Celebrity Sightings

Austin is a popular town for sneak peeks, but usually they are simple affairs where audiences get a chance to view a film and are asked their opinion on the way out the door. Sometimes the event is sponsored, and perhaps there's a plug at the beginning, and maybe some door prizes. Depending on the venue, it may be anarchy, with kids running around and people talking during the film after spending a couple of hours in line.

When we're lucky, filmmakers and perhaps cast and crew are there to do a Q&A. But if we're really lucky, the sneak is a celebratory event. These often involve the Alamo Drafthouse, Fantastic Fest and/or Ain't It Cool News. The Alamo lends itself to these special sneaks because the theater serves food and because it has a strong relationship with AICN. Both AICN and Alamo have good relationships with the studios, enough to host events like the unofficial world-premiere screening of Star Trek earlier this spring.

Last night was no different, when an Austin sneak preview of Land of the Lost included special guests, swag and more. Since it was less of a cattle-call than the usual sneak peek, everyone had to sign in. For their patience in line, they received a free hat and a rather unsettling backpack resembling the current incarnation of Chaka, the monkey-like companion. On the way into the theater, you could get your picture taken in a special Land of the Lost setting as a keepsake.

This Thursday, May 28, KLRU is going to broadcast highlights from the 2009 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards from 8 to 9 pm. And if you miss that date, you can catch the broadcast again on KLRU-2 on Wednesday, June 3 at 9 pm. The awards originally took place on March 12, right before SXSW started.

Thomas Haden Church (pictured above) was a wonderfully amusing emcee, and I hope that none of his jokes were considered unsuitable for nighttime public television. More photos from the event are after the jump.

I've heard people argue that Grindhouse, which was shot in Austin, was so overhyped and underattended that it actually crippled the local film production industry in some way. I'm not sure I agree with that -- I think that better film incentives in other states was a much bigger factor. I admit I wish that Grindhouse had been made with a much lower budget, rather like the Masters of Horror series on Showtime, and then it might have built more of a cult following instead of ending up a box-office flop. But we'll never know.

I do know this: I use my SXSW Film 2007 canvas bag, the one with the Grindhouse picture splashed on it, as a grocery bag. And every time a cashier under 40 sees it, they grin at the bag or tell me how they loved Planet Terror, or they can't wait for Quentin Tarantino to make another film. (Then I cheer them up by telling them about Inglourious Basterds -- my inner film geek wants to see it, but my inner grammar geek HATES the title.) There are still a lot of fans of this movie, and filmmakers Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, here in town.

Updated: Alamo has posted photos and video from the event.

Austin is the film geek town, and everyone knows it. Fantastic Fest goes out of its way to put on special screenings throughout the year and giving priority seating to badgeholders, and they completely topped themselves, even when considering the Hellboy II screening last year. This was supposed to be some "never before seen by the public" footage from the new Star Trek film a few hours before the official world premiere in Australia. Fantastic Fest decided to pair it up with the the second film in the franchise, considered to be the best, The Wrath of Khan. With free popcorn and soda. And rumors of shirts and other goodies.

We didn't get 10 minutes. We got 126. With Leonard Nimoy, producer Damon Lindelof, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Hours before the official world premiere in Australia.

Suspicious minds like mine thought something was up when we saw press seats with personalized seating assignments. Then the intro included the writers and the producer. When The Wrath of Khan started and it was a really bad picture, which quickly burned out, we all knew. The switch was on.

Catching up after SXSW. Tax prep. Allergies. Excuses, excuses. At last, I am going to post some of my favorite photos from the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards. I've already published a photo gallery from the event over at Cinematical, but I didn't include photos of people who are well known locally. Plus, I have to say I prefer an essay format over a gallery, because then I can share stories as well as photos.

The event started with a red carpet. At the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards, everyone walks through the red carpet to enter the event. This is a lot of fun for me because I can take photos of various friends and colleagues (if they'll stand still long enough), as well as any interesting people who are not necessarily honorees that evening. The red carpet was very long this year and structured beautifully so we weren't all fighting one another for space. Plus, I was right next to Stephanie Beasley from Austinist and a friendly photographer from Austin Monthly and between the three of us, we figured out who exactly we were taking pictures of. (They helped me with the Friday Night Lights cast; I helped identify "that guy who looks kind of like Steven Spielberg" as Tobe Hooper.)

It's been noted that we've been posting lots of photos of the guys lately, and I thought we could use a little balance. Connie Britton is one of the stars of the TV series Friday Night Lights, which is shot in Texas, so it seemed fitting she should appear on the red carpet at the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards. In addition, she's in the film Women in Trouble, which played SXSW this year. I reviewed the film for Cinematical. Britton's character is stuck in an elevator for hours with Carla Gugino's porn star, Elektra Luxx.

Expect more Texas Film Hall of Fame photos here soon -- if you can't wait, there's a photo gallery over at Cinematical.

It's over, at least the film festival is. Post-fest depression is already setting in. New friends made, old friends well met, and everyone's exhausted after gorging on the cinematic smorgasbord. I managed to see 34 films (not including 1 short), and explode my Twitter list.

I was actually able to get five films in today, and the best one of the day has local connections. My Suicide has the kinetic, unconventional immediacy of Four Eyed Monsters, a previous hit at SXSW, with the ironic insight of a Juno or Chumscrubber. Shot with a variety of cameras and emphasizing subjective shots, it's a causticly funny dissection of and by the YouTube generation. As we increasingly editorialize our experiences as they happen, we become further dislocated from our lives, and 17-year-old Archie (Gabriel Sunday) can't take it anymore. When he declares his video project will be on his own suicide, he upsets the status quo, frequently quoting and recreating famous movie scenes. If I heard right, director David Lee Miller mentions that the sound editor and one of the graphics team are Austinites in the Q&A. As it doesn't have distribution yet, I'll be following up on it to get more details on that Austin connection.

I'm still working on a write-up of the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards ceremony last night, but in the meantime, I will tantalize you with a photo or two. Here we have Dennis Quaid on the red carpet before the awards ceremony. I was very professional and didn't shout out anything like "Ohmygod, you're in one of my favorite movies of all time!" (Breaking Away), just like I didn't say, "We watch you every Christmas. You're a tradition!" to Billy Bob Thornton.

Quaid presented the Tom Mix Honorary Texan award to Billy Bob Thornton -- they co-starred in the movie The Alamo together. I've also got some fabulous photos of Larry Hagman and Linda Gray, Catherine Hardwicke, and Kinky Friedman, so keep an eye out.

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.

On Sunday night, SXSW and Fantastic Fest teamed up to host a 10th anniversary screening and cast reunion at the Paramount for Office Space, which Mike Judge filmed in Austin (okay, and a couple of scenes in Dallas) in 1999. The Paramount was completely sold out, which means that we saw Office Space with 1,200 people. That's an experience I highly recommend.

I wrote about the event for Cinematical, but I thought I'd include more photos here. The above photo is a shot of the red carpet ... yes, that's a "Jump to Conclusions" mat, just like the one in the movie.

The evening started with a red carpet, and writer/director Mike Judge showed up first with his daughters. The young women looked very happy to be the center of photographic attention: