UPDATE! We just won a top prize at the fest! Audience vote in a category with over 40 films! The Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, which includes a $5,000 prize. More To Come!!!
It might have been cold outside, but The 35th Cleveland International Film Festival gave a warm welcome to Dying to do Letterman. Here’s the recap:
A Great Review!
If you know The Plain Dealer, they’re not afraid to rip a film they don’t like, and rare is the movie that manages to get a letter grade of “A”. Dying to do Letterman received an “A” in the PD’s famous Friday Magazine section, and you can read The Cleveland Plain Dealer review of Dying to do Letterman here.
The Media Paid Attention
We were also lucky enough to appear on the 7pm evening news on the NBC affiliate. Quickly shot this with a flip cam:
Screening 1
Friday, 2:30 PM. Sold Out. Standing Ovation.
Screening 2
Saturday, 9:10 PM.
Mayhem! 600 people show up for a 300 seat theater! CIFF proves they truly do rock by opening a second theater, so we have not just one, but TWO sold out screenings!
Screening Room 1
Screening Room 2
Screening 3
Sunday, 9:30 AM. Sold Out. Standing Ovation.
And they were a lively audience, too! 9:30am on a Sunday, we were a little worried!
UPDATE: Dying to do Letterman Wins Top Prize!
Dying to do Letterman won a top prize at The Cleveland Film International Film Festival! The final prize of the night, the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, which includes a $5,000 prize, went to Dying to do Letterman.
I was rolling on my flip cam, but then so completely lost in the moment I forgot to point it at anything…oops! Glad that didn’t happen during the filming of the movie.
That said, I think the raw emotion of the moment comes through and the audio is pretty good. Here’s two versions of the clip. The first is the complete 5 minutes, including mine and Steve’s acceptance speeches. 51 seconds in the celebrating (and really bad camera work) begins.
Don’t have 5 minutes to look at a Flip Cam spinning out of control? Watch the second clip which is just one minute. It’s the announcement of the award, and the subsequent screaming.
BTW, I’m sure real video of the speeches will pop up soon!
Long Version
Short Version
And the win was reported on the front page of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer:
Thanks Cleveland for rocking our world!