Which Do You Want First - the Good News, or the Bad News?

I'm gonna give you the good news first. We've been accepted to the AOF (Action on Film) International Film Festival in Pasadena. We'll screen Monday July 28 in the afternoon. This actually qualifies as GREAT news, because it's been a while since our last acceptance, and I was beginning to feel like my 15 minutes of fame was over. (No retreat! No surrender!) So we're back in the saddle again.

We were also nominated for 4 awards - Best Dramatic Feature, Best Female Filmmaker, Outstanding LGBT Project, and Best Actress in a Feature - Alexandra Mathews. I am so proud of Lexie, and so glad that her awesome performance is finally being recognized. Spoiler Alert - Every time I watch the desert showdown scene in which she finally speaks, I get goosebumps. Which is crazy, because I know what happens. I wrote it. I've seen it dozens of times. But she gets me to suspend my disbelief every time.

And of course I'm thrilled with myself for that BFF nomination. Now, if only they select a winner by means of roller derby, I'm sure I can put on my kneepads and snag that award.

Funny thing about the LGBT nomination. One of the directors of the festival called me and asked if the part of Lola was played by a ... "transgender individual". Yes indeed, I replied. He then asked if I would be offended if I were to be nominated in that category. Not at all, I replied. In fact, it would be an honor. The character of Lola is supposed to show an LGBT character trying to get through life just like the rest of us disenfranchised individuals. And if they wanted to nominate me for Best Project Involving a Cemetery, or Best Car Rental Lady Project, I'd take that too.

Just call me Festival Troll.

Which reminds me, I think the Car Rental Lady was a fascinating yet underrated character, layered with nuance, who deserves a movie spin-off. Something like, Untitled Car Rental Lady/Owen Wilson Project. Or Brendan Fraser and the Car Rental Lady. But I digress.

Oh yeah, the bad news? Ironic. I was glancing through the recently posted list of all nominations on the AOF website, and I almost spit out my diet Dr. Pepper when I saw none other than Flyboys. Oh shit, I thought, there goes the Best Dramatic Feature prize. I did a quick mental check - was it made by a woman? Did they have a transgender individual? No and no. And the bad news is actually not so bad at all. We are not competing against Flyboys in any of the categories. (I think they're in some category like Best Overall Feature). So they won't have to peel my fingers off the coveted Best Dramatic Feature prize just yet ...