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April 15, 2010

Jury Duty

Yesterday, I wrote:

I'm a few hours away from heading to jury deliberations for the Dallas International Film Festival. I'm on the panel for the Texas Competition, which of course is the same category St. Nick won last year. Hence, I'm not taking this decision lightly: winning that prize pretty much made my year. It went a long way towards making our film profitable, allowing us a bit more freedom in choosing distribution; it gave me some financial legs during the direst of straits; and, vis à vis a production services grant, it provided a bedrock for our next film, whatever that may be. That last part is especially important. This prize not only celebrates a completed film; it invests in the career of the filmmaker.

Some hours later, the other jury members and I settled on giving the award to the one film I had ruled out from the get-go, and while the letter and logic of the law was in full effect in our mutual decision, my spirit sat the verdict out, and instead found respite in the sentiment behind another part of Thursdays half-finished post:

I don't necessarily look for greatness, as I've found that what seems great initially often diminishes over the same period of time that might validate a more unwieldy work.

The synthesis of these two quotes need not be stated, other than that there are filmmakers out there whose days I eagerly look forward to seeing come, and others who I hope to soon be surprised by. I may be caustic in my judgement, but I'm nothing if not optimistic .

Posted by David Lowery at April 15, 2010 12:57 PM