Slackery News Tidbits, April 27

Here's the latest Austin film news, along with some special screenings and events.

• Last week, I wrote about the Austin films that will screen at Cannes, some of which have screened here already. Now you can see Kyle Henry and Carlos Trevino's short film Fourplay: Tampa here in Austin before it plays the Cannes Film Festival. aGLIFF and Austin Film Society are sponsoring a benefit screening to raise completion funds for the film. Catch Fourplay: Tampa on Saturday, April 30 at 1 pm at Alamo Ritz.
• Austin is also getting some representation at Ebertfest in Champaign, Illinois this weekend. Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater will be at Roger Ebert's film festival on Friday to screen his delightful 2009 movie Me and Orson Welles. In addition, Natural Selection, the Smithville-shot film that swept the SXSW Narrative Feature awards this year (Ebert was on the jury), will play the festival.
• If you're here in Austin this weekend, don't forget the Hill Country Film Festival, which takes place Thursday through Saturday at the Stagecoach Theater in Fredericksburg. Sounds like a great opportunity for a short road trip.
• Austinist has an interview with Bill Banowsky about the theater he's opening this week, Violet Crown Cinema. Banowsky is also the co-founder of Magnolia Pictures.
• Speaking of the Violet Crown Cinema, Mike Sutter at Forklore was able to get a sneak peek of the food and beverage menus. It's a smaller and more snacky menu than Alamo Drafthouse, and reasonably priced for downtown.
• Cinema 41 is a new film series at the Blue Starlite drive-in theater that has the goal of "working to sustain a communal film culture." Each month they screen two movies that fit a particular theme. For May, the theme is "World Culture Through Animation, and the two films are Sita Sings the Blues on May 5, with a post-film Q&A via Skype with composer Todd Michaelsen; and Persepolis (the subtitled version) on May 19.
• Finally, San Antonio city officials are hoping to persuade SXSW to move to their city in future years, where they claim they have more hotel space and other resources ... but SXSW organizers appear to be uninterested. I can't imagine SXSW Film in San Antonio myself  -- they may have better hotel accommodations, but they don't have more and better movie theaters.