Slackery News Tidbits, January 25

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Well, we may not be at Sundance in Park City, but it's a beautiful sunny day with lots of Austin film news. Here's the latest:

  • Over at Austin Movie Blog, Charles Ealy is keeping an eye on how the Texas Legislature has been addressing film incentives during the current session. The House and Senate budgets as they stand now have an extremely severe cut in the tax rebates, allowing only $10 million for two years total. In addition, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, headed by state Sen. Tommy Williams and Rep. Warren Chisum, would like to end the program that gives tax rebates to movies filming in Texas ("acceptable" movies, that is). 
  • The University of Texas is hosting a collection of short animated films, curated by local filmmaker Geoff Marslett. The Visual Arts Center (aka the old Blanton building) will project the films onto its windows in the evenings, so they're visible from the outside, from Jan. 28 through March 12. Stop by at 8 pm on Friday, Jan. 28 for the opening of this exhibit. You can stop by any time at night to watch -- the gallery doesn't have to be open -- and it's free. The 42 films include shorts by Marslett, by some of his UT students, and by other filmmakers such as PJ Raval, Don Hertzfeldt and Emily Hubley.
  • Filmmaker Kevin Smith announced at Sundance on Sunday night that he is self-distributing his latest movie, Red State. The Austin Film Society Advisory Board member said that he will take his horror film on a roadshow trip around the country starting next month, then the movie will go into wider release in October. Austin is one of the stops on the Red State tour, screening on March 28 at the Paramount with Smith and unspecified cast in attendance. Tickets go on sale to the public Friday through the Paramount website, ranging in price from $55-70 (pre-sale for donors   started today).
  • The Paramount is also hosting a Run Fatboy Run screening on Tuesday, Feb. 1. Tickets are on sale now -- a quite reasonable $10 gets you admission to the movie plus beer and popcorn. Before the movie, you can join a "pub run" from the theater to the Hotel St. Cecilia and back, to get you in the mood to watch Simon Pegg attempting a marathon.
  • The Singletree Productions filmmakers have become Austin Film Festival regulars, even though they're based in Oklahoma. Now Mark Potts, Cole Selix and the gang are about to shoot their next film, A Splice of Life, here in Central Texas. They'll start filming in Lockhart next month, with a cast that includes local actor John Merriman and crew that includes now-local filmmaker Clay Liford. In the meantime, their earlier comedies S&M Lawn Care and Simmons on Vinyl will be touring college campuses around the country as part of Project: INDIE.
  • Finally, Slacker is 20 years old this year. (It hit theaters shortly before I moved here.) Marc Savlov sits down with John Pierson and Richard Linklater to talk about the movie and its impact.