The Wrestler won the Golden Lion at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and earned several Best Picture nominations.
Big Fan premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. It was revealed in an online interview that Siegel attempted to write drafts for a comedy film but it ended up being a drama because of the conflicts in the film as well as avoiding Patton Oswalt being typecast as a comedic character. Big Fan was nominated for the John Cassavetes award for best film made under $500K at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards. The film received an audience award and Patton Oswalt won best actor award for his performance in "Big Fan" at the international "2morrow" film festival held in Moscow, Russia, in 2010.
