AFF Full Schedule Includes 'Serious Moonlight,' 'Up in the Air'

Austin Film Festival has a strong schedule for 2009, with a number of good "marquee" movies -- the big ones at the Paramount -- plus an excellent selection of locally connected films.

The fest opens on Thursday night, Oct. 22, with Serious Moonlight, a dark comedy scripted by the late Adrienne Shelly and directed by actress Cheryl Hines (who had a role in Shelly's Waitress). The cast includes Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, Justin Long and Meg Ryan. Hines will attend the gala event.

The closing-night film, on Thursday, Oct. 29, is Jason Reitman's film Up in the Air, which recently got a lot of attention at the Toronto International Film Festival. The comedy stars George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Jason Bateman. Reitman was at AFF back in 2007 with his previous film, Juno, and will return to Austin for this screening.

Check out a full list of AFF features after the jump. The full schedule, with dates and times, is also available on the AFF website. You can buy passes and badges through the website -- the basic pass is $42 and gets you second-tier access to all movies, and badges get you first-tier access to films and differing levels of access to the conference.

AFF focuses heavily on the "Austin" aspect of their title. The fest features a category of "Austin Screens" films, as well as local movies in other categories. For example, the marquee screenings include Bob Byington's feature Harmony and Me, and the Off the Record category (music-related films) includes Bob Schneider Live at the Paramount.

If you're a filmmaker and your Austin-related film is playing AFF this year, please contact us. We'll post a list of all films with Austin connections, and we're planning some interviews as well. We've got some fabulous AFF coverage planned for this year, including previews, a venue guide and reviews.

Marquee Screenings:

• Calvin Marshall – Gary Lundgren (Writer/Director) - (World Premiere)
• Con Artist – Michael Sladek (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Harmony and Me – Robert Byington (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• La MISSION – Peter Bratt (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Love the Beast – Eric Bana (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• PoliWood – Barry Levinson (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire – Geoffrey Fletcher (Writer), Lee Daniels (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Red Cliff – John Woo (Writer/Director), Chen Han (Writer), Sheng Heyu (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)
• Tales from the Script – Peter Hanson (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• The Vicious Kind – Lee Toland Kreiger (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Warlords – Tin Nam Chun (Writer), Junli Guo (Writer), Jiping He (Writer), Jianxin Huang (Writer), Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui (Writer), Oi Wah Lam (Writer), Lan Xu (Writer), James Yuen (Writer), Peter Chan (Director), Wai Man Yip (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Why We Laugh – Robert Townsend (Director), Quincy Newell (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe – Emily Kunstler (Director), Sarah Kunstler (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• The Young Victoria – Julian Fellowes (Writer), Jean-Marc Vallée (Director) - (Regional Premiere)

Centerpiece Film: The Messenger – Oren Moverman (Regional Premiere)

Austin Screens:

• Baghdad Texas – David Hickey (Writer/Director), Shaneye Ferrell (Writer), Al No’Mani (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)
• Hockey Night in Texas – Craig Knapp (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Holy Hell – Rafael Antonio Ruiz (Writer/Director), Lowell Bartholomee (Writer) - (World Premiere)
• Love & Tambourines – Jeremy Cohen (Writer/Director) - (World Premiere)
• Straight To the Bone – Erik Mauck (Writer/Director - (World Premiere)
• Stoner – Michael Greene (Writer/Director) - (World Premiere)

AFF Presents…

• Ron Howard Presents… Apollo 13
• Michael Hurwitz presents…TBD
• Stewart Stern presents… The Ugly American
• SyFy presents… Caprica
• Matthew Wiener presents… Mad Men
• Steven Zaillian presents… The Falcon and the Snowman

Narrative Feature Competition:

• American Cowslip – Mark David (Writer/Director), Ronnie Gene Blevins (Writer) - (World Premiere)
• Cummings Farm – Ted Beck (Writer), Andrew Drazek (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Earthwork – Chris Ordal (Writer/Director) - (World Premiere)
• Godspeed – Robert Saitzyk (Writer/Director), Cory Knauf (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)
• Happy Ending – Atsuhiro Yamada (Writer/Director) - (U.S. Premiere)
• How I Got Lost – Joe Leonard (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Little Fish, Strange Pond – Robert Dean Klein (Writer), Gregory Dark (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Myna Se Va – Sonia Escolano Pujante (Writer/Director), Sadrac González Perellón (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Passenger Side – Mattew Bissonnitte (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Tenure – Mike Million (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Thor at the Bus Stop – Jerry Thompson (Writer/Director), Mike Thompson (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Tobruk – Václav Marhoul (Writer/Director) - (U.S. Premiere)

Documentary Feature: 

• Automorphosis – Harrod Blank (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Downtown Calling – Shan Nicholson (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Floored – James Smith (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Grown in Detriot – Mascha Poppenk (Director), Manfred Poppenk (Director) - (U.S. Premiere)
• Houston, We Have a Problem – Nicole Torre (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• In 500 Words or Less – Amanda Zinoman (Director), Molly Fowler (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Left Field – Ben Steger (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• My Run – Tim VandeSteeg (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Torey’s Distraction – Tisha Blood (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Warrior Champions – Craig Renaud (Director) - (Regional Premiere)

Target Family Film Series:

• 31 Minutes – Alvaro Diaz (Writer/Director), Pedro Peirano (Writer/Director), Rodrigo Salinas (Writer), Daniel Castro (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)
• Alabama Moon – Watt Key (Writer), James Whittaker (Writer), Tim McCanlies (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Missy and the Maxinator – D.J. Lynch (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Wild Texas Weather – John Lewis (Director), Patrick Fries (Director) - (World Premiere)

Comedy Vanguard:

• Herpes Boy – Byron Lane (Writer), Nathaniel Atcheson (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Punching the Clown – Gregori Viens (Writer/Director), Henry Phillips (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)
• The Scenesters – Todd Berger (Writer/Director) - (World Premiere)
• Simmons on Vinyl – Mark Potts (Writer/Director), Cole Selix (Writer) - (World Premiere)

Dark Matters:

• The Donner Party – TJ Martin (Writer/Director) - (World Premeire)
• Hunger – Steven Hentges (Writer/Director), L.D. Goffigan (Writer) - (World Premiere)
• Lo – Travis Betz (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Strigoi – Faye Jackson (Writer/Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction – Kevin Hamedani (Writer/Director), Ramon Isao (Writer) - (Regional Premiere)

Off the Record, presented with Waterloo Records:

• Bob Schneider Live at the Paramount – King Hollis (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Cowtown Ballroom… Sweet Jesus – Joe Heyen (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• D Tour – Jim Granato (Director) - (Regional Premiere)
• Pocket Full of Soul – Marc Lempert (Director) - (World Premiere)
• Todd P Goes to Austin – Jay Buim (Director) - (Regional Premiere)