Slackery News Tidbits, October 5

The big news is that I can't believe it's actually October. When did this happen? One day I was at Alamo getting my Fantastic Fest badge, the next thing you know, it's October and all kinds of Austin film news is popping up. Here's the latest, along with some of the not-so-recent news in case you were sucked into the film-fest vortex last week, too.

• South by Southwest has announced 20 panels for the Film Conference in 2011. The one with the obvious Austin connection is right at the top: Alamo Drafthouse programmer Henri Mazza has put together a session on "How Interactive Screenings Will Save Cinema." I won't argue with that. The SXSW panels have a good range both in content and in the people organizing them -- it's always nice when women aren't relegated only to panels about women, for example. Topics range from war movies to sex in film to film criticism and blogging to marketing and distribution.
• Speaking of film festivals, Austin Film Festival has selected this year's Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award recipient right from our own backyard: Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez will take a break from shooting Spy Kids 4 to speak at the conference and to receive his award during AFF's award luncheon.
• Some local casting news while we were away: Matthew McConaughey joins Richard Linklater's current film production, Bernie, which stars Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. He'll be playing the lawyer prosecuting Black's character for murdering MacLaine. Rip Torn has also been cast in the dark comedy. It's scheduled to shoot in East Texas in November.
• If you weren't at Fantastic Fest, you can now watch all the bumpers online -- the 15-30 second shorts that advertise the fest before each movie that screens at the fest. The theme was "inappropriate," so you've been warned. My favorite is of course a locally made bumper called Plan B, although I know many of the people involved so I may be biased. The award for best bumper went to another Austin-produced short, Cherry Pie. (The woman in that short is local food blogger Hilah of Hilah Cooking.)
• Fantastic Fest also screened a trailer allegedly for a Michelle Rodriguez-starring remake of a certain 1940 classic film: Citizen Jane. As Entertainment Weekly explains, this was actually a teaser for Aaron Burns's Austin-shot film blacktino, produced by Elizabeth Avellan and with a cast that includes several other Troublemaker Studios regulars: Daryl Sabara, Jeff Fahey and Danny Trejo.
• Austin Cinematheque has scheduled films through November -- these are all 35mm prints that screen at the Texas Union Theater on Monday nights and are free to the public. I am putting Nov. 22 on my calendar because I would love to see Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise on a big screen.
• Congrats to several Texas films from SXSW 2010 that will be screening at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain later this month: Mars, Austin animator Geoff Marslett's animated space romantic comedy (Jenn's review); Earthling, the science-fiction film from Dallas filmmaker Clay Liford (Jenn's review); and the Austin-shot horror film Red White & Blue, which is currently playing at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar (Jenn's review). Sitges is the granddaddy of all genre film festivals, and it's great to hear that Texas is representing there so heavily this year.