While most bloggers cobble together a year-end a Best and Worst list or a 10 Best List, I decided to do a Decade Review, in the least amount of words as possible.

I edited the list about 9 times until I got to the one you’ll read below. Have fun reading and remembering. Or remembering and shuddering. I look forward to your own decade review. In the mean time have a healthy, prosperous, safe and creative New Year!

Decade Review ☞

• 2000: Dot-com Bubble Burst
• 2001: September 11 Attacks
• 2002: Adrien Brody wins Oscar for “The Pianist” and plants presenter Halle Berry with a full lip lock
• 2003: Iraq War
• 2004: Mars Rover
• 2005: Hurricane Katrina
• 2006: “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp” wins the Oscar for Best Original Song by the group Three 6 Mafia
• 2007: Collapse of the Housing Market in the USA
• 2008: Barack Obama
• 2009: Michael Jackson Dies…

Normally I don’t talk about Entrants submitting their films or screenplays to ReelHeART, but today I will.

We’ve had amazing entries all season long and especially over the last 10 days because we’re coming close to our final deadline. Famous A-listers through to D-listers and beyond. As well, we welcome back a few Alumni.

Filmmakers either find us through word-of-mouth, our advertising, on-line communities and through extensive research that starts in July after the end of ReelHeART.

Since 2004, I’ve done exhaustive research for films and documentaries to premiere at ReelHeART that we think might match our mission statement or if the filmmaker has never approached us we let them know what we’re all about.

I’d say I either see or read about 1500 indie films a year. Of those, there’s a select group that if they haven’t entered, we send them an “Invite To Submit” their film.

Not a waiver mind you, but a greatly discounted rate off our partner’s entry fee.

Every season, we get 300-500 requests to waive fees. It’s not just our film festival, but all film festivals.

As a non profit film festival we can’t afford to waive fees. As a non profit film festival your funding bodies want real facts and figures about your marketing. That includes email marketing. That includes our “Invite to Submit” which is a marketing tool. Think of it that for every effort where we can show tangible proof we sent a letter or an email or ran a press release as part of our marketing efforts, we get a quarter from our funding bodies. Yep. It works out to 25 cents.  In this economy, that quarter is now a nickle.

But we don’t do it for the 25 cents we might make from our funding bodies. We market because we’re in a city that has 75 other film festivals. And you have to make your voice heard.

We don’t have the horsepower of the other 2 huge film festivals in this city. We have our great year-round volunteers, a skeleton staff and since our inception in 2004 … me.

We market to bring one-of-kind films to premiere at ReelHeART before they screen at one of the 74 other film festivals. We market to offer indie film fare that’s affordable to the audiences we want to reach. Audiences that see everything from quirky underground and experimental films to thought provoking documentaries to polished productions with budgets of a few million.

Our “Invite to Submit” contains links, information and clarifies that our email is not a waiver, but an invite to check us out and see if we’re a good fit for their film.

While 2-3 filmmakers we’ve encountered this season (who’ve made 1 or 2 short films) can’t appreciate that as a non-profit film festival we DON’T give waivers they feel compelled to trash us on the Internet. Yet, they fail to realize that we do give specific waivers to inner-city film groups for youths under 18 and to disabled filmmakers of any age.

Today, we’ve come across an entry from a charming, eloquent 13 year old, disabled filmmaker who did not receive an “Invite to Submit”. They found us on their own. They sent a comprehensive and engaging cover letter, 4 screening DVDs to go around and had just an amazing and pleasant attitude.

This filmmaker is eligible for a waiver because of their disability. But may have decided that it would be against their ideas about “pity based fund raising”. They never asked for the waiver they are entitled to, instead paying the rather hefty late deadline fee at our partners website.

What this young person could teach the ‘bashing filmmakers’ who didn’t get a waiver about building bridges in this industry instead of burning them. This young person could also teach those bashing filmmakers how to write an email or a letter that compliments rather than condescends.

The professionalism and HeART of this 13 year old who is “passionate about harnessing the power of film to open people’s minds” is my new Hero…

I specifically went to the office late today, because the first of the major TV and film awards for 2010 announced its nominees this morning, the Golden Globes.

I mentioned on Facebook how I felt about Sandra Bullock’s performance in ‘The Blind Side’ and she has received a nomination for it as well as for her turn in “The Proposal”. The critics talked about her on-screen chemistry in “The Proposal” with Ryan Reynolds, but they raved about her acting in ‘The Blind Side’.

Meryl Streep has received two nominations in the same category as Bullock – Best Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her roles in ‘Julie and Julia’ and ‘It’s Complicated’.  Streep will win for ‘Julie and Julia’. Hands down or I go to cooking school…

Below is the list of all nominees for the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Winners will be announced on Sunday, January 17, 2010 on CBS, 8PM, EST.

Script Tip of the Week – “Call Those Companies”

Word is that some TV production companies around LA that supply unscripted reality shows, are seeking unsolicited show ideas. This says they are desperate for material to sell, possibly due the economic market and networks being more selective than ever. It’s possible film production companies are in the same boat.

Suggestion: Pick up the latest edition of the Hollywood Creative Directory and go into overdrive making calls.

Don’t call the ‘Weinstein’s . Try the assistant to the assistant of XYZ Company and only call LA and NY-based companies. If no luck at any of the production companies, try managers and agents. Make sure you have your thirty second pitch down because that’s all they give you on the phone if you connect. Make sure your script is ready and is commercial.

Good Luck!

September 22nd is the first full day of Autumn. It’s also the day the new book by late night’s Craig Ferguson goes on sale.

American on Purpose, published by Harper Collins is Craig’s attempt to further endear himself to everyone that ‘gets him’. Many fans are people who stumbled upon him while channel surfing and now are faithful followers that adore his shenanigans on the wasteland that is late night TV.

His silly skits and impersonations include a ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’-looking Prince Charles,  Auditions for James Bond, Michael Caine in Space, or lacerating Tom Cruise, the hilarious spoof of When Harry Met Sally’ called when Sean Connery met Michael Caine, and of course Craig’s playing with stuffed toys.

According to Harper Collins

In American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson delivers a moving and achingly funny memoir of living the American dream as he journeys from the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland, to the comedic promised land of Hollywood. Along the way he stumbles through several attempts to make his mark—as a punk rock musician, a construction worker, a bouncer, and, tragically, a modern dancer.

To numb the pain of failure, Ferguson found comfort in drugs and alcohol, addictions that eventually led to an aborted suicide attempt. (He forgot to do it when someone offered him a glass of sherry.) But his story has a happy ending: in 1993, the washed-up Ferguson washed up in the United States.

September 22nd, is also the day we try to get Craig to the top of the Tweets in the ‘TweetyBook‘ as Craig likes to call it.

So join in and make sure when you ‘Twitter‘ today you ADD #CraigFerguson to every ‘Tweet‘, just like we did here at ReelHeART.

Thank You Cheeky Monkeys!

Erasing the horror that was last year’s telecast with 5 reality show hosts, Neil Patrick Harris made tonight’s Emmy Award show the ‘Best Reality Show’ ever with giddy, silly fun that made the 3 hour Emmy’s whiz by.

While Neil lost out on his category for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, he won us over with his goofy spritzing mainly with himself and his eagerness to just be ‘funny’ in his retro 007 white cocktail tux.

Frazier Moore of The Associated Press asked:

Isn’t it time to name Neil Patrick Harris to a Cabinet position as Secretary of Cool?

Where’s that petition. I’ve got my pen ready. Please bring Neil Patrick Harris back next year on ALL the award shows!