And the nominees are...

The Oscars feel closer than ever this year:

• The Artist received 10 nominations.  The casting director of The Artist?  Heidi Levitt - who cast me in my Hyundai spot toward the end of last year.

• Time Freak was nominated in the Live Action Short Film category. My short film, True Love, screened alongside Time Freak at the HollyShorts Festival in August.  We knew when we saw it, it was something special.  Seeing them nominated is just further affirmation...dreams come true, y'all.

• African Chelsea, a short film my friends did, qualified for the Oscars but did not get nominated in the end.  The lead of that film is my co-star in Girl Parts and good friend Corinne Becker.  Brent Roske, the director/writer of African Chelsea and also a friend, made a solid push for a nomination and that has led to him to begin shooting a feature this March starring Sally Kirkland, who also starred in African Chelsea.

• Octavia Spencer was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Help.  I like to call her my "twitter buddy" - from the few tweets we've exchanged regarding BookPALS, she seems like an incredibly grounded and relatable human being.  Which clearly is reflected in her work.  Not to mention, she just premiered Smashed, the movie my friend co-produced...which I talked about yesterday.  No doubt the cast and crew of that film are also thrilled for their co-star.  The fact that Melissa McCarthy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Bridesmaids has got to be the icing for Octavia.  These two have been good friends for years and are both now being recognized for their work after an extended time in the business.  To be having the same level of success at the same time as a friend that you came up in the ranks with...I can only imagine!  What a surreal and awesome feeling it must be.  As I near my first decade mark of pursuing this dream, I know that the payoff is possible...and it is that much sweeter because of the dedication it took to get there.

• Thrilled that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was recognized for Best Picture.  You all know how much I loved this movie.  It was late to the awards race so it didn't get much recognition in the earlier ceremonies but you can't get any bigger than the Oscars.  Would have loved to see Thomas Horn recognized for his work in the film but in a year that saw both Leonardo DiCaprio and Ryan Gosling snubbed in the Best Actor category, the competition was clearly steep.

As I sit here, in my chair, sipping some tea and about to work some more on my screenplay, I am humbled by these accomplishments of the people I know, the people I know of and the people that inspire me.  This is never an easy road and to see their work come to fruition at the highest level of this industry helps to motivate me to keep going.  As Bonnie Gillespie eloquently wrote in her column yesterday:

Bad audition? Stuck on a plot point in a script you're writing? Released from avail after being sure the gig was yours? Dropped by your agent when things were starting to pick up? Edited out of the final cut of the film you told everyone you'd shot? Told you're too old or too skinny or too ethnic or too anything else for whatever particular role you really wanted to play? Snubbed in the casting room? Hating your reel after having spent a ton on it? Missing your family back home? 

Yep. It's all hard. The only thing harder is not pursuing your dreams.

Today is a reminder that it all can be worth it.