Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards: Will You Be There?

In previous years, the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards took place on the opening night of SXSW, which presented a dilemma for some festgoers. Fortunately, Austin Film Society moved the annual fundraising gala this year to the Thursday night before the SXSW Film Festival begins.

Some other changes are going on with Texas Film Hall of Fame, too. AFS has added "Party in the Red Room," in which attendees can watch the awards as a live simulcast from an "enormous party tent" next to the studio where the award ceremony is held. It sounds like fun and is more affordable than the tables at the in-person awards. The Red Room party (no Shining references, please) is being hosted by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (Friday Night Lights and fabulous bottle-smasher) and Paul Saucido.

Thomas Haden Church will be the emcee for the actual awards ceremony this year. I've listed the award recipients and presenters after the jump.

• Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke will receive the Ann Richards Award, which will be presented by (just announced today) Brendan Fraser.
• Billy Bob Thornton will receive the Tom Mix Honorary Texan Award, which will be presented by Dennis Quaid.
• Texas Film Hall of Fame inductees: Larry Hagman, inducted by Linda Gray; and Powers Boothe, inducted by Keith Carradine.
• The Star of Texas Award will be given to the film Rushmore, and Luke Wilson will receive the award on behalf of the cast. He was at the event last year, giving an award to ZZ Top. Here he is on the red carpet that night:

I will be on the red carpet before the awards ceremony, taking photos that I hope will be wonderful, which I'll post here and on Cinematical after the event. That's a long list of celebrities to photograph! If you're going to be at the awards, I'll keep an eye out for you, too.