Austin Spotlight Film Festival

My first ever film festival experience ended up being pretty much best case scenario. One week after shooting the short film DEMONS, we took a trip up to Austin for the 5th annual Austin Spotlight Film Festival, where THE GRAND GESTURE was set to screen.

The awards ceremony was done in a video format, and as they announced the awards, I noticed we weren’t winning any of them. Best Narrative Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography all went to other films. By the time they got to awards like Best Twist or Most Original Concept, we had zero.

I started thinking, maybe they just didn’t like the film that much. When they announced Best Film, a category I didn’t know was coming, I was totally shocked. The rest of the festival was much more enjoyable after that.