XL Fortunate 500

Film stars

People who light up the Austin movie social scene

By Chris Garcia
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

She gets up; then she sits down. Up, then down. There she goes again. Up, down, up, down.

Hey, up front!

Rebecca Campbell can be the worst kind of moviegoer. All upping and downing. Distracted, fidgety, her mind reeling like spools on the projector, but showing a different movie entirely. At the recent Quentin Tarantino festival, you might have wondered, Is she really making that many bathroom runs?

Campbell is the busy movie lady, an Austin shaker, maker, mover, doer, get-it-doner. For eight years, Campbell has guided the Austin Film Society as its executive director, nurturing the nonprofit to tip-top health, expanding its grant and education programs, luring celebrities to town, mounting film series and festivals like Tarantino's and (trumpet flourish) getting the Texas Film Hall of Fame and Austin Studios up and humming.

She's connected, and she connects. The Austin Film Society is the linchpin of the local movie community, and its fuel. By mingling art with industry and fundraising with plain fun, the group, co-founded in 1986 by Richard Linklater, cross-pollinates discrete Austin interests and makes things happen.

"I love being at a crossroads that I helped build, where people from different walks of life come together," says Campbell, a native Virginian who came to Austin in 1992 to be a graduate film student at the University of Texas. She has a great laugh.

Her job "requires me to be out and about, and in social settings I can move the film society's agenda forward," she says.

You can imagine the stress. All that handshaking. All those teensy sandwiches and free martinis.

"Since I'm basically an introvert, I'm amazed that I've thrived in such a socially driven job," Campbell, 48, says. "But whenever I lose my bearings I know exactly what to do: go to one of the society's Essential Cinema screenings at the Alamo Drafthouse and let cinema do its magic."

Hers will be the seat that's empty half the time.

Paul Alvarado–Dykstra
Fantastic Fest, Villa Muse Studios

Elizabeth Avellan
'Sin City'

Gary Bond

Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau

Matt Dentler
South by Southwest Film

Andrew Garrison
University of Texas

Katy Hackerman and Robert Walker
Austin Film Society, Matinee Media, Marfa Public Radio

Kyle Henry and Carlos Treviño
'Room,' Physical Plant Theatre

Don Howard
'Ride Around the World'

Kier-La Janisse
Alamo Drafthouse

Mike Judge
Austin Film Society, 'King of the Hill,' 'Office Space,' 'Idiocracy'

Harry Knowles
Ain't It Cool News

Karrie and Tim League
Alamo Drafthouse

Richard Linklater
Austin Film Society, 'A Scanner Darkly,' 'Fast Food Nation'

Suzanne and Tim McCanlies
'A Spell for Chameleon'

Marsha Milam
Milam & Company

Barbara Morgan
Austin Film Festival

Carolyn Pfeiffer
Burnt Orange Productions

Janet and John Pierson
University of Texas, Austin Film Society

Carol Pirie
Texas Film Commission

Jerm Pollet
The Sinus Show, Total Foxes

Bryan Poyser
'Dear Pillow,' 'The Cassidy Kids'

Robert Rodriguez
'Sin City,' Austin Film Society

Tom Schatz
UT Film Institute

Paul Stekler
Austin Film Society, University of Texas, 'Real World: Austin'

Lonny Stern
Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival

Jacob Vaughn
'Dear Pillow,' 'The Cassidy Kids'

Alexa and Blaine Wesner
Austin Film Society, Arthouse, Austin Museum of Art

Cyndi Williams and David Jones
'Room,' Refraction Arts

Steve Wilson
UT Ransom Center