Slackery News Tidbits, February 23

Here's the latest Austin movie-related news for your enjoyment.

• The Texas Film Hall of Fame has announced even more special guests and award nominees for the March 10 event. John Hawkes, nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in Winter's Bone, will receive the Rising Star Award. The Austin band Spoon will receive the Soundtrack Award, presented to them by local filmmaker Jeff Nichols. And journalist Liz Smith will be presenting Renee Zellweger with her award. I suspect we haven't heard the last talent announcement from them yet, so stay tuned.
• Over at YNN (formerly known as News 8 Austin), Victor Diaz profiles the Austin-shot film Lovers of Hate (my review) and its filmmakers, who are preparing for the upcoming Independent Spirit Award ceremony. The movie is up for the John Cassavetes Award, for indie films with a budget of less than $500K.
• Last year, Austin filmmaker Bob Ray took a road trip around the country to show his documentaries Hell on Wheels (my review) and Total Badass. Now he's decided that the U.S. is not enough. He's got a Kickstarter campaign going to fund a tour of Europe with the pair of documentaries. And as part of that campaign, he created a pretty damn funny video you don't want to miss. (The pledge incentives are amusing too ... not just stickers or DVDs but Indian leg wrestling and one of Bob's spare USB cables.) (And I just realized the Cinematical quote from the Hell on Wheels trailer is mine. Cool!)
• Alamo Drafthouse just released its March/April calendar for Austin. It's pretty impressive, and I'm not just saying that because of the "cavalcade of Muppetry programming" at Ritz, which will be a nice post-SXSW recovery for me. Austin-connected movies getting a run at Alamo include Mars (Jenn's review), Echotone (Debbie's review) and American: The Bill Hicks Story. Austin screenwriter Kyle Killen (The Beaver) will screen the six completed episodes of the Dallas-shot TV show Lone Star, four of which never made it on air. Fantastic Fest selections Rubber and I Saw the Devil are back. And do read the profile of Mondo Tees creative director Justin Ishmael.
• And did I mention that Alamo on South Lamar is now showing The Big Lebowski every Monday night? Your ticket gives you a discount to bowl at The Highball before or after (and also a discount on White Russians, natch). It may be inevitable programming but that doesn't mean I don't want to go watch and bowl myself.
• Finally, in case you hadn't realized, Alamo Drafthouse's Weird Wednesday series just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Over at the Austin Chronicle, Marc Savlov interviews WW programmer Lars Nilsen. And even though Micah is in Dallas these days, he still writes a mighty fine tribute to the series at Reel Distraction.