Kyle Cowling
Certainly I have said this several times throughout my discussions about our short film entitled, No Runners, featuring Trevor Stewart and, if not, I’ve said it myself 1,000 times over. One of the many goals behind this film was submitting it to film festivals in order to further expose myself to the judgement of real film critics and festival programmers to have a better idea if I am on the right track or not. And, as it turns out, No Runners was and is indeed on the right track. Our short film has been accepted into the 2020 Marina del Rey Film Festival, Indie Short Fest, IndieFEST Film Awards, and the Yucca Valley Film Festival thus far. Our acceptance is still pending in several other festivals.
Being accepted into one festival was enough to bring a tear or two to my eyes. Namely, I was genuinely proud of myself and my crew for creating something out of nothing and doing it on our own dime, our own time, and precisely how we wanted to. Being accepted into four festivals thus far has far surpassed my ambitions for this film.
About a month ago I submitted No Runners into the Best Short Film category and it was nominated directly by the Indie Short Awards at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, California, for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. While we were unable to win in any of the three categories, out of some 300 plus films submitted, No Runners was narrowed down to roughly 12 films in all three of the aforementioned categories where it would end up as a semi-finalist for Best Short Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score!
Well, late last week, I got word from a different festival that we were accepted into (The IndieFEST Film Awards in La Jolla, CA), that No Runners had won an award!
Our small film won the Award of Merit under it’s submitted category of Best Short Film for it’s artistic and technical aspects and approach! In the 11-years I’ve been working behind the motion camera, I’ve never won a damn thing, and I have to admit, this feels really damn good for many, many reasons.
I have to give an insanely massive thank you to my entire crew that helped me to bring this whole idea to life! My wife Karyn, Brandon Carter, Stu Alfano, Martin Fobes, Chris Ray, Sam Sosnowski, Keith White, Polina Kermesh, Troy Murrah of RESTAVRANT, Wes Williams, the vurbmoto family and, of course, the man in front of the camera: Trevor Stewart. We did a thing and made an award-winning film. Thank you!
If you haven’t already, you can view the vurbmoto Original film, No Runners, right here. And now it’s time to figure out the next project and keep this momentum moving!
Congrats to vurb’s resident hipster and his entire crew!