Secret Festival

About a month ago, I was told that my new short film, "The Loneliest Stoplight", voiced by Patton Oswalt, was accepted into a very prestigious film festival.  But I was warned that telling anyone about my film's scheduled screening at this festival was a serious "no-no"!

Why is this program line-up so hush-hush?  Because this festival likes to announce their program on the first day of screenings - which seems to me like a silly way to promote a festival.  However, it seems to work very well for them - this festival is now one of the top-rated festivals in the world, and it always seems to premiere a lot of future Oscar-nominated films, and usually even the winning films.

How they do it, I do not know - but it's been one of the reasons that this festival, as remote and expensive as it is, remains so popular and hard to get into - films like "Blue Velvet", "Bowling for Columbine", "Brokeback Mountain", "Capote", "Juno", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Up in the Air" and "The King's Speech" all premiered there.  Last year, they screened "Foxcatcher", "Wild", "Mr. Turner", "The Imitation Game" and "Birdman" - wow!

You've probably already guess that I'm talking about the Telluride Film Festival, and even though I'm writing this 4 days before the festival begins, I think I'm reasonably safe - we'll post this blog on the opening day of the festival, so at least everyone will know.

So, if you have any friends going to Telluride, please tell them to come and see my newest short film, "The Loneliest Stoplight".  It will be screening with "Mom and Me", on Friday, Sept. 4 at the Le Pierre at 8:15 pm, on Saturday, Sept. 5 at the Nugget Theater at 9:30 pm, and on Sunday, Sept. 6 back at the Le Pierre at 1 pm.  Please check Telluride's web-site for more information: http://www.telluridefilmfestival.org/

And when I return next week, I'll file a full report on the festival, including photos and celebrity sightings.

--Bill P.