The Last Day Of The First Part Of Her Life

As this year's Sundance experience came to a close, I went along with my friends and colleagues Ilene Marder, Danielle DiGiacomo, Jordan Matthews and Dimitri to the NY Film Commission's annual condo party, celebrating all the NY filmmakers with films at Sundance. Its a fabulous party in a gigantic condo somewhere in the Canyons region outside of Park City. Surrounded by mountains, white snow and sparkling trees, adorned by golden christmas lights, the party quickly became very crowded as the never ending stream of filmmakers continued to arrive. While mini burgers were being passed around and business cards were being exchanged, I talked to many filmmakers and invited them all to submit to the Woodstock Film Festival and to shoot their next film in the Hudson Valley.



Hours later, as we gathered to leave outside by the entrance, I ran into our good friend Melissa Leo who arrived with a couple of young musicians from the Hudson Valley who now live in LA near her. Hugging there, we both knew that while Sundance for me came to a close, something new could be starting for her. It was Wednesday night, January 21, as we stood there hugging for a long time. The following morning the nominations for the Academy Awards were going to be announced at 6:30 AM Mountain Time. "I wanted to see you Meira" Melissa said as we stood there on the snow. "Tonight might be the last day of the first part of my life". As she said that, my heart stopped. "I'll call you and let you know if I got nominated" she said. "No way" I said. "You'll be much too busy. I'll try to call you. But whether I'm able to reach you or not, you will know that I, along with all your many friends back home, are enormously happy for you".

Getting up early Thursday morning before leaving for the Salt Lake City airport I packed everything fast, sat down, put on the TV and logged on to CNN online, waiting for the announcement.

And now I watched it. Melissa is one of the five actresses nominated for the 2009 Academy Award. This is huge, and indeed, the second part of her life has just begun. My huge congratulations!