Austin filmmakers a bigger presence at Cannes Film Festival this year

CANNES, France — Despite concerns over the future of state-funded incentives for films, Austin-area moviemakers are making their biggest impact ever at the Cannes film festival this year.

The list of Austin talent at the festival is unusual in its breadth. Terrence Malick, the Austin auteur, is competing for the Palme d'Or with his epic "The Tree of Life," which was shot primarily in Smithville. But there are many more Austin-area filmmakers at the fest.

They include Jeff Nichols, the director of "Take Shelter," which on Thursday night won the Grand Prize of the 50th annual Critics' Week, a prestigious Cannes sidebar; director Kyle Henry and producer Jason Wehling, who are screening their short "Fourplay: Tampa" in the Directors Fortnight competition; and screenwriter Kyle Killen, who accompanied director and star Jodie Foster to a screening of "The Beaver" on Tuesday; and many others.

Nichols also won the SACD Screenwriting Award for "Take Shelter," which features actors Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain (who also stars in "The Tree of Life").

Other than Nichols, Malick, director of the highly ambitious "The Tree of Life," stands out as the biggest Austin presence. Though the early screening of his movie drew a mixed response from the tough crowd of critics at Cannes, reviews in U.S. trade publications have been positive. Both Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter gave it favorable reviews. And nearly everyone else has acknowledged its ambitions.

Malick, however, has been conspicuously absent from any media events during the festival, as is his custom. And in a perverse sort of way, his absence has only increased the interest in the director among critics at Cannes.

Various people associated with "The Tree of Life" have said that Malick is in Cannes. But none of them has been willing to say whether Malick will make a public appearance or show up to accept a prize at the close of the festival. Typically, festival organizers inform directors of any prizes that the jury decides to award on closing night.

Nichols has been far more accessible. He has been conducting numerous interviews with representatives of the international press over the past few days. Earlier this week, he and Chastain were the center of attention, attracting dozens of journalists.

Nichols says that he wants "Take Shelter" to be seen as a story about the importance of communication in marriage. But he also says that he wanted to wrap this idea in the thriller genre. Hence, we get a movie about a working-class man, played by Shannon, who has nightmares about an impending natural disaster that threatens his family.

Henry and Wehling, meanwhile, were in Cannes for the first week of the festival but were headed back to the States before their short has its official screening, primarily because of Henry's teaching commitments at Northwestern University in Illinois, where he has recently relocated.

Their short, "Fourplay: Tampa," is part of a feature film about quirky sexual encounters. They have also completed a San Francisco segment and expect to have the other two segments, set in Chicago and Austin, completed by the spring of next year.

Both of them showed up at an early panel at the American Pavilion that featured Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League. He and other distributors and Internet experts were discussing the role of technology in the marketing of movies. League has been attending screenings in the Cannes Market on behalf of his theater company.

Killen showed up for a Tuesday news conference as the screenwriter for "The Beaver." Most of the questions were directed to Jodie Foster, but she deflected some of the responses to Killen. Of particular note was one French critic who asked why the movie focuses on a beaver puppet and not some kind of other puppet, like a kangaroo.

Foster, who speaks French fluently, laughed and deferred to Killen, who said that the idea of a beaver puppet just popped in his head.

Meanwhile, Dana Glover and Michelle Carter of Round Rock-based Midian Films were leading a group of people from Connally High School in Pflugerville through the Cannes maze.

Glover and Carter worked with a group of students to produce a short called "Fallen," which is screening at the Short Film Corner, a kind of market area for young filmmakers.