It's been a roller coaster week. Not only have I been on the road every week (South Dakota, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, and now off to Russia,) but I've been trying to work on two projects simultaneously – the John Leguizamo film Fugly, and the unnamed music video for Weird Al Yankovic.
But obviously the most important 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.
The big problem with the Oscars is that if there are more than 15 films qualifying, then the number of nominations expands from 3 films to 5. Obviously, with 5 films I have a much better shot, like Secret of the Kells last year. But with only 3 films nominated, they usually go to the Hollywood Blockbusters. My feeling is they will be Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, and Despicable Me. So I don't have a real shot. But the question is, did 15 films qualify, or 16? I kept hearing conflicting stories. First it was only 15 films, then someone said at the last minute that Tinkerbell was entered, then someone said the Yogi Bear film was qualified, so yeah, now there are 5 nomination spots..! Then just last night, I heard one of the films was disqualified, so now only 3 nomination spots are open... damn! I wish I could enter another film to push the number over the 15 film threshold. In any case, I still have high hopes for the Golden Globes and the Annies.
It's too bad, because since I have very little money to promote “I&A,” an Oscar nomination would have been the perfect way to secure publicity and theater bookings for my film. Next, I'm off to Chicago for my premiere of “I&A” at the Music Box Cinema on December 2nd – you're all invited.