SHORT CIRCUIT

Nope, not the movie. It's called Colorado Short Circuit Invitational Film Series, it ran January 27th, and here's what they're doing: "To increase awareness and appreciation of Independent Film." 'True Beauty' was a part of the series, by invitation only, hand picked by Pete (great name) Shuermann, and it played with a great line-up of shorts.

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EULENSPIEGELEIEN!

And another one of those 'tell me what it means in English and I'll buy you a beer' entries. But only if you don't have to look it up on Wikipedia. Like so. For everybody else: Till Eulenspiegel was a legendary figure from 1300s Germany, a prankster who made fun of the prevailing attitudes and mindsets at the time. Now they had a film festival named after him (btw, eule means owl - hence the logo) in Berlin that ran January 22-24, and 'True Beauty' was a part of it.

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NO FESTIVAL REQUIRED

'True Beauty' was invited to the somewhat monthly screening series 'No Festival Required' in Phoenix. It played with eight other award winning short films at the Phoenix Museum of Art, and the screening was a great success. Or so I was told. And so I read on Hal Astell's blog 'Apocalypse Later': 'True Beauty This Night is a real gem, one of the best short films I've seen in a long while... It's absurdity, really, but a delightful form of absurdity that caught up a packed auditorium at the Phoenix Art Museum in its spell. True beauty this night, indeed.'
Cool.

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LET THE PEOPLE SPEAK!

I'm hoping they speak for 'True Beauty'. We got accepted into the Premios del Público: Festival Internacional de Cine y Concurso de Cortometrajes, or, in English, the People's Award: International Short Film Festival. They're going to announce this Monday (February 8th) who wins the first prize. It's a cool $1000, so please cross your fingers. My daughter needs clothes. Really. She's only four weeks old, but already fitting into 3 months clothes. She'll be a giant! And I'll be poor!



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BEST SHORT IN MYRTLE BEACH

That's the way to start up blogging again: 'True Beauty' won Best Short in the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival. Now that took place already December 1-5 2009, I just didn't have time to tell you guys (see blog entry below). Doesn't make it any less awesome.

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FOUR WEEKS GONE, JUST LIKE THAT...

and here's why:

yup, that's my daughter Tenée, born New Year's Eve 2009, so I think I'm excused from not writing here. If you think making a film is hard (don't get me wrong, it is), then think again: having a kid's ten times harder. Hell, it doesn't even compare. Any little bit of time you think you've got for yourself evaporates. And I'm just the father. My wife's the real hero here. She's at the beck and call of that (now) ten pound milk-to-shit-conversion machine 24/7. And that's exactly what it means: all day, every day. The kid cries, and then the mad scramble starts trying to figure out what the hell's wrong: is she hungry? diapers full? does she need to burp? what? what is it kid? don't you like my face? and after an elaborate song and dance, she sleeps for an hour. Only to wake again, and the whole thing starts over. But I'm not complaining here: one smile from her, and I'll gladly suffer any torment.
Hey, since you asked, here's another picture. In this one she's dreaming about the next diaper she's going to happily fill:

HAPPY FESTIVUS!

Their mission statement: 'Festivus is the film fest for the rest of us. Our goal is to support and encourage awesomely badass, truly independent film. Festivus isn’t for the deep-pocketed Hollywood type. We’re here for the guy that pawned his car to make a film. That’s what independent cinema is about. That’s what FESTIVUS is all about.'
There you have it. I didn't pawn my car, but 'True Beauty' is still an official selection of the Festivus Film Festival, taking place in Denver, Colorado, January 14-17.

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TRUE BEAUTY IN THE REAL VALLEY

When you see a film made in L.A., and they talk about 'The Valley', that's what they're talking about: the San Fernando Valley. Hot, dry, and now with beauty: 'True Beauty' was accepted into the Santa Clarita Valley Film Festival, running January 7-10.

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BEST PICTURE!

Everybody have a great Christmas? Or holidays, if you want to be a bit more politically correct (to the point of nausea if you ask me; getting a bit tired of the wimpish catering to every single special interest group, so afraid of stepping on any delicate but oh-so-vociferous footsies - sorry, I'm off the soap box). What I was saying was that I had a really great Christmas (Holidays... you know the rest). Got plenty of gifts, of course all of them were for my as-yet-to-be-born daughter Tenée (who's taking her own sweet time getting here young lady!), but then I got a gift just for myself. Well, me and the rest of the cast and crew of 'True Beauty'. We won 'Best Picture' at this year's Maverick Movie Awards! And in a decision obviously based on my directing on not Dustin's acting, he won 'Best Actor'! We were also nominated for 'Best Director', 'Best Screenplay', 'Best Cinematography', 'Best Actress', 'Best Editing', 'Best Soundtrack' and 'Best Sound Design/Editing'. Whew, quite a list, so everybody who worked on the film should feel really proud. According to the mission statement, the Maverick Movie Awards champion 'true independent/underground cinema created outside of the Hollywood system -- regardless of style, genre, or budget -- our hope is to re-ignite the spirit of the major film festivals and distribution pioneers by celebrating what they once valued above glitz, glamour, and movie stars: great cinema.'
So thank you everybody...

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TRUE BEAUTY AT NEW FILMMAKERS

Not that I'm entirely new to the thing, but don't tell anybody. 'True Beauty' was accepted to the monthly screening series New Filmmakers at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood. Here's what they do: 'Each month, NewFilmmakers LA at Sunset Gower Studios presents red carpet screenings of documentaries, shorts and features that have been submitted from all over the world, followed by an audience Q&A with each director about their film.' Now there's a special after party, so come on out!

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AND ONE MORE

Just in case anybody thought the 'Best Director' award from FirstGlance Film Festival was a fluke, I won another one! This one at the Lakedance International Film Festival. Yes, it is possible that two blind and deaf judges seperated by hundreds of miles made the same irrational judgment, but I'll just celebrate.

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DOUBLE THE PLEASURE IN PHILLY

Not one, but two awards at the FirstGlance Film Festival in the category 'Shorts Too' (films up to 10 minutes)! One was the audience award for 'True Beauty', and another award just for me, personally, me and no-one else: I won 'Best Director'. Oh, I can hear my cast already (what? What the hell for? He didn't do anything... guy couldn't direct traffic...), but now I can meet any criticism with steely arrogance. I'm a 'Best Director', see? Man, good times ahead...

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BEND IT LIKE TRUE BEAUTY

Another Award! And it's one of those cool 'Best Short' ones! 'True Beauty' won Best Short at this year's BendFilm Festival in Oregon. Everybody dance! Those Bend-people have been great. They've sent a statue (not the usual crystal thingy) and a plaque, all done by hand and cool-looking. And the local library wants to stock a copy of 'True Beauty'. So if you're ever in Bend, and have ten minutes to spare, you know where to go.

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TRUE BEAUTY IN BELOIT

How very french-sounding, but ultimately in Wisconsin: 'True Beauty' was accepted to the 2010 Beloit International Film Festival, or BIFF for short (does this sound like a scrubbing pad to anybody else?), running February 18-21. The oft-quoted Moviemaker Magazine called this festival 'the next big thing' and a 'must-attend event'. Well, if we have to...

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OKLAHOMA!

Yeehaw! Back in the saddle again. 'True Beauty' is part of the Traildance Film Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma, running January 22-24. That's the first one next year. Holy Hell, time's flown by. But we're marching on. There's so many more States that are entirely 'True Beauty'-less. And that will not do...

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AUDIENCE AWARD AT ROUTE 66

People dig it. Well, at least they think it's funny: 'True Beauty' picked up an Audience Favorite Comedy Award at this year's Route 66 Film Festival in Illinois. So here's a shout-out to the good people in Springfield: you guys rock!

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TRUE BEAUTY IN MAMMOTH

'True Beauty' has been selected to play in this year's Mammoth Film Festival (running December 9-13), another one of the Moviemaker Top 25 Film Festivals. Now I didn't know this until I read this on their website: "If you’ve ever longed to be on “American Idol for Moviemakers,” here’s your chance. A young festival rapidly growing in recognition and praise, MFF hosts a unique, elimination-style movie tournament where the audience chooses the winner." Maybe I should read the rules and regulations before I send in my screener. But hey, here we are. American Idol for Moviemakers!

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THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

And they declared 'True Beauty' to be the winner of the People's Choice Award at Shortmoves International Short Film Festival in Halle, Germany. And just so nobody thinks they played favorites (me being German), I've got a chart to prove that this was all legit (so very Teutonic of the festival to provide that):


See? 'True Beauty' won ahead of a 'truly German' production. And you didn't believe me...

I CAN SEE RUSSIA FROM HERE!

Or maybe the Russians can watch 'True Beauty', if they try really, really hard; 'True Beauty' was accepted into this year's Anchorage Internatinoal Film Festival in Alaska, taking place December 4-17 and showing 'films worth freezing for'. And hey, my blog was referenced by a local blogger up there, so here's some blog-cross-referencing to another blog (just wanted to see how many times I can write blog; another one; bloggin' hell!): http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/.

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TRUE BEAUTY BACK IN SPAIN

There seems to be a tug-of-war for my 35mm print of 'True Beauty' going on between Spain and America. Right now Spain's winning. The print is on its way to Almería for the aptly named Almería en corto: International Short Film Festival, taking place December 4 through 12. I just hope Spain doesn't keep the print. That sucker was expensive.
Like Valladolid, Almería has its own newspaper-magazine-thing. Must be a Spanish thing:


And holy Mackerel: I just went to their website myself, and the 1st prize in the International competition gets 18,000 Euros. That's not a typo. Lots of zeros. Shit, for that they can keep the print.

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