Slackery News Tidbits, April 9

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Here's the latest Austin (and a little Dallas) movie news, as well as some upcoming events.

  • The Dallas Film Society announced that actress Laura Linney will be honored with a Dallas Star Award at the Dallas Film Society Honors on April 20. "A Conversation with Laura Linney" will follow the awards at 11 am on April 21 at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. The Dallas International Film Festival will begin Thursday, April 12 with the screening of the movie Liberal Arts, starring Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Zac Efron and Josh Radnor. In addition, Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater's latest film, Bernie (Don's review), has been added to the fest's schedule. Jette and J.C. will be at the fest this year watching and writing about Austin and Texas movies.
  • The movie Get the Gringo will have a premiere screening in Austin this month, with the film's star and co-writer Mel Gibson in attendance. Gibson, filmmaker Adrian Grunberg and co-star Kevin Hernandez will be at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar on Wednesday, April 18, and will participate in a post-screening Q&A moderated by Ain't It Cool News founder Harry Knowles. AICN has details about how you can attend the screening as well as several other previews around the country before the movie is available via DirecTV on May 1.
  • Women In Cinema will host a meeting at 7 pm this Thursday, April 12, followed by an "Austin Film Organizations" panel from 7:30-9 pm in room CMA 3.124 on the UT campus. The panel will feature Kimberly LeBlanc, Texas Film Commission location scout; Maya Perez, Austin Film Festival conference director; Agnes Varnum, Austin Film Society marketing director; Michelle Voss, Femme Film Texas executive director; and H. Cherdon Bedford, Austin Film Meet executive director and Humblebee Media "creative superhero."
  • After much experimenting, the Alamo Drafthouse will begin implementing new priority seating policies beginning this Friday, April 13 at the Alamo Lamar, Ritz and Slaughter locations. Two ticketing options, reserved seating and traditional general admission, will be available, with specific policies concerning each.
  • The Alamo Drafthouse franchise will open its first New York theater sometime in 2013. The five-screen Alamo Drafthouse at the Metro, located at 2626 Broadway, will occupy the former Metro Theater. The Austin Chronicle reported that Drafthouse owner Tim League is excited to re-open the historic theater because of the shortage of theaters in Manhattan. The chain will continue to provide food and drink services to patrons' seats, as well as maintaing a strict no-talking policy.
  • Austin-based documentarian Heather Courtney's movie Where Soldiers Come From (Jordan's article) is scheduled to screen at 6 pm on Monday, April 23 at the Alamo South Lamar with the help of film distribution website Tugg. The website allows audience members to choose what movies will be screened at their local theaters. The deadline to reserve tickets to Courtney's movie is April 20. The screening will help benefit the GI coffeehouse Under The Hood Cafe & Outreach Center in Killeen, Texas.
  • 2011 AFF movie selection Austin High, renamed 4:20 Austin High, is now available to watch on Time Warner Cable's Video on Demand. Austin-based filmmakers Kirk Johnson and Will Elliot set out to make the movie, about a principal at a fictional Austin high school who rebels against a politician who wants to strictly enforce federal marijuana laws, using an entirely local cast, crew and locations. Read Jordan's feature about the movie.
  • Finally, three of this year's SXSW 2012 Film bumpers are now available to watch on YouTube: "Theater Bum,""Badger Fight" and "Badgers." The bumpers were screened before each film at the SXSW Film Festival. Fans of Austin-shot films might recognize filmmaker Geoff Marslett as well as actors John Merriman and Chris Doubek. Keep an eye on the SXSW YouTube Feed for the rest of the bumpers, which should be posted soon. We've embedded "Theater Bum" below (and yes, that's Paramount Theatre Film Programmer Jesse Trussell visible in several shots).