There is nothing wrong letting the desire for recognition drive you. After the creative process takes place and the marketing of your film begins. Something has to sustain you on your long journey from concept to distributed film. The creative process feeds my soul. Winning awards feeds my hunger for excellence and dreams of standing on an Academy Award stage.

What has prompted me to say this? I saw a post by a film festival (a festival that rejected Letters to Daniel from script form to final film)., the reality is I’ve been campaigned for my film’s score and original song for the Oscar.

When seeking distribution, while hustling for money to MAKE your film, something has to drive you.

I constantly created, and I was constantly hustling and networking. Constantly looking for representation. Now I’m not in any Hall of Fames. But I did have an award created in my honor.

I suppose this post’s advice that it shouldn’t be the sole thing that drives you. That success is fleeting and failure isn’t fatal. But as a child I was incredibly competitive and early on into adulthood.

Festivals and awards are important. The creative drive more so. But don’t you dare ever let someone tell you they don’t. It’s one of the few benchmarks in an arduous journey that where doing something write.

Sincerely,

Amy McCorkle