A shot from Idiots & Angels.

Great news, we just got booked in Chicago's prestigious Music Box Cinema! It looks like it will be screening there the 1^st week of December.

Several weeks ago, I went to the Academy screening of all the eligible animated shorts – about 30 films. It's held at the N.Y. Academy screening room (The Lighthouse) and is attended by all or most of the Academy members living in the Northeast area. Members even come down from Canada.  It's one of my favorite events, because often I discover films I've never seen before and I always have a film that I'm trying to get nominated.

A shot from Idiots & Angels.

I've narrowed my list of available NYC indie cinemas to 2: IFC Center and Cinema Village.  Both are quite good and have a history of showing animated films. Both theaters seemed interested in Idiots & Angels, so I sent each booker a screener of the film plus the great reviews it got from Variety and The Village Voice.  My plan, and I do have a plan, everybody should have a plan, is this…

A shot from Idiots & Angels.

The most important work for me is the awards season for my two qualifying films, The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger and of course Idiots and Angels. I feel very strongly that “I&A” is my best feature yet, and it has a good shot at winning some prizes this season. So I've decided to enter it in all the competitions: The Gotham Awards (it didn't get in), The Spirits, The Annies, The Golden Globes, and of course, the Oscars.

Bill Plympton's Team Idiots volunteer marketing force.

Monday night we had our first meeting with our hardcore student volunteers, who are hopefully blanketing NYC with posters and postcards, announcing the October 6^th opening of Idiots and Angels.

Now, whether posters and postcards all over the city will drive huge numbers to the theatre, that's a different and interesting question - We hope so, because without the money for a full-out publicity blitz, I'm forced to use more street guerilla tactics. Eager student volunteers seem to be the most efficient way.

A shot from Idiots & Angels

As the release date is getting closer, October 6^th, 2010, I find that more and more of my work time is allocated to publicity about Idiots and Angels. I've turned down commercial work, pushed aside my new short, Cop Dog, and delayed work on my two new feature films because I've absolutely got to score big in the cinemas with “I&A.” So in this final week, I've been calling all my contacts, anyone who has a blog, website, a newspaper, a newspaper column, a TV show – anyone who can help get the word out, they are now my best friends.

A lot of you people have been following my travails with Idiots & Angels.  First, making the film, then in distributing the film.  In fact, I always say there are 3 major steps in the success of a film.

A shot from Idiots & Angels.

So, it's the morning after the grand premiere of “Idiots and Angels” at the IFC Center. It was a wonderful evening, lots of old friends and a lot of new fans of Plymptoons.

I can't say it was a smashing success; even though we had good crowds for both evening shows we didn't have a sell-out, and that's the dream of every filmmaker: A nice fat “sold out” sign over the box office window.