Jette Kernion's blog

Here's the latest Austin film-related news:

• The newest additions to the 2010 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards: actor Lukas Haas (Witness, Convicts), who used to live in Austin; and Waiting for Guffman, filmed in Austin and Lockhart. Catherine O'Hara will accept the award on behalf of the Christopher Guest film. Tickets are still available for the award ceremony at Austin Studios on March 11.
• Local filmmaker John Bryant's feature film The Overbrook Brothers, which played SXSW 2009, will be released on IFC On Demand on Feb. 17. (Bryant is second from left in the photo above, taken during an Overbrook Brothers Q&A.) That link includes a trailer, which I feel doesn't quite do the comedy justice. You'd do better to watch Bryant's 2006 short Momma's Boy, now available on Atom, which was remade as the first part of The Overbrook Brothers. The short co-stars Steve Zissis, who was also in the Duplass brothers' film Baghead, which leads us to ...

This week, the Blanton Museum of Art opens a new exhibit, "Desire," featuring work by contemporary artists on that theme. Austin Film Society is teaming up with the museum to show four films this month about desire.

The movies will be shown at the Blanton, with discounted admission for AFS members, museum members, and UT students/faculty/staff.

The four movies:

• Sunday, Feb. 7 at 3 pm: L'Avventura, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960 film
• Sunday, Feb. 14 at 3 pm: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodovar's crazy, chaotic comedy from 1988, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas
• Sunday, Feb. 21 at 3 pm: She's Gotta Have It, Spike Lee's first feature film, from 1986
• Sunday, Feb. 28 at 3 pm: Happy Together, the 1997 film from Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai

The SXSW 2010 Film Festival feature-film lineup was announced Wednesday night, and it's full of goodies. I am still sorting through them all with lots of "oooh!" noises. Some of these are films I wished I could have caught at Sundance (but I'm allergic to snow), some are films I've been hearing about for awhile, some are very cool-sounding surprises.

You can find the whole feature lineup over at the SXSW Film website -- the shorts haven't been announced yet -- but here are a few of the highlights:

• Headliners include the Duplass brothers' film Cyrus (I told you so); MacGruber, starring Val Kilmer, Jason Bateman and the underrated actress of 2009, Kristen Wiig; Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Micmacs -- which played BNAT in 2009 along with Kick-Ass, the fest's opening-night film; Mr. Nice, which stars Rhys Ifans (and Christian McKay in a small role ... don't swoon, Debbie); and Sundance favorite The Runaways.
• Spotlight premieres include Audrey the Trainwreck (edited by St. Nick director David Lowery), Aaron Katz's Cold Weather, and Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass.

Here's some of the latest news from the Austin film community. Don't forget to check the Austin Film News Mega-Feed for even more news from a variety of sources.

• Reel Women has put out a call for entries for its annual SXSW showcase. The deadline for members to submit short films is February 10, 2010.
• The Austin-shot feature Red White & Blue premiered this week at the Rotterdam film festival. Reviews of Simon Rumley's horror/suspense movie are starting to come in from Variety and Time Out ("Rumley is too fond of blood"), and IndieWire has a profile of the film.

Local restaurant owner Sandra Bullock (Bess Bistro) scored an Oscar nomination this morning for her performance in the sports drama The Blind Side. Bullock has already won a Golden Globe, a Broadcast Film Critics Award, and several other critics' group awards for her performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy. The Austin Film Critics Association gave their Best Actress award to Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), who is not nominated for an Oscar ... well, I suspect our demographic makeup is different than the Academy's. The Blind Side, written and directed by Longview native John Lee Hancock, also received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. I reviewed the movie for Cinematical last year.

Bullock isn't the only Austin representative in the Oscar nominees today. Local musician Ryan Bingham teamed up with T-Bone Burnett on the song "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart, which received a nomination for Best Original Song. I'm not seeing any other local connections but if I missed something, please let me know. ETA: Victor Diaz reminds me that Wes Anderson is a UT grad and Houston native, and his fantastic movie Fantastic Mr. Fox is up for Best Animated Feature. The Academy Award ceremony takes place on March 7.

If you were paying close attention to Slackerwood last week, you may have noticed something new in the left sidebar. If you hadn't ... well, that's why I'm telling you now. Slackerwood has created the amazing and awesome Austin Film News Mega-Feed. You have to imagine monster-truck-show echo effects whenever I say it, it is that awesome.

Like many things about Slackerwood, the Austin Film News Mega-Feed (echo, echo) was born out of sheer lazy slackerhood. I was complaining to Chip, who not only performs great technical feats on Slackerwood but also is my husband and often tolerates me fussing about stuff, that I was tired of rewriting the same news items every other local outlet publishes, especially if a) I'm later than they are and b) I have nothing new to say. I sighed and wished that I could just publish one big conglomerate news feed of all these news items on Slackerwood and not have to worry about reporting on every single little bit of news, so I can focus on finding interesting news that isn't available everywhere else.

Chip nodded and sympathized .... and went to his computer and created the Austin Film News Mega-Feed, possibly out of a sense of community, but I suspect also so he wouldn't have to hear me whine anymore. Look over in the left sidebar (you may need to scroll down a bit) and you can see all the headlines from major sources of film-related news in Austin, like the Austin Chronicle's Picture in Picture blog, the Statesman's Austin Movie Blog, and Austinist. We've also added RSS feeds of blogs from local film festivals and theaters.

Here's the current Austin film news, some of which is inevitably tied to the Sundance Film Festival:

• According to Deadline Hollywood, Fox has bought the U.S. distribution rights to Robert Rodriguez's latest film, Machete, shot here in Austin last year. Review the photos we posted from the Machete shoot if you want to refresh your memory about the film. No word on a release date yet, but we'll keep you posted.
• Austin Film Festival's Film Program Director, Kelly Williams, is covering Sundance this year for Austin Movie Blog over at Austin 360. Check out his first entry about the films he hopes to see.
• IndieWire has a nice profile of Austin filmmaker Anthony Burns, bringing his first feature as director, Skateland, to Sundance this year.

Here's the Austin film-related news for today:

• Sundance starts tonight, and as we've mentioned before, Austin is well represented this year. Filmmaker Bryan Poyser has been getting ready for his Lovers of Hate premiere with a poster (tagline is catchy, but I'm not sure I like it) and a very cool little comic/booklet with illustrations of the filmmakers and cast. 
• Another Austin-related addition to Sundance this year: Mr. Okra, a doc about a New Orleans produce vendor, which won the Austin Film Festival's audience award for a short documentary in 2009. NOLA.com has a profile of filmmaker T.G. Herrington and his title subject.
• Still more on Austin at Sundance: some KUT interviews; an article about Thompson, a short that played SXSW last year before heading to Park City this week; and an Austin American-Statesman profile of the Zellner brothers, who are taking Fiddlestixx to the fest.

If you're wondering why I'm posting a photo from last year of the (500) Days of Summer director at the Paramount in Austin, you haven't heard the latest news: Marc Webb has just been signed to direct the next Spider-Man film. That's right, he's going from a quirky romantic comedy to a big-ass Hollywood comic-book action movie. Will we see him in Austin again anytime soon? Well, Sam Raimi (who directed the previous three Spider-Man movies) was at SXSW last year with Drag Me to Hell, so it's possible.

Now if you really want to be amused, imagine the people in the photo after the jump -- also from SXSW 2009 -- as Peter and Mary Jane. It could happen! And check out my SXSW 2009 Flickr set for more photos from the closing-night (500) Days of Summer event, including a nice picture of Webb with SXSW Film Director Janet Pierson.

Here's the latest Austin film-related news:

• Congratulations to local musician Ryan Bingham (pictured at right) for winning a Golden Globe with T-Bone Burnett for their song "The Weary Kind" from the movie Crazy Heart. Bingham also appears in the movie. Sometimes-Austinite Sandra Bullock also took home a Best Actress (Drama) award for her role in The Blind Side.
• Local filmmaker/Austin Film Society staffer Bryan Poyser heads to Sundance this week to premiere his film Lovers of Hate, shot in Austin and in Park City, Utah. Chris Garcia of the Austin American-Statesman grabbed him for an interview beforehand. If only we could jet up to Utah this weekend and check it out ...
• Speaking of AFS, their Texas Documentary Tour selection this month is Tattooed Under Fire, which plays on Wednesday night at Alamo Ritz. Austin Chronicle writer Kimberley Jones interviewed filmmaker Nancy Schiesari, who is also a professor at The University of Texas, and who shot the movie in Killeen.