Sorry I haven’t written in a while. So many amazing (and time consuming) things have been going on with the film, the festival, and a number of other projects I’m working on, that I simply haven’t had a chance to write much here. Anyhow… here’s a brief update:

I just got back from L.A. late last night where I was most of last week to meet with a bunch of people about my feature project (before heading off to Vegas for a conference – see below). The script has simply been doing wonders on its own and has been attracting an unheard-of amount of attention for a project of this size (which is totally awesome by the way). That said, we now have a great number of amazing people on-board for the project… and even more amazing actors interested and/or “in talks” for the project! I was just contacted last week and told that several of the actors we’d been chatting with for the lead roles said “yes” to the project, and we’re in talks with a half-dozen others, which is just amazing considering the (economic) timing and size of the project, but no complaints here! Unfortunately, that’s really about all I can say at this point (I know, I know… you want names), but since most of our cast are still “in talks”, I really just can’t announce anything yet as it might have a diverse affect on the process. I assure you, I’ll let you know as soon as I can.

That said, I also had a great time at the International Film Festival Summit (IFFS) in Vegas this past week. I had a wonderful chance to catch up with several other festival director friends of mine, and meet lots of great new people and hear about what they’re all up to. I also had a chance to meet some of the guys behind the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDb.com), who are working on some great new exciting additions to the IMDb for filmmakers and specifically film festivals for next year. I also had a chance to meet (and in some cases eat dinner with) several of the directors/guys behind Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, IndieWire, FilmFestivals.com, IndieFlix, FilmThreat, Variety, and about 200 other great industry folks. It was great to see so many wonderful people working so hard to support the independent industry in one place, working together… despite a few issues which are all but unavoidable, I’ve enjoyed the IFFS every-year, it was well worth the trip, and I’m looking forward to attending again next year.

I’ll try to give you all another quick update on things before the holidays, as there’s WAY too much in the works here for me to mention in one post. So stay tuned, I’ll try to give you more updates as things get a bit more solidified (both with the 2009 Festival and the Feature). Thanks for tuning in guys!

Oh, and just because I know a lot of you like stats… the OIFF (after the first of our 4-deadlines, spread out over 5-months) to date has received 133 entries from 18 countries globally, and we’re well on our way to break our 532-entry record from last year. The OIFF is open for entries through April 1st of 2009, you can submit your film online at www.oxfordfilms.com.

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