Chapter 15: Film Festivals (revised)
At the beginning of September, it was Sarah's birthday and the crew of "Juno" regathered to start the pre promotion of the movie.
Except for few actors like Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman who were a bit well-known, the rest of the crew was new, especially the lead cast Sarah and Michael Cera. So, the studio adapted the policy of making the movie participate in various film festivals before releasing it in the theaters in North America and internationally.Therefore, Sarah took leave from the school to attend the festivals with the rest of the crew.
The first stop was Telluride film festival, and then film went to participate in Toronto film festival. At the Toronto film festival, although the movie couldn't win the award for best film or best screenplay, but it still helped Sarah win her first award as the best actress.
After the award ceremony, Sarah looked at the trophy in her hand in daze. This should be one of the the best birthday among all the ones she ever got. Its hard to believe that she really won the best actress trophy, even if it doesn't worth anything.
Toronto and the other film festival are nowhere near the level of three big euorpean festivals of Cannes, Venice and Berlin, and the jury prizes given at these small festivals are not counted or considered anything in Hollywood.
Hollywood is a place that doesn't even give enough value to the big three Euorpean festivals, so how can it look at the small award which even the Euorpean festivals doesn't consider of any importance. The only awards which are respected and considered important in Hollywood are the Big Four, which are Oscars, British Oscars, Golden Globe and SAG awards. The rest doesn't matter and can only play the role of showcase accessories.
But Sarah wasn't discouraged. Its only the first award and her goal is much more than that. She will have many more, and will even win the Oscars and Golden Globe.
"Juno" then went on to feature at the Austin Film Festival, Rome Film Festival, London Film Festival,Bahamas International Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, Stockholm International Film Festival, International Thessaloniki Film Festival, Gijón International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, earning many awards and nominations.
With the various film festivals, Sarah's fame started to grow. Although she was still not popular among public as the movie had not been released in theaters, but her popularity among various film critics and newspapers rose rapidly.
Emily and Rick went to few of the festivals with her to watch the movie. Both of them were happy, and Emily's happiness could be seen by her never fading smile. She was also happy and emotional seeing them.
....
While watching the movie, Emily suddenly started to cry. This made Sarah a little embarrassed. The scene playing on the screen is a comedic one. She couldn't help but complain: "Mom, What's sad about this. Look around, no one is crying. People are smiling and laughing."
Emily smiled and just rubbed her daughter's head. Looking at her daughter, she has grown a lot. She couldn't stop herself and even pinched her face.
Sarah couldn't argue successfully and was even treated in such a way. She looked at her moody brother for help, but his words made her completely shut up: "I hope its just a movie. I don't want to become uncle this early."
Although she was looking at the other side, but Emily's laughter still reached her ears, but she had no time to pay attention to it. Her smile disappeared and she looked around. There were members of the crew sitting close to them and some of them even heard the whole conversation. They were also laughing and Jennifer Garner even smiled at her.
Sarah's whole face turned red with embarrassment and she looked angrily at Rick, but Mr Moody didn't seem to be affected by it and continued watching the movie seriously.
Coming out of the theater, Sarah was greeted by her agent Alan. She looked at his smiling face and sighed. "Juno's" positive reviews have made her agent a laughing man. Whenever she see him, he's always smiling. The movie has not been released yet, and he's still this much happy.
Except for his this without reason smiling habit, she's very satisfied with Alan. Although he has been her agent for only four months now, but his performance during these four months was satisfactory.
Normally, small agents urge their artists to go to auditions every day without even considering the fact if the actor is appropriate for the role or not, or if the script is written well good or bad. They use artists as short time commodities and try to make every penny they can get through them. They even personally escort their clients to the red couches or private parties, and It doesn't matter to them if the client is okay with it or not. That's the reason why agents are the second most disliked people in industry after paparazzi.
Alan, on the contrary, has behaved quite well. He hasn't tried to force her to go to auditions every day or to go to various private parties. He even advised her to wait for the release of movie, before thinking about any more auditions.
It doesn't matter if the movie is successful or not, it can still add a lot of weight to Sarah's resume. Therefore, its pointless to go for minor supporting and background roles in those bad projects. You can't except her luck to be too good to get another good movie with a blank resume.
As for another lead role, that's something one shouldn't even think about. It will only make her look like a clown if she thinks that she can play another lead role without even waiting for the results of the first movie. Even after the movie is released, its still a very difficult thing.
Sarah also agrees very much with the approach, and has enjoyed a peaceful life in the previous two months. In morning, she goes to school, and while in evening, she went to relax outside with Jessica and her other high school classmates. As for Chris, he hasn't contacted her since they fought and he still seems to be angry. Even when she called him, the call was cut off. She also didn't call after that anymore. Anyway, he will call by himself if he wants to.
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