Austin is All Over Cannes This Year

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Richard Linklater may not be there this year to scare European journalists with his "demonic gestures" (aka the "Hook 'em" sign) but Cannes Film Festival is going to have some excellent Texas and even Austin representation in May. I mentioned one short film last week but I keep hearing more and better news.

Here's what I have so far -- feel free to comment if I missed anything. I have no clue yet whether any of the local filmmakers/writers mentioned below will actually travel to France for the festival ... I just hope the movies come back here so I can see them (if I haven't already).

  • The most obvious Central Texas movie at Cannes will be The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick's latest film, which we will hopefully see in Austin starting on June 4. The Tree of Life is one of the features in the main Cannes competition, up against new films from Pedro Almodovar, Takashi Miike and Lars von Trier, among others.
  • Austin filmmaker Jeff Nichols' latest film, Take Shelter, will screen as part of the Critics Week competition at Cannes. You may recall that Take Shelter premiered at Sundance this year, although it hasn't yet screened here in Austin. Another Texas connection in the Critics Week lineup is a special screening of Walk Away Renee, directed by Houston filmmaker Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation).
  • The Directors Fortnight at Cannes will include short film Fourplay: Tampa, directed by former Austinite Kyle Henry and written by still-an-Austinite (I hope) Carlos Trevino. It's one of only three American films in the Directors Fortnight this year. The short is part of a series that was awarded Texas Filmmakers Production Fund grants in 2009 and 2010.
  • The Beaver, written by Austinite Kyle Killen, will screen out of competition at Cannes. For once, I have seen a movie before it plays at Cannes, since I caught it at SXSW. Short review: More conventional than I wanted it to be, but Mel Gibson's performance didn't annoy me in the slightest. (Jodie Foster is a good capable director but I wonder how the film would have changed if, say, Bobcat Goldthwait had gotten his hands on it. But I digress.)
  • As I mentioned in last week's Slackery News Tidbits, UT grad Ya'Ke Smith's short Katrina's Son, shot in San Antonio, will screen as part of the Short Film Corner at Cannes. I forgot to mention that this short also won a TFPF grant, in 2008.

Slackerwood will not be at Cannes this year, sadly, but some Austin journalists will. Charles Ealy at the Austin American-Statesman usually travels there every year and provides excellent coverage of the fest, so keep an eye on Austin Movie Blog. In addition, Gordon and the Whale editor Chase Whale will be covering the fest and promises me he'll be writing about some of the Austin/Texas films and people at Cannes. Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11-22, 2011.

(Special thanks to Austin Film Society for pointing out some of these connections on their Twitter feed; I might not have found them otherwise.)

Sarathi at Cannes

Austin's Sushma Khadepaun-Parmar will also be showing "Sarathi" as part of the Short Film Corner at Cannes.... http://sarathithefilm.com/yes-we-cannes/