Slackery News Tidbits

Here's the latest Austin film news, with a great short film at the end.

• Production company Parts and Labor, founded by former Austinites Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen, has signed an output and development deal with German-UK sales and production group K5. The agreement covers all current productions in development, such as Red Light Winter, set to star Kirsten Dunst, and The Womb. Parts and Labor produced the movie Beginners, for which Christopher Plummer has received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. (Before being known as Parts and Labor, Van Hoy and Knudsen also produced local films Gretchen and I'll Come Running.)
• The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, a Texas Film Commission production incentive, distributed $25 million in state funds to 177 film, television, commercial, and video game projects last year, such as Friday Night Lights and Predators, according to an Austin American-Statesman article. To qualify for incentives, production companies must submit documentation of spending and meet eligibility standards. The Texas Legislature approved $30 million to use toward the incentive program this year and next, down from $60 million in the previous session.
• The local hip-hop musical feature Camp Kickitoo won the Best Comedy award at the recent San Diego Black Film Festival. Shot in Central Texas and starring an Austin-area cast and crew, the movie centers around Alvin, a young man who takes a job as a summer camp counselor when he can't find a job. No word yet on when the movie will screen in Austin; you might keep an eye on the film's official website.

Here's the latest Austin film news:

• Austin is getting a new festival -- not a film fest but a television festival, something new and a bit different. The ATX Festival will take place June 1-3 this year. The fest organizers are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise start-up funds, and some of the giving levels will earn you discounted badges for the festival.
• One of my favorite films from Fantastic Fest 2010, Sound of Noise, is finally getting theatrical release in the U.S. soon thanks to Magnolia Pictures. The quirky movie about "musical terrorism" opens in limited release on March 9. No word yet about an Austin release date, but I hope they open it here at least a week later because, you know, SXSW. Read my review from Cinematical and you might understand why I'm excited and impatient.
• Sundance ended this weekend but I still want to point you to this enjoyable profile in The New York Times of Austin filmmakers Nathan and David Zellner as they brought their feature Kid-Thing to Park City. I find it funny that the Variety review says the feature should be "potentially broadening their loyal fanbase," but the IndieWIRE review says it's "too irreverent for any kind of mass market." The movie will play Berlin Film Festival next and I hope SXSW after that (fingers crossed).
• Local filmmaker Don Swaynos will also have a film at Berlin this year at the same time, although not at the same festival. His short Six Hundred and Forty-One Slates will premiere at the Berlin International Director's Lounge, which focuses on experimental film and media.

A few more film-and-alcoholic-beverage news items and upcoming events came to my attention after this month's Film on Tap feature, so I thought I'd share them:

• The Alamo Drafthouse announced last week that the grand opening date for "Alamo Slaughter," their newest theater located at Mopac and Slaughter Lane, will be Thursday, March 22. The eight-screen theater will feature an adjacent stand-alone cocktail lounge named 400 Rabbits, which along with their full selection of fine spirits will offer a plethora of tequila-centric drinks and Latin American-inspired food creations. Alamo Drafthouse is offering an advance taste of the menu with a special tequila-paired five-course dinner Saturday, February 4, at The Highball, that has already sold out. Stay tuned for other preview events.
• Alamo Drafthouse also announced last week that the fifth annual Off-Centered Film Fest will take place April 19-21, 2012. Co-hosted by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, this annual event is a three-day festival for beer and film lovers. Submissions are being accepted for the short film competition, and the theme this year is "Western, Off-Centered." Rules and submissions instructions are available here, and the deadline is Monday, March 5. New to the fest this year is an audience award, with film submissions available for viewing and voting prior to the awards ceremony.
• The Paramount Theatre is hosting a Shaun of the Dead Pub Run + Screening on Tuesday, January 31, with a pub run at 6 pm and screening at 7:30 pm. The 1.1 mile jog from the Paramount to the Texas State Cemetery and back shouldn't be too tiring, but if you're dying of thirst Hops & Grain will be available at the pit and final stop. Proceeds benefit Team Spiridon and the Paramount Theatre. A $15 ticket will get you film admission, complimentary Hops & Grain beer, a limited edition Austin Marathon messenger bag, small popcorn -- plus a BLOOD SWEAT BEERS specialty t-shirt for the first 50 people to arrive. Register online here.

The week has barely started and already we have some great Austin film news to share.

• Congratulations this morning to Austin filmmaker Heather Courtney. Her documentary Where Soldiers Come From, which premiered at SXSW 2011 (my review), won the Truer Than Fiction award at the Film Independent grant award and nominees brunch on Saturday. Courtney gets a $25,000 grant as part of the award. Take Shelter, directed by Austinite Jeff Nichols, was also honored on Saturday -- producer Sophia Lin won the Piaget Producers Award. Local post-production Stuck On On must be pleased ... they worked on both these movies.
• The Austin-shot feature Holy Hell, which Jenn reviewed at Austin Film Festival in 2009, is finally available for you to watch, but not in one of the traditional ways. Austinist reports that the movie has been edited and repackaged into episodic chapters that you can watch on an iPad. The first 15-minute "chapter" is free, then you pay a dollar for each subsequent chapter. I don't have an iPad, but if any of you do and can try this out, let us know how the experience works for you.
• I can't believe I didn't mention this earlier, but the funniest movie I saw at Fantastic Fest last year now has U.S. distribution. Juan of the Dead (aka Juan de los Muertos), the Cuban zombie flick, will be released via video-on-demand/online streaming by Focus Worldwide, the VOD arm of Focus Features. This isn't theatrical distribution, but it means we'll at least be able to watch the movie again. The release date hasn't yet been announced. While we wait, read Rod's review.

Here's the latest Austin film news:

• IndieWIRE has kicked off its interview series "Meet the 2012 Sundance Filmmakers" with a pair of Austin filmmakers you might already know: Nathan and David Zellner. The interview has some interesting tidbits about their feature film Kid-Thing, which will premiere at the fest later this month.
• Local filmmaker/instructor Geoff Marslett's animated movie Mars, which played SXSW in 2010, is now available on Netflix Watch Instantly. Read Jenn's review and her interview with Marslett about the film. Reactions to the movie, now that it's more widely available, inspired a thoughtful blog entry about indie films from Hipstercrite, aka Lauren Modery, Marslett's writing (Loves Her Gun) and romantic partner.
• SXSW Film Festival is trying a new method for selecting its encore screenings this year: input from you. This Tugg page has a list of past SXSW award winners that the fest may show again this year; you can select one or more and no, you don't have to register to vote or anything annoying like that. Selections include Thunder Soul, Incendiary: The Willingham Case and Marwencol (and now you know how I voted).
• Two other local film festivals are ready for you to send them your movies for consideration in their lineup. Fantastic Fest is now accepting film entries for the 2012 festival, which takes place September 20-27 this year. Austin Film Festival is open for submissions for films as well as screenplays for their fest, running October 18-25.

Here's the latest Austin film news. 

• Austin Film Critics Association has just announced its 2011 awards. Martin Scorsese's movie Hugo was chosen for Best Picture; the gritty film Drive also won several awards. Take Shelter, written and directed by Austin filmmaker Jeff Nichols, won not only Best Austin Film but also a Best Actor award for Michael Shannon. 
• This year's list of 25 movies selected to be added to the National Film Registry includes one with Austin ties: Robert Rodriguez's 1992 indie flick El Mariachi.
• Independent video rental and music store Encore Records, Video & Apparel, located at 1745 West Anderson Lane, is closing after more than 23 years of business in Austin. Encore President Chuck Lokey announced a final store clearance is in effect.
• UT alumni take a walk down Holiday Road: The comic anthology film Holiday Road will be screened in the narrative special screenings division at next month's 2012 Slamdance Film Festival. Twelve filmmakers, including UT alumni Todd Berger, Helena Wei, Mike Suter and Dee Austin Robertson give their take on an American holiday. Former AFF Film Program Director and UT alumnus Kelly Williams produced the film.

Here's the latest Austin film news. And if you read all your news, you get a treat ... a video embedded at the end.

• Sundance Film Festival has announced much of its 2012 lineup. So far, one Austin movie is included -- Kid-Thing, the latest feature from David Zellner and Nathan Zellner. The cast includes not only the Zellner brothers but also Susan Tyrell, who now lives in Austin. In addition, former Austinite Mark Duplass (who once participated in a filmmaker "wrestling match" with the Zellners) has scripted a thriller in the Park City at Midnight category: Black Rock, directed by and starring Katie Aselton. Aselton and Duplass are married. (If you haven't seen Aselton before, Bryan Poyser's short The Fickle is a fun place to start -- it's available online, and the gentleman who leaps is David Zellner. Full circle.)
• UT alum Todd Berger has been signed to write an adaptation of Where's Waldo for the big screen. I'm not sure how you get a feature film out of a puzzle-based picture book, but Berger is a very funny guy who's made some great movies that have played AFF in recent years: the hipster-noir comedy The Scenesters in 2009, and Don't Eat the Baby, a documentary about the 2006 Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which played AFF in 2007.
• Mike Woolf of Beef and Pie Productions here in Austin (they made Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission), has found a truly alternative method for distribution of one of his short films. His 2007 short doc Life is Marbleous is now available for you to watch online ... if you play the iPod/iPhone game Life is Marbleous, and win. The game costs less than a dollar to download, although I'm not sure how easy it is to play. The short played SXSW in 2007 and is about people who love, you guessed it, marbles.

Here's the latest Austin and Central Texas movie news.

• Drafthouse Films, the distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse franchise, recently announced the company has entered a U.S. distribution deal with Image Entertainment, Inc. This will make it easier for Drafthouse Films to release new movies and repertory films via a number of platforms (home video, TV, etc.). The California-based company is considered a leading licensee and distributor of North American independent entertainment programming. Image Entertainment's library of licensed movie titles includes the Criterion Collection, various horror movies (they're releasing SXSW 2011 selection Little Deaths soon) and classic films like 12 Angry Men and Design for Living.
• In addition, Drafthouse Films has acquired the North American rights to a pair of movies that played Fantastic Fest this year: the Oscar-nominated Belgian drama, Bullhead (Debbie's review), and the international hit comedy, Clown: The Movie. While Bullhead concerns itself with a shady deal between a young cattle farmer and a West Flemish beef trader, Clown is about two relatives and their wild adventure through the Danish countryside. Drafthouse Films' acquisition of the North American rights for the 1980s 3D cult film Comin' At Ya is a third Fantastic Fest 2011 selection the company will release next year.
• The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum will host a Les Blank retrospective from 6-10 pm on Friday, Nov. 18 and Sunday, Nov. 20 at the museum's Texas Spirit Theater. The event, co-sponsored by the Austin Music Film Festival, will showcase award-winning documentarian Blank's films about music and musicians. Live music performances will be held each evening
• The latest issue of Wholphin, a quarterly DVD magazine published by McSweeney's, features short films by several Texas directors: Amy Grappell, David Lowery, and David and Nathan Zellner. The DVD includes Grappell's Quadrangle, a documentary about her parents' relationship with the couple next door; Lowery's Pioneer, about a father's epic bedtime story told to his son (starring Will Oldham), and the Zellner brothers' short but unforgettable Sasquatch Birth Journal 2.

Here's the latest Austin and Central Texas movie news.

• Former Austinite and Fantastic Fest Programmer Coordinator Blake Ethridge will consult on programming and acquisition efforts for the inaugural Oak Cliff Film Festival, which will take place June 14-17 in the Dallas neighborhood. (Ethridge co-hosted Slackerwood's Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon in 2007.) OCFF will focus on screening movies previously shown at prestigious film festivals, from Sundance to SXSW to Cannes. Movies will play at the Texas Theatre  -- whose owners are also the fest coordinators -- as well as the Kessler Theater, the Bishop Arts "TeCo" Theater (formerly the Bluebird Theater) and the Belmont Hotel in Dallas. Festival submissions open November 7.
• The Austin Polish Film Festival starts today. Anne Lewis at the Austin Chronicle has written an excellent preview.
• Actor Johnny Depp and director Bruce Robinson didn't just visit Austin Film Festival last month, but also spoke with and answered questions from UT RTF and journalism students about their movie The Rum Diary, currently in theaters. RTF instructor John Pierson moderated the panel event. Austinite Amber Heard stars alongside Depp in this action/comedy about an American journalist's exploits in Puerto Rico, based on the book by Hunter S. Thompson. 
• Another AFF 2011 selection opens in theaters today: winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for Best Drama, Martha Marcy May Marlene (Elizabeth's review). Former Austinite John Hawkes stars alongside Elizabeth Olsen in this drama about a woman trying to re-connect with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Hawkes spoke with Austin360 last week about his time in Austin and his acting experiences.

Here's the latest Austin film news and info on upcoming screenings.

• Andrew Bujalski's new film will put you in check. The critically acclaimed local filmmaker announced on the United States Artists website that his movie Computer Chess is expected for a TBA festival release in the first half of next year. Computer Chess revolves around chess players and computer programmers at a computer chess tournament in the 1980s. Bujalski scoured Austin not only for nerd look-alikes to cast, but also vintage computers. Omar Gallaga has a great story on Austin360 about finding equipment from the appropriate era. Computer Chess. The Austin film is a 2011 Texas Filmmakers Production Fund recipient and also raised more than $50,000 in crowdfunded donations through United States Artists.
• Not attending AFF this weekend? Cinema East is kicking off its fall series at 8 pm Saturday with the indie movie Vacation!. Vacation! is the story of four friends from college who reunite for a week of sun, sand and murder. Brooklyn-based director Zach Clark will be in attendance.
• Get ready to get your scream on, October 28-30 at the Paramount Theatre. Classic horror movies, such as, The Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead and Re-Animator will be shown in all of their 35mm gory glory. Double the fright factor by visiting the Paramount's haunted house. Bagged candy donations for Austin children and/or attending incognito will score you a free macabre martini.