Festivals & Awards
Film Threat’s Award This! 2022
Best Indie Made for Less Than the Contents of an Oscar Gift Bag (Under $100K) - Winner
Best Indie Comedy - Nominee
Best Indie Romantic Comedy - Nominee
Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival
Best Comedy Feature - Winner
Canadian International Comedy Film Festival
Best New First Time Director - Winner
All The Laughs Comedy Awards
Golden Pitcher Award for Best Comedic Feature (yes, the award is an actual pitcher)
Vancouver Independent Film Festival
Best Comedy Feature - Winner
Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival
Best Comedy - Winner
Best Feature Screenplay - Winner
Best Feature - Nominee
Best Leading Actress (Kendra McDermott) - Nominee
Black Cat Picture Show Film Festival
Best Feature - Winner
Viewers’ Choice - Winner
Buzz Vicious Underground Film Festival
Best Comedy Feature - Winner
Reel Comedy Fest
Best Actress (Kendra McDermott) - Winner
Best Feature - 1st Runner-Up
Best Cinematography (Guy Staley) - Nominee
The IndieFEST Film Awards
Best Feature Film - Award of Recognition
Best Supporting Actress (Heather Reynosa) - Award of Merit
Hollywood New Directors
Honorable Mention
Laugh or Die Comedy Fest
Best Film - Nominee
Best Story - Nominee
Seattle Filmmaker Awards
Comedy Feature Film - Semi-Finalist
Ellensburg Film Festival
Narrative Feature - Honorable Mention for Writing
Pacific Northwest Feature - Semi-Finalist
International New York Film Festival
Best Feature (Micro-Budget) - Nominee
Hollywood Dreams Film Festival
Best Director, Feature - Nominee
Vancouver Badass Film Festival
Badass Writing, Feature Film - Nominee
Austin Indie Fest
So Bad, It’s Good! Feature Film - Nominee
Kevin Smith’s SmodCastle Film Festival - 1st Annual!
Official Selection
Golden State Film Festival
Official Selection
Studio City International Film Festival
Official Selection
Greek International Film Festival of Toronto (GIFFT)
Official Selection
The Aquarius Film Festival
Official Selection
Etowah Film Festival
Official Selection
ScreenCraft Film Fund Semi-Finalist (awarded for screenplay before production began)
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Additional festival details below!
The Final Fest! Austin Indie Fest!
I’ve always wanted to play in Austin…and we did! The Austin Indie Fest embraced our wackiness and nominated us in the category of “So Bad It’s Good!”
That might seem like an insult to some, but I LOVE it!!!
Recognized by our Hometown!
Finally! The Seattle Filmmaker Awards is a smaller Seattle fest, but they still loved us! We were a semi-finalist for Best Comedy Feature! Seattle may be the Emerald City, but for one crazy summer, it was Browntown…
Kevin Smith’s SmodCastle Film Festival!
We were selected to participate in Kevin Smith’s 1st Annual Film Festival in New Jersey! And when the god of indie films calls upon you to go, you go! We had a blast meeting filmmakers from around the world and happily celebrated all things Kevin Smith. What a weekend!
Award This? Awarded and Done!
We travelled down to the lovely Frida theater in Santa Ana for Film Threat’s AWARD THIS! and guess what? We were awarded! Nominated in 3 categories (see prior entry), “Win a Trip to Browntown!” won for Best Indie Made for Less Than the Contents of an Oscar Gift Bag (Under $100K).
There were many fantastic nominees in all the categories, so I’m super-thrilled that we got to walk home with a trophy! To see the presentation of the award and my acceptance speech, visit here!
Film Threat’s Award This! 2022
One of the greatest indie film magazines ever - Film Threat - has nominated “Win a Trip to Browntown!” for its annual Award This! ceremony in THREE separate categories:
We’ll be heading down on May 21st for the ceremony! And I promise not to slap the emcee…
Famous Theater for an Infamous Movie!
As part of the Golden State Film Festival, “Win a Trip to Browntown!” played at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on February 25, 2022 - and it was glorious! Many of the cast and crew flew into town for the event where we got to witness our film on a giant screen with booming sound. Afterwards, we gathered for libations and fun to celebrate!
We’re still waiting to hear from a couple of festivals, but if this happens to be Browntown’s last outing, we’re going out with one heck of a BANG!
Golden State Glory!
I am SO excited to announce that we have been accepted into the Golden State Film Festival, because this gives us the opportunity to play at the TCL Chinese Theater! For those who don’t recognize the name, it’s the famous theater where celebrities put their hands in cement outside - maybe they’ll let us do a cement butt-print?
If you’re free, please come and join us for this awesome occasion! We play on Friday, February 25 at 2:05pm. That’s the C Block for the festival, and tickets can be purchased here. Lots of the cast and crew are coming too! Hollywood!!!
Two Plaques, One Cup (Hold the Cup)
Look at these two lovely plaques delivered all the way from Florida’s Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival! As mentioned, we won Best Comedy Film and Best Feature Film Screenplay. We’ve been nominated (and won) several awards for the screenplay, which makes me feel super-pleased. When you spend a year tormenting yourself on every word and letter of a screenplay, you wonder if it’s appreciated. I’m glad to know it is! Thanks TBUFF!
Tampa Bay - Underground and in the Swamp!
Georgia loves us, Florida loves us - I think there’s something about the deep south that loves movies about the deep south (anatomically). On December 4, 2021, the lovely folks at the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival nominated us for 4 awards, and we won 2 of them!
Best Comedy - WINNER
Best Feature Screenplay - WINNER
Best Feature Film - Nominee
Best Leading Actress (Kendra McDermott) - Nominee
Studio City! Where all the studios live…
And that’s where we’re going! Sorta. Our film has now been accepted into the Studio City International Film Festival! Except that due to the pandemic, the film will be screening online instead of in-person. Nertz. Still, I’ll be doing a Zoom Q&A with the festival organizers. Tune in to see my pretty mug!
Pitcher This!
“Win a Trip to Browntown!” has won the Golden Pitcher Award for Best Comedic Feature at the All the Laughs Comedy Festival!
As I’ve mentioned before, I love being honored by my brothers & sisters in comedy. They know what make people chuckle, giggle, and guffaw, and they recognize that we know it too!
Now I’ve gotta make space on my trophy shelf! Woot!
Festivals That Selected Us Not To Screen For Them
Does that sound petty? We’ve been official selections for a few festivals now that we haven’t been able to play at for one of two reasons:
Reason One: “We love your film but the content makes our sponsors nervous…but you’re still an Official Selection!”
Reason Two: “We’ve had to limit the number of films we can screen due to the pandemic…”
Aaaargh! There are a few festivals listed above that I really wanted to attend, but the reasons above occurred. One of those festivals was the Vancouver Badass Film Festival, where we were nominated for Badass Writing, Feature Film.
I mean, it’s only natural I wanted to go. Our film literally puts the ass in badass. Dammit.
Still, it’s a badass honor to be nominated.
And the Reason I’ve Got Two Hands?
It’s to hold TWO Awards! On August 22, the Black Cat Picture Show saw fit to award our film two very nice trophies:
Best Feature
Viewers’ Choice Award
It was my first and best trip to Georgia! The festival was terrifically organized and the audience embraced our film in the way I dreamed of when making it. Hot damn! Mrow!
Hollywood Dreams? Dream On!
The crew from Browntown went to Sin City from July 29-31 to screen at the Hollywood Dreams Film Festival. We lost money on the slots, but we hit the jackpot when it came to the reception of our film. Big smiles and even bigger laughs were won as this was the first time seeing our masterpiece projected on a larger-than-life screen! As Elvis would say, “Whoa, mama!”
Devil Went Down to Georgia - Twice!
And wherever the devil goes, Browntown follows! (At least, that’s what the pastor said.) Anyhow, we’re going back down to Georgia in October, but this time we’re heading for Atlanta! The All The Laughs Comedy Awards has asked us to come down and give them a chuckle. Sure, we’ll be your rib tickler…as long as it’s smothered in BBQ!
Age of Aquarius
Well, I guess once wasn’t enough for Vegas! We’ve been accepted into the Aquarius Film Festival in Las Vegas on October 23-24. Hey, why not? They grow money down there, don’t they? Viva Las Vegas!
Sweet Georgia On My Mind
Looks like we’re heading to Augusta, Georgia at the end of August to screen at the Black Cat Picture Show! It sounds like a terrific festival in a part of the country I’ve never been to - so I’m going! In addition, the festival organizers recently did an interview with the local news and snippets of our film appeared! Just watch the video here and check us out at the opening, 2 minute mark, and the 4:30 mark. Go Georgia!
Twofer Trophies
At the Reel Comedy Fest in Chicago, our film was nominated for three (yes, 3) awards! Best Film, Best Actress (Kendra McDermott), and Best Cinematography (Guy Staley). While many quality films were present, I’m happy to say we received 1st Runner-Up in the Best Film category! And even better, Kendra was recognized for her awesome performance and WON the Best Actress category! She was on hand to pick up the trophies for our production. Her smile says everything about how we feel!!! On to the next fest!
The Gold Standard
I just wanted to let you know that the Canadian International Comedy Film Festival has now become the gold standard of film festivals for me. In addition to holding an online awards ceremony where they called out our film (and me!) for some special attention, they sent me a lovely trophy with a super-personalized letter at no extra charge.
That's it. If I somehow ever make another comedy film, I'm heading to Winnipeg with it. I mean, where else could I get all this attention as well as a letter signed by Colonel Fartpants?
Thanks Vancouver!
Dang, those Canucks really enjoy our film! The Vancouver Independent Film Festival just awarded us Best Comedy Feature in their festival! As they (probably) say in the Great North, "It's all aboot the laughs!"
The judging was done online, but they may have an in-person fest in August or the fall. Cross your fingers, because I'd love to grab a Kokanee and party up north! #triptobrowntown #vancouverindiefestival
Browntown in Portuguese!
Why would our film play in Portuguese? Because “Win a Trip to Browntown!” is headed to Brazil to play at the Buzz Vicious Underground Film Festival!
Not only that, the festival is subtitling the film in Portuguese. One of our actors, Philip Silva (Cameron), is Brazilian, so hopefully he enjoys this little voyage our film is taking south of the equator.
The festival even put a little video together of all the films they are showing. It doesn't have a clip from our film, just our title and my name - but I love seeing that! (Yes, I'm vain - why else do you think I make films?)
Time to Get Reel!
Our lovely little collection of laughs has just been accepted into the Reel Comedy Fest!
I’ve mentioned this before, but I love being accepted into festivals that feature comedy. First, it means that out of all those funny films that entered, ours ACTUALLY made the judges laugh! And second, I like the opportunity to watch stuff that makes me giggle.
Giggle—giggle—snort! (Dammit, why does that always happen to me?)
Our First Washington Film Fest!
Ellensburg - known for its awesome rodeo here in Washington - also has a pretty awesome film festival! And Browntown has already roped in some awards! (See what I did there?)
This festival apparently reviews its submissions, announces the award-winners, and then holds its film fest. According to the judges, we received the following:
Narrative Feature Category - Honorable Mention for Writing
Pacific Northwest Feature Category - Semi-Finalist
I like it! And, of course, the festival is going online this year due to the pandemic. However, IF they have enough success online, they will hold a festival screening in the fall. Cross your fingers!
Start Spreading the News!
“Win a Trip to Browntown!” is heading to New York! I am super-pleased to report that we’ve been accepted into the International New York Film Festival!
I am so excited for this news, but it does come with a caveat - the festival is going online this year due to the pandemic. This is a bummer because the festival usually takes place at a theater in Times Square, and I REALLY wanted to get my picture taken with a dirty Elmo. Phooey.
Still, the news is pretty nifty! Because if I can make it there...
It’s Nice to be Nominated!
The Laugh or Die Comedy Fest decided to honor us with two nominations for our film:
BEST FILM
BEST STORY
I love being nominated - especially in a field on all comedy films! It tells me that among all these funny movies at the festival, ours really made milk shoot out of the judges’ noses when they laughed. Fantastic!
Laugh or Die - Your Choice!
…or not. “Win a Trip to Browntown!” has been selected to run at the Laugh or Die Comedy Fest this April! I love to see our film running at festivals that celebrate comedy, because it means selection panels are actually finding our movie funny!
(And for the record, our comedy is intentional…)
More Awards! And this one’s from Hollywood!
The Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival has announced that “Win a Trip to Browntown!” has received an award for Best Comedy Feature! We are over the moon about this news, because this award means we will screen at their festival down in Hollywood this coming November! Time to buy some sunscreen…
Best New First Time Director!
Another award - and it’s a cool one! At the Canadian International Comedy Film Festival Awards Ceremony (held online on February 27, 2021), I received the honor of being named Best New First Time Director! Check out our video page here to see the video. Say it with me…YAHOO!
Our first international festival - and it’s funny one!
I am super-happy to announce that “Win a Trip to Browntown!” has been accepted into the Canadian International Comedy Film Festival in lovely Winnipeg! There will be an online festival screening at the end of February, and then later this year there will be an in-person event! When details about screenings become available, be sure to click the “Find a Screening!” button at the top of our website. Things are getting exciting!
We’ve got our first awards!
Recognition? Awards? I’m not sure what to call it, but we’ve got certificates! The IndieFEST Film Awards is a monthly online contest, and for the month of January, our film received two awards:
An Award of Recognition in the feature category for “Win a Trip to Browntown!”
An Award of Merit in the Best Supporting Actress category for Heather Reynosa, who plays Jen in our film.
We’re on our way!