So I’m finally (well, mostly anyway) recovered from last night’s festivities at the National Press Club for the 2010 TIVA (Television, Internet, and Video Association of DC) Peer Awards... and to say that the awards ceremony was a success would be a huge understatement. Not only was it a fantastic opportunity to rub elbows with some of the most innovative, dedicated and creative people in the DC visual-production community, but in what seemed at times like a comically extended procession, the Tohubohu films “Liability” and “Number One With a Bullet” took home a grand total of eight awards across the course of the evening:
- Bronze Award: Editing — Fiction, “Number One With a Bullet” (William R. Coughlan and Ginny Filer, editors)
- Bronze Award: Independent Short, “Liability” (Pam W. Coughlan, producer, and William R. Coughlan, executive producer)
- Silver Award: Screenwriting — Fiction Short, “Liability” (Robin Brande and William R. Coughlan, screenwriters)
- Silver Award: Directing — Fiction Short, “Liability” (William R. Coughlan, director)
- Silver Award: Independent Short, “Number One With a Bullet” (Joy Haynes, producer, and William R. Coughlan, executive producer)
- Gold Award: Editing — Fiction, “Liability” (William R. Coughlan, Brad Hartland, and Colin Heichman, editors)
- Gold Award: Screenwriting — Fiction Short, “Number One With a Bullet” (William R. Coughlan and Bjorn Munson, screenwriters)
- Gold Award: Directing — Fiction Short, “Number One With a Bullet” (William R. Coughlan, director)
And as if that weren’t enough, “Number One With a Bullet” was also one out of just four nominees in the prestigious “Best of DC” award! (My jaw was nearly on the floor when they made that announcement.)
All of this is doubly amazing in that we hadn’t planned on submitting “Number One With a Bullet” at all this year — but a mad-scramble dash to finally get the picture locked allowed us to slip it in at the last possible moment for consideration. We figured that it might generate some small amount of buzz around the project, but honestly had no idea that it would be anything approaching this scale. (And yes, we’ll be sure to let everyone know when they can see the finished product on the big screen!)
The ceremony didn’t allow time for individual acceptance speeches (though there should be pictures later), so I just wanted to take a moment here to congratulate everyone involved in both of these projects — filmmaking is far from an individual endeavor, and there’s honestly no way we could have had this success without the dedicated efforts of all of you. We truly couldn’t be happier!