Congrats to all of you who contributed in all your various ways, too. This is our film and our victory. Wu-HOOOO!

So that's my saga. Today they play the winning films one more time and
then I head back to LA tomorrow. Submitting to Cannes, Maui, Boston,
Denver, Nantucket, Seattle... on it goes.
Bruce

8:39 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos -