On May 12, 2016, the Near Nazareth Film Festival accepted “The Stairs” to be shown to live audiences in Israel. Forty-three (43) films in our short film category made the cut. I have no idea how many  movies were not accepted.

On June 6, 2016, six (6) winners were announced via Facebook out of the forty three.

As I scroll down the winners list, my heart raced. My eyes caught it. There we were the third film down on the list. There next to our poster, I saw two sets of winner laurels. A smile broke out across my face. The tips of my lips touched my lower earlobes.

We made the cut!

We were accepted as an award winner!

It felt like got a scholarship. (I really don’t know that feeling having never gotten one.)  This is our second win but it tastes sweeter than our first. I studied the quality and estimated the production costs spent by our competition on their movies. They must have spent 10 to 15 times as much as we did. I was amazed. Beating quality competition from around the world is were it is at.

We tied films from Argentina, Italy, Germany and the States.

But here is the kicker!

 Our cast is in some good company. Starring in one of the films, “The Train,” we tied was Academy Award winner Eli Wallach (The last film he made). You remember him in “The Magnificent Seven” and as Tuco in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). A movie I have watched at least ten times and a few of those times was with my dad.

Wallach also starred in “The Godfather Part III” and he has won some Tony and Emmy awards. He is one of my favorite actors.

Finally, I wanted to give you the world-wide geographic scope of the completion that did not make the cut. Here are the countries: Spain, Australia, Israel, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Singapore, Hungary, Netherlands, France, Turkey, Korea, Ukraine, Greece and Belgium.

I am blown away and want to again give thanks to the cast, the crew, the director and all the members of our production company for giving our film their best.

Please remember to RSVP if you are attending our world premiere on June 25.

Miami Independent Film Festival has “The Stairs” competing against the following films:

SHORT FILM – under 10 minutes

• Night Periscope by , United States 2016
• “The Stairs” by Haykim Reagan , United States 2016
• I Only Talk To Strangers by Sofia Touboura , Greece 2015
• The Knocking by Patrik Krivanek , Czech Republic 2016
• Context by Carlos Dominicis , United States 2015
• The Wrongest by Brian O’lyaryz , United States 2015
• Hurt by Marcus Rosendoll , United States 2016
• MobSpeak Institute by Daniel Mahon, Greg Peduto , United States 2016
• Tension by René Wiesner, Patrick Templin , Germany 2016
• Red Owing by Theodore Khouri , Canada 2016
• Make Him Talk by Fred Ireland , United States 2015
• The Bondage Network by Santi Spadaro , Not Specified 2016
• The man & the sea by Andrew Kaineder , Australia 2016
• The Whistle by Mario Marcondes Kalocsai , United States 2016

I find it interesting seeing films from Greece, Czech Republic, Germany, Canada and Australia as our competition. It feels like we are in the film-festival Olympics. I want to chant; USA–USA–USA.

Reminder—Don’t forget to RSVP for the premiere of our movie on Saturday June 25 at 6:00 pm. Seating is limited.

Well “The Stairs” hit its magical number—Lucky #7.

Our 7th acceptance and selection into a film festival—The Miami Independent Film Festival gave us the green light.

“Mindie” a cool nickname for the festival—it took me a few seconds to figure it out—is going to have a team of “experts in the industry” privately screen “The Stairs”. The winners will be invited to their annual gala.

Hoping Lucky #7, the world’s favorite number—ask  your friends—will lead “The Stairs” to a prize, a jackpot or a big payout.

P.S. If you have not all ready done so, don’t forget to RSVP to our World Premiere at Cinema Paradiso on the 25th of June.

What the readers are saying:

Evelyn Benson said it best with a picture and one word:

“Soar”   Thanks Evelyn.