Slackery News Tidbits, January 6

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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.
  • Filmmaker and Austin FilmWorks instructor Steve Mims (co-director of the above-mentioned Incendiary) has moved his upcoming filmmaking class to the screening room at Austin Studios. The 12-week class is called "The Film Mind: Advanced Cinematography and Directing" and starts on Feb. 7, with an orientation meeting on Jan. 31. Visit the Austin FilmWorks site for details.
  • Finally, the Austin Chronicle actually got me to watch a commercial. Well, sort of. Three local filmmakers banded together to submit a Doritos commercial for a contest where the winning video is broadcast during the Superbowl. They didn't win, but one of their submissions has gone viral, as the Chronicle reports. Normally I might just shrug and move on, but I'm really glad I watched this video. Obviously it is much too funny for a nationwide broadcast. I've embedded it below.