Juggling many roles
In addition to being Executive Producer, Screenwriter, Lead Actor to Chief Editor/Post Production Supervisor, LA based Gehan Cooray had to organise screenings and handle awards submissions for his maiden feature film ‘The Billionaire’
An adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s The Millionairess’ ‘The Billionaire’ is Gehan’s contemporary, gender-swapped adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s 1936 play ‘The Millionairess’. Gehan plays the lead role of Victor Ognisanti di Parerga, a young gay billionaire of Sri Lankan descent who is bound by the daunting conditions for marriage set by his deceased father. After many mishaps, Victor meets ‘the Doctor’, who comes with his own conditions. The mighty billionaire and the humble doctor must work through their differences in their search for love and happiness together. Directed by Michael Philip and produced by Gehan, the film also stars seven-time Emmy Award winner Heather Tom (from ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ and ‘The Young and the Restless’), Jordan Belfi (‘Entourage), David Santos (‘Power Rangers’ TV franchise), and Randy Wayne (‘The Dukes of Hazzard’).
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With the pandemic upsetting his plans to release his film ‘The Billionaire’ in September 2020, Gehan Cooray is now hoping to have its premiere in February 2021. Back in Sri Lanka, the LA based baritone and filmmaker sat down with the Sunday Times to give us an insight into the exciting journey that he has been on with ‘The Billionaire’, as well as the intricacies of awards submissions.
Even before winning the prestigious award for Best Comedy Feature at the Burbank International Film Festival with ‘The Billionaire’ his first feature film last year, Gehan knew that he wanted his film to reach the audience that would appreciate it the most: namely the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organisations responsible for the Academy Awards (Oscars) and Golden Globe Awards respectively.
Gehan has had to juggle multiple roles in the making of this film, from Executive Producer, Screenwriter, Lead Actor to Chief Editor/Post Production Supervisor. Making the film was tough enough, but now the Herculean tasks of organising screenings, handling awards submissions and so much more falls back on him. However, Gehan has always been up for the challenge.
Gehan tells us that in a way, he’s going about it backwards. The standard process is to release the film first, and then drum up as much publicity as possible before awards submission. But after being a longtime resident of Hollywood and studying the system, he has come to realise that his priority lies in the artistic rather than the commercial side of things. As long as he is able to ensure that the right people see it and appreciate it for what it is, he will be happy.
He reached out to the Oscars around June last year, before his nomination for the Burbank Awards had even come out. He was told that, as part of the submission process, the film had to either be premiered in LA or another big city, but due to COVID restrictions they were considering streaming films eligible. “I always wanted to do a big theatre release anyway,” Gehan says, as streaming without a theatrical release simply does not have the same effect.
“Especially since I had done the post-production at Warner Brothers Studios, the picture looks beautiful on a big screen. So I really wanted to have that experience.”
He reached out to Laemmle Theatres, a group of family-run arthouse movie theatres in the Los Angeles area. The initial September release was inevitably pushed back, and the tentative plan now is to premiere it in February this year. As the Oscars and Golden Globes have also extended their deadlines by two months (usually films need to be released in that calendar year to be eligible), Gehan’s film is still eligible for consideration.
The submission process for the Oscars, though mostly online, still involved a lot of paperwork. “It’s almost unheard of for the filmmakers themselves to submit. Normally it’s a studio or distributor that does it for you,” Gehan explains, though he adds that by being methodical and logical about the whole process, the rules and paperwork became fairly straightforward.
The application was one thing, but the film still needed to be sent out to the voting populace. Traditionally, films were mailed out on physical copies or ‘screeners’. This time, all that was necessary was uploading it onto the specialised Oscars streaming platform.
The catch was that, to ensure quality and control quantity of submissions, the cost of uploading it to the streaming platform came at a hefty USD 12,500. “Even though I couldn’t fund the movie on my own, I’m very proud to say I was able to save enough money to pay it on my own,” Gehan tells us, adding that usually it’s the studio or distribution company that handled the cost.
“The fact that I didn’t have to ask anyone for money, and it was what I made on my own, that to me was an achievement in itself.”
The film was accepted and submitted under the Best Picture category and Gehan tells us that he is still shocked at how helpful and welcoming the Oscars team were, especially as a Sri Lankan-born filmmaker handling the whole process himself.
With the Golden Globes, Gehan had to deal directly with the jurors (the members of the HFPA). Though a virtual screening was held for the members as part of the submission process, Gehan also took the time to make copies on DVDs for the jurors as they still prefer physical media, and sent them out with a brochure about the film, a PDF of the script, as well as emails with the digital version as backup.
This level of thought and care didn’t go unnoticed by the HFPA. In December, Gehan had the privilege of being interviewed by one of the Golden Globe Award jurors for an article for the official Golden Globe Awards website. The recognition came as a thrilling surprise, as Gehan confides that he didn’t really have the budget to launch a proper campaign himself.
This interest in both the film and his own achievements, while flattering, came with its own set of concerns for a relatively new face in the industry. “I was very worried that everyone, like the Golden Globe jurors, will wonder ‘Who is this guy? We’ve never heard of him. And now there’s two hours worth of him!’” he laughs. Gehan is surprised that the reviewers so far appreciated his focus on the art of conversation.
Gehan also hopes to submit the screenplay to the Oscars for consideration, once he figures out the submission process. “I’ve tried to do everything I can from my end. The main thing for me is the fact that I could do all this alone. It’s always a little dangerous to get too much publicity when you’re not a household name… so I was a little strategic in targeting the voting bodies themselves. It feels organic.”
The Golden Globe nominations are due to come out in early February, and the Oscar nominations in early March. Whatever the outcome may be, Gehan is happy with the support he has received from them thus far, and grateful to have had the opportunity to screen his film for industry professionals.
With the LA premiere all lined up for February, Gehan is also keen to have a grand theatrical release of his film in Colombo. Though he admits it is certainly a niche film that wouldn’t have the draw of a high-budget blockbuster, at the end of the day what was most important is that he did what he believed in, and made the film he wanted to make.
“The danger with some films is that they try to please everybody. But nowadays, especially since streaming at home is so popular, people might appreciate more intimate stories,” he says.