An honor just to be nominated....

I was a volunteer at the Tribeca Film Festival last year. I just happened to see an ad in the paper one day about how they were looking for volunteers; it seemed like a fun way to see some free movies. I really wanted to see this Russian film called 4, but so did everyone else in New York and I wasn't able to get tickets. I did keep running into the director, though (literally, I almost crashed into him several times; he never seemed to notice). Someone told me that the Russians brought their own security to prevent bootlegging; even if that's not true I like to pretend it is because it sounds so Russian. I was a ticket-taker at the awards show, and after the tickets had been taken I got to go in and watch the end of the show. The usher ushered me right into the seat of someone who was up getting an award--pretty embarrassing when he came back and wanted his seat. The only other thing I really remember about the awards show was Felicity Huffman winning best actress for Transamerica. Afterwards, I got to crash the awards show party, where Dennis Leary was first in line for the deep-fried appetizers. I was thinking of all these things last night when I finally watched Transamerica (it may have inspired me to drive across the country this summer; we'll see), and this morning I was sad to see that Felicity didn't win the Best Actress Oscar. But nowhere near as sad as I was to see that Heath Ledger didn't win. Maybe because Brokeback Mountain was such a sad movie that Heath Ledger's winning an Oscar would have been like some sort of happy ending? I dunno, but it really bummed me out. Damn the Academy!