WINNER BEST ACTOR - NEW YORK LONG ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL - UNSPOKEN

On Saturday, I was awarded Best Actor in a Feature Film for Unspoken by the New York Long Island Film Festival. 

Even better, the movie won a total of nine awards! 

The director, Daryl Denner went to the awards show on Saturday night and wrote this on his Facebook: 

Wow!...words can’t express how happy I am right now! My feature film that I Wrote and Directed and Co-Produced with

Rodney Reyes

won 9 Awards @ The New York Long Island Film Festival (NYLIFF 2020). God is good! Huge Congrats to the Cast/Crew!! Special thank you to The New York Long Island Film Festival! The Awards won:

Audience Award Best Actress

(

Frances Lozada

)

Audience Award Best Director (Daryl Denner)

Audience Award Best Picture - Unspoken

(Daryl Denner, Rodney Reyes)

Best Screenplay Feature (Daryl Denner)

Best Actor Feature (

Jonathan Weirich

)

Best Supporting Actress (

Mariana Cardenas

)

Best Actress Feature (Frances Lozada)

Best Dramatic Feature - Unspoken

(Daryl Denner, Rodney Reyes)

Audience Award Best Actor (

Brian Pollock

)

I'm especially happy for the cast and crew.  Unspoken began as a passion project amongst friends who just really wanted to tell stories and make movies.  Since the budget was extremely small, everyone made sacrifices to shepherd the movie to completion.  Just finishing the movie was a sense of accomplishment and value.

Each acknowledgement along the way has been a really nice positive reinforcement of the endeavor.  We wanted to gain a larger audience and hopefully be able to emotionally connect some of the themes to the viewers.  

Having the movie accepted into a few film festivals and sharing the production with a wider group of people has been pleasing and exciting.  

The New York Long Island Film Festival is incredibly kind and generous to acknowledging that work with awards.  To see our movie endorsed and promoted is fantastic and satisfying.  I'm exceedingly grateful.  

My friend and co-star Brian Pollock was able to attend the screening on Friday night.  On his way home he called me with an update.  He related what a fantastic experience he had that evening at the viewing.  Due to restrictions, the theater capacity was reduced.  However, Brian affirmed that the audience that could attend really related to the characters and the story.  They laughed and cried at the appropriate moments.  The people running the festival were enthusiastic and generous.  I could hear in Brian's voice how excited he was to see the film do well.  More than the awards, knowing that the movie was able to entertain an audience, alone was worth all of the hard work and sacrifice.  

I'm thankful for being personally recognized by the festival.  However, I know that my performance wouldn't have been possible if not for the teamwork in front of the camera, by Brian, Frances, Mariana, Sam, and the others who were on screen and for the teamwork behind the camera lead by Daryl and Rodney. 

I'm really delighted and appreciative that everyone who worked on this very personal project can share a gratifying moment if not in person then through the intangible connections of shared experience. 

Oh and here's Daryl with his cheesy grin showing off for once!