Local filmmaker gets MTV salute

Bellevue resident Joshua Caldwell picked up a Golden Popcorn at the MTV Movie Awards televised last week.

Caldwell, 22, won the first-ever MTVU Student Filmmaker award. His entry: "The Beautiful Lie," a tale about a dark, troubled relationship.

It's been an emotional process, said Caldwell, who just graduated from Fordham University in New York. He sent in his film after seeing an ad for the contest on MTV's Web site in March.

Since then, the young filmmaker's been playing the waiting game: from learning that he was one of the five nominees, to finding out that he'd be one of the two finalists MTV would fly to the ceremony.

"Once I got on the red carpet, it's kind of like, 'I'm enjoying myself whatever happens,' " said Caldwell, who graduated from Bellevue High School in 2002. The student award was the next-to-last presentation, "right before best picture, of course, just to extend the anxiety a little bit longer."

When he heard his name called, "I stood up and they dimmed the lights — they went to a clip of my film, and I just kind of sat back down."

A montage of the movie was shown. Caldwell then accepted the award from actor Zach Braff, the star of NBC's "Scrubs" who also directed and starred in the indie film "Garden State."

"I wanted to say something smart and not embarrass myself ... but my heart was beating like crazy. I don't remember a lot of it. You know, like they say about weddings, there's just a lot of buildup to it and then ... it's over."

With $3,300 of his own money, Caldwell made "The Beautiful Lie," a 23-minute movie starring fellow students from Fordham, where he majored in communication and media studies and minored in English.

Caldwell has been making films for about 10 years. In 2002 he won honorable mention in The Seattle Times' "Three-Minute Masterpiece" digital-film contest with "American Tragedy," a trailer for his film about a boy thinking of suicide. A year before that, he started Meydenbauer Entertainment, a film and video production company, with two of his best friends.

This week, Caldwell's in L.A. again to attend a Hollywood shindig and to meet with some production companies and talent agents.

"Kevin Spacey invited me to a party, so the fallout has been pretty good," he said by cellphone while driving into Beverly Hills.

To take advantage of this success, Caldwell decided this week that he will move to L.A. with the aim of eventually making a feature-length film.

"It's still a hustle ... nobody's gonna hand me $10 million to do a movie right away."

Judy Chia Hui Hsu: 206-464-3315 or jhsu@seattletimes.com