THAT EVENING SUN, the feature film written and directed by my comedy filmmaking partner Scott Teems won its first awards yesterday, as reported by Variety. Its premier at SXSW in Austin this week earned it both the Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast and the Narrative Audience Award.  And the fun is just beginning, if film critic Eric Childress is on target:

Over the years we’ve seen some actors get that one big role late in their careers. Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, Paul Newman in Nobody’s Fool, Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story, Peter O’Toole in Venus and James Cromwell in Babe, Oscar nominees one and all. And some may consider Hal Holbrook’s nominated turn in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild to be that role for him. Certainly the best thing in that film, but director Scott Teems has gone a step further and done for Holbrook what Thomas McCarthy did for Richard Jenkins last year in The Visitor – given one of our great character actors a chance to shine in a lead role. And shine Holbrook does in That Evening Sun.

I trust there will be a meaty role for me in the sequel, as Holbrook’s tax accountant.