My short film won a big award.
I'm writing from my room above the Star Inn in Beeston. I'm looking out towards the Arc Cinema where the film I wrote is about to be awarded 'Best of the Fest.'
It’s been a long time since I won an award.
I got very used to it for a while. Off the top of my head…
Best Adaptation at United Solo New York for Dark Stars (2013)
The Bruce Mason Award for Playwrighting (2011)
Best Script at the Swanz Writers Guild awards for On the Upside Down of the World (2011)
Best Script, Best New Playwright for Charles Darwin Collapsing Creation (2010)
Best Comedy for The Lonesome Buckwhips (2007)
Best Comedy for The Cottage (2006)
See a pattern right? It’s been 10 years.
But I haven’t been on the winner’s podium for a long time.
That all changes in a few hours. I’ve never been to Beeston. It’s near Nottingham. I’d never heard of the festival before we got accepted. But this is a massive validation of some big changes I’ve been making in how and why I write. The great golfer Nick Faldo was good. He’d won a British Open, but he knew he couldn’t win at the level he wanted to win unless he changed his swing. It took him around 4 years.
It’s taken me nearly ten, but I’m starting to see the results of some big changes to how I receive and conceive ideas, so I can tell stories at the highest possible level.
I’ll tell you more about it later. But for now I’m just going to wander over to the awards ceremony and enjoy the heck out of tonight with my co-writer Aminder Virdee.