Slackery News Tidbits, June 20

Here's the latest Austin movie news.

• The Austin/Texas films at Los Angeles Film Festival are gathering plenty of attention and critical acclaim. The opening-night film on Thursday was Richard Linklater's latest feature, Bernie, starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey, and based on a Texas Monthly article. Austin Movie Blog has a good roundup of reviews and responses, plus photos.
• Also at LAFF, former Austinite Steve Collins' film You Hurt My Feelings premiered over the weekend. The cast includes Collins regulars John Merriman, Courtney Davis and Macon Blair. IndieWIRE has an email interview with Collins about the movie. Check out Paul Sbrizzi's thoughtful review at Hammer to Nail.
• And last night, LAFF screened An Ordinary Family, from local filmmaker Mike Akel (Chalk), which has a local cast/crew including a brief appearance from Merriman. It's still early for reactions, but Moving Pictures Network has a review.
• Speaking of film fests, congrats to the filmmakers and crew of local film Sushi: The Global Catch, which won the Documentary Special Jury Award at the Seattle International Film Festival last week. The doc about the effects of sushi popularity on the environment was directed by Mark Hall, edited by Sandra Adair and Catie Cacci, and had a score composed by Brian Satterwhite. Looking forward to seeing it in Austin (and hoping it doesn't make me feel guilty about my sushi love).
• If it's not raining on Sunday night (hah! my little joke), you can head out to the French Legation lawn for Cinema East, which will screen a couple of now-Austinite Clay Liford's movies: the short My Mom Smokes Weed followed by SXSW 2011 selection Wuss (my review). Those were both shot in Dallas, but Liford is earning his Austin creds: We hear he's has worked on three of the Slacker 2011 segments in one capacity or another. So far.
• The AV Club's Pop Pilgrims video show travels to pop culture landmarks to feature the real-life location behind the iconic movie or TV show or whatnot. They've filmed a couple of shows in Austin lately: one about Office Space (which includes an interview with author Alison Macor outside the "Initech" building), one visiting the house in the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and one at the football field (in Del Valle) from Friday Night Lights.