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October 2011
South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival announces first round of panels
The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival has announced the first sessions for its 2012 event. Highlights from the first round of panels include Cliff Martinez, the composer of the score from the Ryan Gosling film ‘Drive’ and the return of fest favorite Jeffrey Tambor, whose acting workshop is always informative and entertaining.
Panels with Austin ties include In The Cut: Editing A Killer Editing Sample, organized by former Austin filmmaker Kyle Henry, Branded Documentary: Cause Marketing’s Best Media?, organized by David Modigliani of Flow Nonfiction, Everything is a Remix; So Steal Like an Artist, organized by Austin artist Austin Kleon and Speed Tweaks: How Fast Can Audiences Drive Edits?, from Modigliani’s co-worker at Flow Nonfiction, Matt Naylor.
The 19th annual festival will be held March 9 through 17. For more information on the panels or to purchase badges, visit www.sxsw.com/film. Deadline for film submissions is November 1.
Photo: Jeffrey Tambor attends the opening night film party at SXSW in 2009. (Chris Garcia AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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Violet Crown using ‘Take Shelter’ screenings to raise funds for Texas Filmmaker Production Fund
The Violet Crown Cinema in downtown Austin will donate $2 to the Texas Filmmaker Production Fund for each ‘Take Shelter’ ticket purchased by Austin Film Society members. Members must present their membership card at the cinema when attending the screening. Austinite Jeff Nichols’ film about a family man suffering from crippling anxiety opens at 12:30 p.m. this Friday at the Violet Crown.
“The Austin Film Society has made a direct impact on my life as a filmmaker through the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund,” Nichols said. “It’s integral to supporting and sustaining the strong community of filmmakers in Texas. I’m proud to be a part of AFS and this program.”
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Jason Reitman discusses influences of Linklater and Rodriguez at secret screening of ‘Young Adult’
Director Jason Reitman said Monday night at the Alamo Drafthouse that he’s always wanted to make the type of movies that would play film festivals. It’s slightly ironic then that on the night of the surprise secret screening of his Diablo Cody-penned film “Yong Adult,” there was a film festival going on right down the street.
But apparently this go around, the powers that be decided to sneak preview his new movie to audiences at similar screenings instead of going the festival route. That’s kind of like saying you want to avoid your ex-girlfriend and then hanging out at the grocery store where she shops.
All of that said, “Young Adult,” the story of a depressed and delusional 30-something (Charlize Theron) ghost writer of young adult fiction who returns home to the small town of Mercury, Minnesota to attempt to steal her ex-boyfriend from his wife and newborn child, played to two packed and appreciative houses at the Drafthouse last night.
Reitman and co-star Patton Oswalt took to the stage before the surprise screening, and though it seemed most in the audience knew what to expect, the two joked that the crowd was about to be treated to “Happy Feet 2.”
We will hold our review until the movie hits theaters in December, but we can say that Oswalt gives a great performance as a damaged and likable-but-unloved former classmate of the quintessential mean girl played by Theron, who is simply amazing here, using her exceptional talents to make a gorgeous but pathetic and mean-spirited woman somehow slightly sympathetic.
The “Juno” director and the cinephile comedian took the stage for a Q&A session following the screening. While much of the discussion centered on “Young Adult,” Reitman did discuss what led him to becoming a filmmaker. Though the son of “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman said he grew up loving movies and practically living at the local cineplex, he said he did not realize that he wanted to be a director until he came across the work of a couple of Austinites. Reitman credited watching “Slacker” and reading Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” as inspiring him to want to make the kinds of films he makes.
Photo: Patton Oswalt and Jason Reitman at a secret screening of “Young Adult” at the Alamo Drafthouse on October 24. Jack Plunkett ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE
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James Franco discusses ‘Sal’ on the red carpet
Below is some of what he had to say.
On why he chose to tell the story of Sal Mineo by focusing on the last day of his life:
“I’m very interested in I guess what you would call biopics or movies that are based on the lives of people I look up to. But I’m also interested in not using the traditional biopic form. After doing some research on Sal and reading this new biography I realized that during the last day of his life, he was doing everything that he loved, everything that was important to him. So there was actually a way to tell the arc of his whole life by just focusing on the details of his last day. To me that made the project much more interesting, granted I already thought he was already an interesting subject, but formally I thought that would be a very interesting way to go.”
On what drew Franco to wanting to tell Mineo’s story:
“He was an actor I liked very much and whose work I respected a lot, but in addition to that he also had what I would consider a tragic story of having a lot of success early on and then falling out of favor and not being able to practice his art in the way that he once could. To me that’s a tragedy. Despite all that, the last day of his life he was very passionate about acting and movies and his work, and that was something I really respected. I guess there’s a lot of thing there — just him as a person but also the way his story applies to a lot of people.”
On the Small and Creepy short films programing, which he considered one of his highlights at the festival, from Caroline Thompson (‘Edward Scissorhands’), Steve Nicolaides and Micah Van Hove:
“Those are great. I was very impressed by their website and what they’re doing there and bringing those kinds of films together. So we enjoyed those a lot.”
Photo: James Franco at the Austin Film Festival screening of ‘Sal’ on Sunday, October 23. Jack Plunkett AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL.
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AFF capsule review: ‘Cinema is Everywhere’
The beginning of the documentary features brief introductions to the four main storylines and their participants. In Scotland, film programmer and author Mark Cousins sets out to create a rolling micro film festival with his friend, actress Tilda Swinton, that will take the power of cinema across his native land. Netra Pandarkar struggles against racial stereotypes to find work as an actress in India. A group of Chinese students work to produce a short film in Hong Kong, and in Tunisia, filmmaker Karim Souaki fights against institutional silence to tell the story of a human rights activist who openly brings his story of living with AIDS to a culture unaccustomed to engaging in such dialogue.
The film bounces between each of these four locales, using the specifics of varied personal stories with film to talk about the medium’s effect on a universal level. While each of the stories reveal the important role film plays as a personal and cultural force, Swinton is most effective in succinctly encapsulating the unique power of cinema, which she calls ‘an invitation to acknowledge you are not alone.’
‘Cinema Is Everywhere’ is a love letter to the joy, beauty, pain and importance of a tool and art form that in 24 frames per second can express our deepest hopes and fears and connect us all.
‘Cinema Is Everywhere’ screens again Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Regal Arbor.
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Mike Judge presents premiere episode of ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’
Austinite Mike Judge screened 16 minutes (the show’s opening segment was missing) of the first ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ episode for the home crowd Sunday night at the Paramount Theatre as part of the Austin Film Festival.
Everyone picked up where we left off 14 years ago when the show went off the air, with the two endearing teenage fools still making the same awesomely dumb jokes and the audience once again roaring with laughter.
In the premiere episode, which airs Thursday night on MTV, the boys, inspired by seeing “Twilight,” try and get a werewolf to bite them so they can become the undead and thus more attractive to hot, young women. It does not go well.
The glorious goofs turn their sophomoric brand of scathing wit on MTV family members “The Jersey Shore” and “16 and Pregnant,” lampooning the reality programs and their easy-target casts. When Beavis and Butt-Head think you’re stupid, it’s really time to look in the mirror. The jokes made at Snooki and J Woww’s expense are particularly priceless.
In the Q&A following the show, Judge said that the episodes would generally focus on making jokes at the expense of MTV shows and not music videos. In the 90s, he says, bands wanted their videos on MTV regardless of context, but as bands have come to rely less on video airplay, they seem to be a little more sensitive of being joke fodder. On the original iteration of ‘Beavis and Butt-Head,’ Judge and co. could air any video they wanted, but now bands have to sign off on their videos being used. Sensitive rock stars.
Judge jokingly said he brought the boys back because he thought “TV was getting too smart.”
With many a fanboy (and girl in the audience), the Q&A with Judge had more awkward gushing than sessions with Johnny Depp and James Franco over the weekend.
As for what fans can expect from the new episodes, Judge said that most of the original characters will be back, and he has received so many requests for Daria, that she, too, may return.
Those who love Beavis’ alter-ego can look forward to episode four, ‘Holy Cornholio,’ in which a cult turns to the amphetamized clown as their leader.
Sunday night was a great reminder that sometimes you want something and don’t even realize it. The time seems ripe for ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ to return to our living rooms and conjure the immature kid in all of us.
Season premiere of ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’
Thursday, October 27
9 p.m.
MTV
Photo by Cliff Cheney FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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AFF review: ‘The Rum Diary’
“The Rum Diary” begins the way you’d expect for a Hunter S. Thompson story — soaked in booze with an eye toward the gluttony and glitz of the American dream.
Dean Martin croons “Volare” as a cherry red plane soars above the azure Caribbean. Inside the ironically named Xanadu Hotel, however, things are not going so smoothly.
Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) staggers through discarded miniature liquor bottles, narrowly avoiding the overturned minibar, and draws open the curtain. The tropical sunshine electrifies his sunken eyes. From the window he spots the plane that smears the sky like a kiss, trailing behind it a sign welcoming representatives from Union Carbide.
It’s 1960 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and wealthy Americans are jaunting down to the playground by the sea. But the besotted Paul Kemp has come for work, not play. At least that’s the impression he tries to give his new boss.
Kemp reports to the offices of The Daily News in San Juan to meet with the ailing paper’s increasingly disillusioned editor, Lotterman (a funny and mildly frantic Richard Jenkins), who immediately inquires to the alcohol consumption rate of his new charge. “The upper end of social,” Kemp quips, Depp’s voice a fresher version of the mad murmurs he perfected as Thompson in the film version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
Thompson, who died in 2005, began “The Rum Diary,” one of his first works, in the early 1960s but put it in a drawer before finally, at the urging of publishers and his own financial interests, publishing it in 1998. The novel offers a fictionalized account of the literary giant’s time as a journalist in late-’50s Puerto Rico. Written by director Bruce Robinson (“Withnail and I”), Kemp’s early dialogue purrs (Thompson had not yet reached full-throated growl) to Thompson’s rhythm, and it is a joy to hear Depp once again conjuring his dear friend.
Kemp begrudgingly accepts his assignment to cover bowling tournaments and other innocuous events that would not disturb American tourists over coffee, but focuses most of his energy on savoring the pleasure of the island. Accompanied by a bearded fellow booze-loving journalist named Sala (Michael Rispoli playing a scrappy hound dog to Benicio del Toro’s raging bull in “Fear and Loathing”), Kemp drinks and carouses, eventually finding his way into the presence of blonde beauty Chenault (former Austinite Amber Heard).
The temptress happens to be the arm candy of conniving American real estate investor Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), who wants to bribe Kemp into using the power of the press to help set a smokescreen to obscure shady real estate dealings. Sanderson sees the raw beauty of fertile Puerto Rico as “God’s idea of money” and wants Kemp to help him pry open the cash box.
As he comes to understand the duplicitous machinations of Sanderson and his cronies, Kemp revolts at the seedy underbelly of the American dream and its deleterious effect on the people of Puerto Rico. Eschewing the beat he was assigned, Kemp travels to the rural areas of San Juan and finds his sympathies lying with the island’s impoverished residents.
Supported by Sala and their drug-addled and misunderstood colleague Moburg (a tattered and frayed Giovanni Ribisi), Kemp sets to bring truth to power and keep the struggling newspaper afloat amid a culture of corruption.
“It’s the smell of bastards, it’s also the smell of truth,” Kemp says of the newspaper’s ink. With the film stammering toward its climax, you can finally start to really hear Thompson’s voice and the nascent stages of his rage, but the justifiable moral outrage feels welded onto the end of the episodic romp.
Kemp’s love affair with Chenault never finds its legs. The mystery and conspiracy surrounding the land dealings never provide a sense of danger, possibly due to the incoherent story, and the cultural and political themes introduced early in the film lose steam as the narrative hops around the island.
“The Rum Diary” intrigues as a backstory to the beginnings of Thompson’s Gonzo philosophy and lifestyle, and the movie at times takes flight with a sense reckless abandon, such as a brief opium-induced hallucination scene and a night of hard drinking that ends with Kemp and pals tossed in jail. But ultimately it falls victim to the same lack of form that hampered Thompson’s novel.
Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (“Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Sweeney Todd”) renders Puerto Rico as a beautiful Technicolor postcard, and Depp, enabled by some inspired bouts of writing by Robinson, slips easily back into Thompson’s skin. But “The Rum Diary” feels like a tale told by a drunk: colorful, disjointed, ambling, confusing and entertaining but eventually unsatisfying.
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‘Sal’ plays the AFF
James Franco introduced his new film “Sal” to Austin audiences Sunday at the Paramount, and he said he wanted “to warn” moviegoers that they were not going to be seeing some of the more popular fare in which he has starred.
Thao Nguyen FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
More photos of James Franco at the Austin Film Festival
Instead, he said, “Sal” was intended to be a “small, humble movie,” detailing the final day in the life of Sal Mineo, who was murdered in West Hollywood in 1976.
Val Lauren stars as the title character, who’s trying to make a comeback in Hollywood after hitting it big in the 1950s in “Rebel Without a Cause” and with the later “Exodus.” The movie doesn’t provide much of a backstory, but it’s clear that Mineo has fallen on hard times. He lives in a small apartment in West Hollywood, and he’s getting ready to star in a theater production with Keir Dullea, who apparently was less than a stellar performer. (Dullea couldn’t remember his lines, Mineo complains.)
Mineo also is trying to get a movie made. And it involves a gay male prostitute. One of the opening scenes deals with Mineo’s insistence that the script remain untouched, despite clear indications from his agent that the studio would like to tone down the material. For those who don’t know, Mineo was one of the first actors in Hollywood to acknowledge his homosexuality.
As Mineo, Lauren gives a very good performance, capturing the hurt of a movie star who made a career of his “boyishness” but faced difficulties in maintaining that on-screen charm as someone in his 30s.
Franco seems content to focus on small but telling scenes, showing how Mineo related to neighbors in his apartment complex. One scene with a small dog is particularly touching.
But Franco deals rather gingerly with the actual death of Mineo. There was much speculation about the fatal stabbing of Mineo in the alley behind his apartment complex. Franco, however, keeps the focus on the official story. And perhaps he’s right to do so. But when an audience becomes emotionally invested in a person’s story, that audience might want a more complete explanation of that person’s death. And it’s hard not to feel the same way about “Sal.” Then again, sometimes life and death resist clear answers.
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‘Shame’ stuns AFF crowd
“Shame” lived up to its pre-festival buzz late Saturday, as the harrowing movie starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mullgan played to a packed house at the Arbor.
Fassbender plays a lonely sex addict who has the uncanny ability of being sexual with lots of women, but he is never actually able to be with the women emotionally. It’s as though the sex act is the only goal, and that relationships are meaningless.
The movie opens with a naked Fassbender, as Brandon, walking around his apartment as he listens to voicemails from his sister Sissy, played by Carey Mulligan. It turns out that the sister is having romantic troubles and wants to crash at his apartment.
“Shame” has been controversial, in part, because of Fassbender’s full-frontal nudity in the opening scenes. But the nudity isn’t gratuitous. Instead, director Steve McQueen is steering us to the obvious conclusion that in Brandon’s world, the body and its parts are far more important than anything else.
Fassbender gives a harrowing performance as he manages to smile seductively and pick up various women, only to run if there’s any chance that the two might become emotionally close. A dating scene is particularly revelatory when Brandon is asked why he’s unable to sustain any relationship. He basically says that he doesn’t see the point.
As Sissy, Mulligan hints that the two siblings come from a rather broken and bizarre family, although nothing is ever explained. She has numerous scars on her wrists after multiple suicide attempts. And as a parallel to his sister, Brandon apparently is addicted to the so-called little deaths of orgasms.
McQueen, who previously directed Fassbender in the IRA prisoner tale “Hunger,” has a knack for pushing his actors to the limit. In “Hunger,” Fassbender went on a hunger strike and ended up looking like skin and bones, literally. And Fassbender, as well as Mulligan, seem more than willing to go where McQueen wishes. Mulligan has a full-frontal scene as well.
It’s obvious that the actors trust McQueen. Their trust is well-placed.
Both Fassbender and Mulligan could easily get Oscar nominations for their performances, but “Shame” is a small arthouse film, so nothing is guaranteed come awards time.
Regardless, the Austin crowd was stoked about the regional premiere. Far more people showed up for Saturday night’s screening at the Arbor than the theater could hold. And some people who were turned away were obviously upset. Representatives of the Austin Film Festival apologized.
So why didn’t “Shame” play in a larger venue? The distributor requested that “Shame” play in one of the festival’s smaller venues, and the festival complied.
This is becoming a common problem for local festivals. Sometimes movies with big buzz draw huge crowds but end up in smaller venues. (A similar situation occurred with “Winter’s Bone” at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2010.) This situation typically is not caused by festival organizers. Rather, distributors want to build buzz by agreeing to festival screenings but want to limit the theater size in order to maximize ticket sales for the eventual regular opening.
Perhaps that makes sense for distributors, but it doesn’t make the situation any less frustrating for festival-goers. Still, the Austin Film Festival is to be commended for bringing an early screening of “Shame” to town. And the American-Statesman will try to alert its readers to these types of potential problems at future festivals.
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Depp plays the Continental Club
Johnny Depp, who was in town this weekend for the Austin Film Festival, showed up early Sunday morning at the Continental Club.
Sporting the same hat that he wore to the Austin Film Festival Awards Luncheon, Depp took the stage with other musicians, including Billy Gibbons, Bill Carter, Dony Wynn, C.C. Adcock, Andy Salomon and Denny Freeman.
Depp played guitar, and the club was packed to the limit. Various videos of his performance have already cropped up on the Internet.
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Johnny Depp talks Hunter S. Thompson following screening of ‘The Rum Diary’
Johnny Depp and filmmaker Bruce Robinson took the stage following the screening of “The Rum Diary” to take questions from a moderator and the audience.
With the packed house hanging on his every word, Depp discussed his old friend Hunter S. Thompson, whose book was the basis for the film, and how Robinson got involved with the movie. Thompson was actually the man responsible for the idea of bringing Robinson out of an official retirement.
Depp had turned Hunter onto Robinson’s “Withnail and I” and “How to Get Ahead in Advertising,” and the Gonzo writer, according to Depp, “lost his mind, and he lost it over and over and over.” Thompson adored and related to “Withnail,” which Depp said he thinks inspired in the American writer memories of his “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” days.
A seemingly deeply inebriated Robinson, who early in the Q&A said “Oh my god, if you could know what a horrible state I’m in tonight,” discussed his life in England as a garbage collector 40 years ago, when his flat-mate threw “Fear and Loathing in Las Vega” at him, introducing the Brit to the author.
“I couldn’t believe here was this person who was writing in the vernacular that I did,” Robinson said.
Sipping what seemed to be red wine from a Styrofoam cup (we were in a ‘church,’ Depp noted) and at one point going to bended knee to take a question from a charmed female audience member, Depp talked about Thompson’s dichotomous nature of the chivalrous Southern Gentleman and savage maniac.
While “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” chronicled Thompson at his full-throated Gonzo heights, the times around “The Rum Diary” in 1960 were about the native Kentuckian “searching for the avenue of that rage.”
It’s interesting to listen to Depp on the heels of his second portrayal of a Thompson character. The actor’s cadence and phrasing hem closely to that of the great American writer. In discussing a wild night pounding Coronas after filming in Puerto Rico, Depp, in a line that could be pulled from a Thompson story, said, “And then we started to taste the rum.”
It was evident on this night that Depp had his friend, whom he called his “partner in the dream,” in his heart and expressed that Thompson would have loved being at the Paramount Friday night
“He would be as irreverent and insane and as beautiful as he always was,” he said. “He’s a guy who I miss every day and every night.”
Photo: Bruce Robinson and Johnny Depp on stage at the Austin Film Festival screening of their movie “The Rum Diary.” Jack Plunkett ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Video: Johnny Depp discusses communing with Hunter S. Thompson on set of ‘The Rum Diary’
We talked to Depp about dabbing Chivas behind his ears and keeping the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson on the set of ‘The Rum Diary.’
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AFF panel wrap: The Art & Craft of Screenwriting #2
Panelists: Kiel Murray, Scott Rosenberg, Amy Talkington, Herschel Weingrod Moderated by Barry Josephson
Often some of the most enjoyable parts of your day at a film festival are the unplanned ones. I originally intended to see Shane Black speak Friday morning, but his popularity proved to vast for the Citadel Room, which was at capacity and closed to those who, like I, arrived at 10:45 a.m.
Plans squashed, I called an audible and went to the vague sounding The Art & Craft of Screenwriting #2. While the names Kiel Murray (“Cars”), Scott Rosenberg (“Beautiful Girls”), Amy Talkington (the upcoming “Private Benjamin” remake) and Herschel Weingrod (“Trading Places”) may not be as well known as Black, the writers all have an impressive roster of credits.
Murray discussed the long process of getting a Pixar movie from idea to screen, saying that each movie “lives in story for a really long time.” The writer joked that she is not sure new writers at Pixar really want to know how difficult the work will be, as it is a “long, collaborative process” very different from the style in which most screenwriters are used to working.
I have long considered “Trading Places” one of the 10 funniest movies of all time, so it was a personal treat to get to hear Weingrod talk about how that movie, which he considered both subversive and commercial, got made. The original idea came from two brothers he knew who were doctors and hated each other and constantly cheated trying to beat one another in competition.
Though Rosenberg has penned such scripts as “Beautiful Girls” and “High Fidelity,” he also spent several years cranking out actioners for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, about which he has a good sense of humor. Rosenberg said that in discussing the script for “Con Air,” Bruckheimer wanted a huge finale. The writer thought having a jet airplane land on the Vegas strip should suffice, so he arrogantly quipped something about a massive fire truck chase scene. The producer loved it. Only doing a snuff film at the end would have satisfied Jerry Bruckheimer’s blood lust, he said to much laughter.
In terms of the craft of writing, Rosenberg said that after living with the idea for a period of time, he likes to sit down and just list the beats 1-80 to help him organize his thoughts. He also said he likes to use a different color pen each day so he has a physical representation of his progress. Weingrod said that getting out of being pigeonholed as a writer can be difficult and that he had considered using a pseudonym and a fake backstory to get different work. Rosenberg expanded on the idea, suggesting actually casting a young girl in the role as the writer and sending her to pitch meetings.
“It would work, sadly,” Talkington said.
Sounds like a good movie to me. A behind-the-scenes look at the art of art of screenwriting, or at least story conceiving, in action.
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AFF presents 2011 awards
It’s hard to upstage Johnny Depp, especially when the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star is wearing a rakish hat, but John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, did just that Saturday at the annual Austin Film Festival Awards Luncheon.
“Toy Story” creator Lasseter, who received the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award, offered a moving tribute to the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who acquired Pixar Animation Studios in 1986.
Lasseter, who had never directed anything but shorts at the time, said Saturday that when he approached his new boss at their first meeting with the idea of doing an animated movie about toys being alive, Jobs turned to him and said simply, “Make it great.”
When 1995’s phenomenally successful “Toy Story” went on to win a special Oscar as the first feature-length computer-animated film, Lasseter said he handed the award to Jobs at a celebratory dinner, and Jobs just said, “Was that great enough for you?”
“Pixar wouldn’t exist without Steve Jobs,” Lasseter said of the computer company legend who died earlier this month after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Depp, who received the Extraordinary Contribution to Film - Acting Award, said that he had built “a career on 20 years of failures before ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ” in 2003. But a video clip that introduced him to the crowd at the Austin Club downtown belied such modesty. The video showed him in a wide variety of performances, from “Edwards Scissorhands” to “Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street.”
Depp also delivered an award to his longtime friend, screenwriter Caroline Thompson, who wrote “Scissorhands” and helped launch Depp’s movie career. Thompson, who received the Distinguished Screenwriter Award, said she was nervous as she grabbed Depp’s shoulder for moral support. But she said she learned how to get over her nervousness when appearing before a crowd: “Just picture them sitting on the toilet.”
Television star Emily Deschanel of “Bones,” via video, congratulated Hart Hanson on receiving the Outstanding Television Writer Award, and said that the audience would be able to spot the series creator because of his “bad haircut.” After Hanson was introduced by “Bones” co-star David Boreanaz, the writer quipped that he couldn’t stop thinking about how his hair looked.
Other awards presented Saturday at the 18th annual festival were:
Narrative feature: “Harold’s Going Stiff,” written by Keith Wright.
Narrative short: “Salar,” written by Nicholas Greene.
Narrative student short: “Little Horses,” written by Levi Abrino and Luke Matheny.
Documentary feature: “Darwin,” directed by Nick Brandestini.
Documentary short: “Abuelas,” directed by Afarin Eghbal.
Animated short: “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” written by William Joyce.
Sitcom spec: “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” by Tracy Reilly.
Comedy: “Goodbye, Felix Chester,” by Max Taxe.
One-hour spec: “Boardwalk Empire: This Side of Paradise,” by James Bogdanski.
Drama: “Cutter,” by Dion Cook.
Sitcom pilot: “Back to Normal,” by Matthew Kellard.
Latitude Productions Award: “Deep Burial,” by Adam Gyngell and Fred Fernandez-Armesto.
One-hour pilot: “Haunted” by Patrick Kevn Day and Andrew Hanson.
Dark Hero Studios Sci-Fi Award: “Melissa’s Kaleidoscope,” by Lemuel James.
Photo: Producer Barry Josephson, writer Hart Hanson, screenwriter Caroline Thompson, actor Johnny Depp, animator John Lasseter and Austin Film Festival’s Barbara Morgan at the 2011 Austin Film Festival award luncheon.The award ceremony was held at the Austin Club in Austin, Texas on October 22. Cliff Cheney FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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AFF capsule review: ‘You Hurt My Feelings’
John lies sprawled motionless on the floor, poked and prodded by a young child. He follows the 3-year old and her toddler sister out to a near-frozen lake. He is a portrait of domestic confusion, his face a blank stare hiding what … sadness … regret … confusion? Likely all of the above. But he does his best to summon his paternal instinct and nurture the children.
Then, one of the best reveals I’ve seen in a movie this year. The mother arrives home and pays John. They aren’t his kids. This hapless soul is the most unexpected of baby-sitters.
The kids it seems are John’s attempt to drag himself into a world of responsibility. The results are uneven to say the least. They have touched his heart, but the small warmth inside has not radiated to the surface.
John uses his new charges to try to persuade his ex-girlfriend Courtney that he is worthy of her love and respect. But to get to her, he must first dispose of her current boyfriend, a bit of a John doopelganger with more (unearned) confidence. The trouble is, John takes a bit of a liking to the guy.
Over the course of a year, John regains and loses yet again the woman he loves, while struggling to come to terms with his inadequacies and fears. Despondent and stuck, Courtney is in only slightly better shape than John.
The movie from former Austinite Steve Collins is a study in sadness and loneliness, as people try to spark a fire that can melt their frozen lives.
Austinite John Merriman gives a captivating and heart-aching performance as John, his face the portrait of pain and longing. His relationship with the two children (played by Collins’ children) gives the movie its heart and charming unpredictability (after all, you can’t teach a 3-year-old to memorize lines). Courtney Davis brings depth to a character with almost no backstory, and Macon Blair offers a nice bit of levity to a movie that can at times feel as heavy as a wool winter coat.
Collins offers no easy answers but hints that these characters, the crags of whose sad faces we almost enter during the course of the film, may just have a shot at salvation.
“You Hurt My Feelings” screens again Tuesday at 10:15 p.m. at the Texas Spirit Theater
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Capsule review: ‘Sawdust City’
A phone call between brothers serves as voice-over narration for the opening scenes of David Nordstrom’s ‘Sawdust City,’ which had its first Austin Film Festival screening Thursday night at the Texas Spirit Theater.
Dressed in his Navy uniform, Pete has popped back into town and is trying to enlist his older brother Bob in helping him track down their lush father.
Bob seems indifferent about finding the man they have not seen in years, but he seems more than happy to get away from his pregnant wife and her friend this busy Thanksgiving morning.
The two brothers meet at a local dive and begin a besotted slink around town. At first, the more buttoned-up Pete seems reluctant to indulge with the day drinking, but Bob does a good soft sell.
As the two amble in the frozen climate of Eau Claire, Wisc., they slowly begin to uncover long-held grievances, their arguments alternately exacerbated and eased by a quick-talking, yarn-spinning drunk named Gene, a cowboy-hat wearing goofball with more than a slight resemblance to Dennis Hopper in “Easy Rider.”
Family secrets and regrets eventually bubble over as the brothers realize uncomfortable truths about themselves and one another.
The movie is held together by a fantastic screenplay from Nordstrom, who has a wonderful ear for dialogue and whose performance as Bob is bested only by Lee Lynch as Gene.
The backstory of the father and the brothers’ pursuit of him seems a little thin at times, but the plot offers the chance for Nordstrom to show audiences the beauty and loneliness of small-town Wisconsin while investigating the complications of family.
(Side note: The most fascinating part of the movie may be the non-sequitur voice-over radio segments used throughout the movie. The audio oddities from a man who is part John Aielli, part Garrison Keillor come from a Wisconsin radio station that annually receives a gunnysack full of 1/4-inch tapes with the voice of a man named Jack Raymond. Who exactly Raymond is remains a mystery, but he provides some of the movie’s most memorable lines.)
‘Sawdust City’ screens again Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Austin Convention Center.
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Panel wrap: Sustaining a Writing Career Outside of LA
Panelists: James V. Hart, Tim McCanlies, Monte Williams. Moderated by Stuart Kelban
Almost every person in the crowded room to hear these writers talk on Thursday seemed to be from outside Los Angeles. And, judging by the title, they would all be happy continuing to do just that. The catch is, in order to survive as a writer outside Los Angeles, it seems first you need to go into the belly of the beast, at least for a bit. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing according to these gents.
Despite the title, the panelists spent the first 20 minutes talking about the benefits of living in L.A. They also made it clear that in order to get in the door, it helps to go out to L.A. and learn the ropes — how pitches work, how to get meetings, what execs expect.
This was undoubtedly a bummer but probably not shocking to hear. Each of the men has found a way to maintain a career in Texas (McCanlies, Montgomery) and New York (Hart). But even they still head out west with some regularity. After all, it is home of most of the money and decision makers.
Hart made clear that one should not go to L.A. with the expectation of sticking your hand out and getting a job. Go with multiple scripts and pitch ideas, he said, always ready to answer the question, “OK, what else do you have?”
McCanlies made it clear that, unlike when he first went to L.A. years ago, script development farms at studios just don’t exist anymore. But the city does offer the easiest access to filmmakers, people who may be interested in working with writers.
How does one get in front of these people in L.A. in order to start and sustain their careers? The men suggested finding a manager. How do you find one of those? The Internet to the rescue.
For purely logistical reasons, Hart says he loves living out east. The time difference allows him to get hours of writing done before most in Hollywood wake up. Of course Hollywood likely won’t be beating down the door of any folks in the room at the Driskill on Thursday. Not yet, anyhow.
How to make that happen: Write, write, write. And, as Montgomery reminded, get a day job, hopefully one you like, even better if it is tangentially related to writing. And realize, before you can be a paid writer at home, you’ll likely need to go to L.A. first.
The good news, according to all? People in Hollywood are always looking for great scripts.
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‘Butter’ provides laughs as AFF opens
“Butter,” a political satire about Iowa butter carvers and the intrigue behind the annual state contest, opened the Austin Film Festival Thursday night and provided plenty of laughs.
Jennifer Garner stars as Laura Pickler, the driven, obsessive wife of champion butter carver Bob Pickler (TV star Ty Burrell). Bob Pickler has dominated butter carving for many years, and his rendition of the Last Supper in butter has made him a legend. But contest organizers think Bob has dominated the contest for too long.
Mrs. Pickler does not approve of the request for Bob to step aside, so she enters the upcoming butter-carving contest in an attempt to keep the prize in the Pickler family. But there’s a catch. There’s a new kid in town — a young African American foster child named Destiny (Yara Shahidi). And it turns out that Destiny has a knack for carving butter.
As you might imagine, Laura Pickler becomes quite upset when Destiny challenges her for the butter-carving title.
Both Garner and Shahidi shine in their roles, but Shahidi is the revelation. She narrates the movie, and her wry commentary about the strange ways of white people is a hoot.
Olivia Wilde, who had little to do in the recent “Cowboys and Aliens,” has a great supporting role as a stripper who has a past with Bob Pickler.
Before the premiere at the Paramount, screenwriter Jason A. Miccalef said he was nervous about having to do a Q&A on stage. But he handled himself well, with wry quips and a bit of explanation.
Miccalef says he wrote the script after the 2008 election, which, of course, featured the rise of Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket. But Miccalef tried to muddy the waters when asked whether Garner’s character was a riff on Palin. He noted that Palin has recently faded from political contention, but that another person has popped up in her place, an obvious reference to another, current female GOP contender.
Jim Field Smith directs “Butter,” and the movie has been picked up for distribution by the Weinstein Company. Miccalef said before the screening that the distributor wanted to see how conservative audiences might respond to “Butter,” so a screening was held in Houston. Miccalef said everyone was relieved when the movie was received positively. It’s a comedy, after all, and it tries to balance political commentary with humor.
After the screening, the scene downtown was hopping. No seats were available in the bar area of the Roaring Fork, near the Paramount. And the Driskill bar area was packed, as people watched the World Series on big-screen TVs and listened to the lively music of Shotgun Party. Hundreds more lined up outside the Paramount for the later screening of the dark drama “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” starring former Austin resident John Hawkes.
This year’s festival is shaping up as one of the best. And with the arrival of Johnny Depp this weekend, it’ll have plenty of star power as well.
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Whit Stillman considers move to Austin
Director Whit Stillman, the quintessential New Yorker known for such movies as “Metropolitan” and “The Last Days of Disco,” says he is considering relocating to Austin.
Stillman, who was in town to discuss screenwriting and present “Metropolitan” at the Austin Film Festival, has a new movie called “Damsels in Distress,” but it’s his first in 12 years. He spent much of the last decade in Europe, but recently returned to New York.
Before a panel session on developing characters on Thursday, Stillman said that he has been spending most of his time traveling in recent months, and that New York is “an expensive place to just hang my hat.”
If he leaves New York, he said, he’s considering Miami and Austin. He has friends and acquaintances in Miami, but he said Austin’s create scene “seems to be bubbling up.”
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AFF screenwriting competition success story Julie Howe
The AFF screenwriting competition received a record 5,800 submissions this year. Any of those writers would likely give their Mac Book for the success of 2010 comedy competition winner Julie Howe.
Howe, who is co-producing her “Jasper Milliken” screenplay with Experience Media, found out last Thursday that Jonathan Lynn (“My Cousin Vinny”) has come on board to direct the comedy about a psychic 8-year-old orphan. The film is scheduled to begin filming in the spring.
The Pebble Beach, Calif., resident told me at the fest’s opening remarks that her career was launched at the Austin Film Festival. A former business owner, Howe sold her company in 2005 to focus solely on writing. She says those scared to make the bold move to chase their dreams of being a writer should “get unscared.” She also stressed the importance of taking classes, owning your craft and, of course, hitting festivals.
“Go to fests like this that champion screenwriters,” said Howe, who was acknowledged at the fest’s welcoming panel. “There is no place like the Austin Film Festival for that.”
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Important reminder to badge and pass holders about lines
Special screenings programmer Kelly Williams was pegged as the man to deliver the sobering news to the folks at the welcome session this morning at the Driskill Hotel.
All badge and film pass holders must be at the theater and in line at least 25 minutes before screenings. Those arriving later will be relegated to the purchased-tickets line.
You snooze, you lose. Important to note, with weekend street closures because of the Texas Book Festival and other events downtown, attendees should allow for extra travel time to venues.
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Kasdan, Black and Morgan welcome folks to Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival director Barbara Morgan and her programming team welcomed festival goers to the eight-day film frenzy Thursday morning in the Driskill Hotel Ballroom.
The witty Morgan went over organizational and logistical details, including warning attendees about weekend closures on Congress Avenue and navigating downtown. To get to the Rollins Theater at the Long Center, she said New Yorkers could easily walk the less-than-a-mile trip from downtown, while those visiting from Los Angeles would want to jump in a cab. She also made it clear that attendees should “work the fest,” introduce themselves to industry pros and strangers, to make the most of the festival experience.
Following some words from the panels and films programming teams, “Lethal Weapon” writer and AFF vet Shane Black welcomed guests, admitting he was jealous of their energy, hunger and beauty. Calling AFF the “absolute best festival,” Black said he loves to come to Austin and swim in the excitement, taking the time to touch bottom with fellow writers before resurfacing.
Legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (“Empire Strikes Back”) then spoke briefly. The AFF board member promised to be more positive in his advice to aspiring filmmakers this year. After all, he said, “This conference is about the possibility of light at the end of the tunnel.”
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18 year-old Austinite Hagins has latest feature purchased for distribution
Most 18 year-olds are busy applying to college or looking for a job. Austin filmmaker Emily Hagins is busy making deals. The teenage filmmaker, who made her debut feature film, “Pathogen,” at the age of 12, has had her horror film “My Sucky Teen Romance” purchased by MPI Media Group, according to Variety.
The movie that made its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year will have a spring 2012 release followed by DVD release and Video on Demand.
“The buzz over ‘My Sucky Teen Romance’ started at the SXSW festival, and we feel fortunate to be a part of what is a breakthrough for Emily Hagins,” MPI VP Greg Newman told Variety. “We look forward to introducing Emily and her wonderful film to the North American audience. She has remarkable filmmaking instincts and vision, and we anticipate great things from her in the years to come.”
From the archives: Teen filmmaker Emily Hagins and her horror film are the subject of the Austin documentary ‘Zombie Girl: The Movie’
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Johnny Depp coming to Austin Film Festival
Depp will be busy Friday night in Austin. Along with screenwriter Caroline Thompson, he will introduce the retrospective screening of Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” and present his new film based on the book of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson. On Saturday, Depp will receive the first-ever Extraordinary Contribution to Film - Acting award and present Thompson with her award for screenwriting.
Photo: Johnny Depp arrives at the premiere of “The Rum Diary” in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. “The Rum Diary” opens in theaters Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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Mike Judge to debut new ‘Beavis and Butthead’ at Austin Film Festival
The episode is said to involve gags surrounding “Jersey Shore” and Ultimate Fighting, and Dutch director Tom Six said at Fantastic Fest that his “Human Centipede” would also be referenced. We will just have to wait and see.
Following the 7 p.m. screening, there will be a party for Producers Badge holders at Frank. Uh, huh, get it? Hot dogs.
We last caught up with Judge before the release of his 2008 movie “Extract.” Read that interview here.
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James Franco coming to Austin Film Festival
Hold onto your hats, ladies (and gentlemen), James Franco will be visiting Austin for the screening of his film “Sal” at the Austin Film Festival on Sunday, October 23.
Maybe the uber-active artist, scholar, actor and filmmaker will also find time to take some classes at UT or direct a play.
Franco will introduce the film he co-wrote and directed and participate in a Q&A following the screening. The film details the final hours of actor Sal Mineo (“Rebel Without a Cause”). Franco’s film eschews the traditional biopic narrative for a close look of the last day’s of the actor’s life in 1976.
The film co-stars Val Lauren, Jim Parrack, Brian Goodman, Eva Lauren, Vince Jolivette and Stacey Miller.
The festival also announced today that “Bones” star David Boreanaz will present the award for Outstanding Television Writer to the show’s creator, Hart Hanson, and participate in a special presentation of an episode of the Fox show on October 22.
As previously noted, this year’s script reading, always at AFF, will be Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi’s “The Nice Guys,” and it was announced today that “Hung” star Thomas Jane will participate.
For more information on Austin Film Festival, visit austinfilmfestival.com.
Photo from Associated Press.
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Alamo Village to close for close to two weeks, get new neighbor, The Goodnight
The Alamo Drafthouse Village will be closing for almost two weeks on Monday for renovations, reports the Statesman’s Gary Dinges. The construction project will add about 1,000 square feet to the lobby area of the movie theater.
The new lobby at the Drafthouse is not the only change coming to the Village Shopping Center. The Goodnight, an entertainment venue offering bowling, beer, billiards, cocktails and a restaurant will go into the 16,000-square-foot spot vacated by Fuddruckers earlier this year.
“The Goodnight will be a one-of-a-kind hot spot, perfect for everything from happy-hour cocktails to the late-night party scene,” general manager Stan Smith said.
Sounds kind of similar to Alamo South neighbor The Highball.
For more information on the changes at the Alamo Village and its new neighbor, The Goodnight, check out the story on Statesman.com.
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New co-chair named for AFF food gala
Actress Alexis Bledel will be the honorary co-chair for the 9th Annual Film & Food Gala, The Austin Film Festival has announced. Actress America Ferrara, who planned on co-chairing the event, will not attend because of a work conflict.
Bledel will be joined by writer/director Ryan Piers William.
A native of Houston, Bledel recently appeared with James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn in Robert Redford’s period drama “The Conspirator.”
The event will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at the Driskill Hotel and kicks off the 18th Annual Festival and Conference.
Tickets are $90, $75 for AFF members and badge holders. Call 512.478.4795 or visit austinfilmfestival.com for tickets
Austin Film Festival announces opening, closing and centerpiece films
Bookending the festival is closing night film “Union Square.” The movie from director Nancy Savoca, whose greatest success came with a Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival for her 1989 debut “True Love,” tells the story of two sisters (Mira Sorvino and Tammy Blanchard) with personalities at opposite ends of the spectrum who end up careening towards each other and a series of life-altering truths. Academy Award winner Sorvino will be in attendance at the October 27 screening.
The heart of the Austin Film Festival will have a decidedly local feel this year, as “Jeff Who Lives at Home,” the latest feature from University of Texas film alumni, brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, will serve as the festival’s centerpiece film. The heartfelt comedy stars Jason Segel and Ed Helms as estranged brothers who set out on a series of misadventures and struggle to reconcile their delusions with reality. “Jeff Who Lives at Home” screens Saturday, October 22 at the Paramount Theatre.
The recently announced opening and closing night films join a lineup that includes Sundance jury winner “Like Crazy,” the George Clooney-starring “The Descendants,” black-and-white silent film “The Artist” and several high-profile Texas-made independent films.
The Austin Film Festival and Conference runs from October 20-27 in downtown Austin.
Photo: Jennifer Garner at the world premiere of “Butter” at the Toronto International Film Festival. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Paramount Theatre gets deadly serious about cell phones in theater
The Paramount Theatre has a new promotion letting its patrons know they are serious when it comes to providing a peaceful and non-distracting environment for films.
Of course, being a hallowed cultural institution with a slightly different public persona than the Drafthouse, the Paramount can’t feature profanity-laced tirades and exploding heads. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t also deadly serious. They have a new campaign featuring two of the ghosts that allegedly haunt the old theater
The Lady in White and The Man with the Cigar both make appearances in the new ads, along with such Paramount employees as Jesse Trussel and Laura Vilches.
The new rules at the Paramount to limit cell phone disruptions are as follows:
1) Inform an usher stationed at nearly all ends of the theatre of the exact patron. Then sit back down and relax.
2) The usher will give one warning and keep an eye on the patron to see if behavior continues.
3) If behavior continues, the usher will bring in the house manager or security to remove the cell user without a refund.
For more information on the Paramount’s policy, visit the theater’s website.
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UT grad’s film named Greece’s official entry for Foreign Language Academy Award
University of Texas graduate Athina Rachel Tsangari’s film “Attenberg” has been named Greece’s official submission for the Foreign Language Academy Award.
Tsangari, a former director of the CinemaTexas Film Festival, served as a lecturer in UT’s RTF department and worked as executive producer on Austin director Bryan Poyser’s “Lovers of Hate.” The filmmaker, daughter of a Greek diplomat father and a French mother, also had a hand in Greece’s submission last year, serving as associate producer on “Dogtooth.”
Greece has had five films qualify as finalists for the Foreign Language Oscar. Nominated in 2010, “Dogtooth” is the most recent to be nominated. The dark comedy lost out to Danish director Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World,” (our interview with Bier here) though many Oscar observers and critics thought Giorgos Lanthimos’ film should have won the award.
Not surprisingly, France and Italy have had more films win the Oscar than any other countries, with Italy narrowly beating out France 13-12. This year France has submitted “Declaration of War” of by Valérie Donzelli and Italy will be represented by Emanuele Crialese’s “Terraferma.”
Greek finalists for Foreign Language Oscar:
1962: “Electra”
1963: “The Red Lanterns”
1965: “Blood on the Land”
1977: “Iphigenia”
2010: “Dogtooth”
Read Alison Macor’s 1997 Statesman profile of Tsangari after the jump.
Filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari would be the last person to label herself an artist. Asserting that she’s a novice when it comes to the art of making movies, she claims that it’s been only in the past five years that she has become a “conscious filmmaker.”
Tsangari’s short films belie her protestations. Her seven-minute film “Infection” predates Todd Haynes’ “Safe,” but it explores similar themes in the form of one Texas woman’s battle with what she calls 20th-century disease. More than a documentary, however, “Infection” mixes moods by including a whimsical sequence that gently pokes fun at society’s ignorance about the transference of germs.
Incorporating a similarly delightful aesthetic, Tsangari’s eight-minute “Fit” resembles a sort of live-action children’s book in the way that it explores its main character’s disconnectedness from her own body.
Both of Tsangari’s short films and the trailer for her current work-in-progress, “The Slow Business of Going,” address themes of “dread, nostalgia, grief and hilariousness,” she said. Tsangari’s nomadic upbringing not only created a deep-seated curiosity about the myth of home but also inspired the name for her production company, Cinemanomad.
The daughter of a Greek diplomat father and a French mother, Tsangari spent her childhood and early adulthood in Paris, Cairo, Sarajevo and Berlin. In 1993, she moved to Austin from New York City, where she graduated with a master’s degree in film from New York University. Despite her filmmaking experience at NYU, Tsangari came to the University of Texas to study the nuts and bolts of film production. Four years later, she has her second master’s degree and currently is a lecturer teaching two undergraduate film production courses.
While some filmmaking faculty view their academic duties as a distraction from their “real” work, Tsangari sees her teaching as a necessary complement to her filmmaking.
“I think that filmmaking is such a self-absorbed endeavor, that if you don’t balance it out with giving, then there’s something really wrong,” she said.
In addition to teaching classes and working on her films, Tsangari serves as festival director of the UT-sponsored CinemaTexas Film Festival. This year CinemaTexas expanded from a university festival to one that featured short films and new media from all over the world.
Completing her feature film remains a top priority for Tsangari, but future projects also include continued expansion of the CinemaTexas Film Festival and the establishment of a film school on her native island of Santorini in Greece.
For a filmmaker who likens herself to a traffic director when she’s directing, Tsangari may well represent a new breed of artist, one whose artistic impulses nurture her own obsessions while giving back to the film community to which she belongs.
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KLRU’s Community Cinema presents ‘Deaf Jam’ tonight
Poetry is all about the spoken word. So the idea of a deaf poet participating in slam poetry events is unique, fascinating and inspiring.
As part of its monthly Community Cinema screenings at the Windsor Park Branch Library (5833 Westminster Dr.) tonight, KLRU presents “Deaf Jam.” Director Judy Lieff’s documentary focuses on a group of deaf teenagers in New York City who find in the world of youth poetry slams an outlet for their creative voices using American Sign Language.
The screening begins at 7 p.m. with a discussion to follow. KLRU presents these Community Screenings on the first Tuesday of each month. For more information, visit the Community Cinema page on KLRU’s website.
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Austin Film Festival teams with Chipotle for giveaway
As is the habit of a plethora of cross-promoters leading up to festivals, Chipotle has teamed with the Austin Film Festival to offer folks a chance to get their hands on some free food and some special goodies. Those who text “AFF” to 88822 and reply “OK” by Friday October 7 will be entered in a drawing to win dinner for two at Chipotle, a set of film passes to AFF or a producers badges to AFF. Only one entry per cell phone will be accepted, and standard text messaging and data rates apply. Those wondering what texting that number will do in addition to entering you into a drawing, you will receive a text offering you a chance to reply again to be put on a no-more-than-once-a-week text update from Chipotle.
More more information about the Austin Film Festival, visit austinfilmfestival.com.
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