Austin Film Society

The fall season is upon us in Austin, and one way you can tell is that it's time for Austin Film Society to bring us an Essential Film Series based on American (often even Hollywood) movies, usually focusing on a director or actor/actress. This year, AFS has picked a director whose films range from the silent era to 1970: William Wyler. The series "William Wyler's Desperate Hours: A Director's Drama" starts next Tuesday and will run through mid-November.

If Wyler's name doesn't sound familiar to you, some of his movies surely will: Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, Funny Girl. The AFS series, guest curated by Raoul Hernandez (Austin Chronicle), includes some of Wyler's finest dramas spanning more than two decades of his long career.

I really want to see Counsellor at Law, the 1933 film starring John Barrymore, and am annoyed that I have a meeting that night I can't miss. But I plan to be there for several of the other movies, which are all playing at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, at 7 pm on Tuesdays. Admission is free for AFS members -- although you can and should get your no-cost ticket in advance on the AFS website -- and a modest $6 for everyone else.

A list of the movies in the series and the dates when they're screening is after the jump.

The Texas Filmmakers Production Fund (TFPF) recipients for 2010 have just been announced, and without even looking anything up, I can spot a number of Austin filmmakers among the lucky winners this year. Twenty-four projects received a total of $104,000 in cash, film stock and services. Selected filmmakers and projects are from all over the state of Texas, but it looks like more than half have ties to Austin this year.

One great benefit about the TFPF announcement for Austin film lovers is that it's a sneak peek into the projects that some local filmmakers have been working on. Hopefully we'll see some of the following movies in 2011 or beyond ... although one is actually screening in Austin tonight, and another will screen here (at least in part) within the month.

The largest single grant, $9,000, went to Austin artist and photographer Patrick Xavier Bresnan (Otis Ike) for post-production costs on Vietnam Appreciation Day, a documentary feature.

Chris Eska's feature August Evening won an Independent Spirit Award in 2008. Now Eska has received a $7,000 TFPF award for production on September Morning, a Western set during the Civil War about a teenage boy sent to retrieve a wanted man.

Former Austinite (he just left us for Chicago) Kyle Henry received $7,000 for post-production on Fourplay, the collection of four short films about sexual adventures in different U.S. cities. The first short, San Francisco, premiered at Outfest earlier this year and will be playing in Austin as part of aGLIFF in a couple of weeks.

Bob Byington also got a $7,000 grant for production costs on a narrative feature film called Seven Chinese Brothers. Byington's previous films, Harmony and Me and [RSO] Registered Sex Offender, have just become available on Netflix Watch Instantly.

Summer is almost officially here with plenty of free summer movies, and there's still time to register for kids' summertime filmmaking camps and workshops in Austin. A few of last summer's offerings are either full or are no longer taking place -- Dougherty Arts Center has no film classes this year -- but kids still have plenty of camps and sessions to choose from.

These affordable camps and workshops provide unique experiences for local youth in various aspects of filmmaking including acting, screenwriting, editing and animation. At the end of many of them, friends and family are invited to attend a screening of the movie campers helped make, or bring home a DVD to hold their own private screening party.

Here's a list of all the summer movie-related camps and classes in the Austin area that we could find. Some of the descriptions are pretty much verbatim from press releases or websites -- although I was the Sierra Cubs Camp director for several years, sadly I've yet to be involved in any kids' film camps. Although they're for kids and not adults, don't be too disappointed -- you'll find a couple of options for grownups at the end of the list.

If I've missed anything, let me know in the comments and I'll add the info to the list.

Let's see what's been going on with Austin-related film news lately:

• Austin Film Society is celebrating 10 years of Austin Studios with a big Make Watch Love Movies party on June 18 starting at 6:30 pm. Admission is free for AFS members, Texas film crew and Austin Studios neighbors, although you can help sponsor the event if you choose. The event will honor Moody Anderson as well as Alison Macor's book about Austin film, Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids. Elizabeth Avellan, Mike Judge, Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez will be hosts.
• The Paramount Theatre is looking for five "volunteer publicists" -- bloggers who will spread the word regularly about the joys of the theater's Summer Classic Film Series. In return, you get an all-access pass for the film series. Too bad I don't already have a website devoted to this sort of thing or I'd be right there in line. Deadline is tomorrow so act fast.
• Nueva Onda kicks off its 2010 monthly Movie Nights on Thursday with three short films: Flat Daddy, a work-in-progress documentary about military families; the short-short To Do That from local filmmaker Jason Brenizer; and Manos de Madre, the story of a Guatemalan woman forced to live on a garbage dump, which played at the Hideout during SXSW this year. Also, check out the new Nueva Onda Movie blog for info on upcoming screenings.

I know I've mentioned before (possibly to the point of causing you to roll your eyes) that my favorite Austin red-carpet event every year is the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards. The only drawback to the evening is that it's the night before SXSW, so I get sucked up into this whirlwind of festival-tude before I can show you all the cool pictures I took.

This year, for the tenth annual awards, I covered the red carpet portion of the evening and Debbie Cerda took over for the actual awards ceremony. I admit I missed getting to watch the ceremony, which I enjoy, although I get exhausted from all the standing and kneeling and photography work by the end of the night. Someday maybe I'll get a seat at one of the tables. I'd probably have to dress up then, though. One advantage of working as press is that I get to wear sneakers.

I wrote about the evening for Cinematical, and that article includes a nice photo gallery of nationally recognizable celebrities, as well as excellent embedded videos from other media sites. You might want to check that out first. But I still have some photos left, especially of familiar Austin faces, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Off we go.

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds) was at Austin Studios last night to receive an "honorary Texan" award at the 10th annual Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards last night at Austin Studios. This event, hosted by Austin Film Society, is held every year the night before SXSW opens. The 2010 honorees included Michael Nesmith, Quentin Tarantino, Catherine O'Hara, Lukas Haas and Bruce McGill. Proceeds from the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards benefit the educational and artistic programs of the Austin Film Society, a 501(c)3 organization.

Check out more photos from the event on our Flickr site. And Anne Thompson has posted a video to IndieWire of Tarantino's great acceptance speech.

[Photo credit: Quentin Tarantino, by Debbie Cerda, on Flickr]

South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference is a particularly busy time for the folks over at Austin Film Society (AFS). Their biggest annual event is the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, which is being held on Thursday, March 11 at Austin Studios. SXSW Film provides the opportunity for AFS to showcase several of their filmmakers' short films at the Austin Media Arts Committee (AMAC) special screenings at the Hideout. Many AFS Texas Filmmakers Production Fund (TFPF) award winners will also be premiering their films at SXSW, including Austin filmmaker Miguel Alvarez (Mnemosyne Rising).

These SXSW special events couldn't happen without two critical AFS staff members, Agnes Varnum and Bryan Poyser. Agnes has been busy for weeks in preparation of the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, and is one of the featured panelists for "How to Rawk SXSW Film." Attendees learn from professionals in the industry how to make meaningful connections with all the independent film and new media professionals in town for the event. Bryan coordinates the AMAC screenings for AFS at the Hideout, hosts a Texas Filmmakers Production Fund Workshop, and as one of my favorite panel moderators is part of the "The Kids are Alright: Jay and Mark Duplass Plus" panel. Even more exciting, Bryan's film Lovers of Hate -- well-received at last month's Sundance Film Festival -- is also screening at SXSW. I caught up to this dynamic duo by email for an interview, and here's what they had to say.

Last year, Slackerwood featured a Guide to Austin Summer Film Camps that listed local day camps for kids interested in making movies. Although Tuesday's snowfall might make you think that summer's far away, it's never too soon to enroll in these highly sought-after programs.

Here are a couple of Austin summer film camps that have already opened registration for this year ... for kids a bit older than the budding filmmaker pictured at right.

Austin Film Festival Summer Film Camp 

Austin Film Festival's Young Filmmakers Program is proud to present the eighth annual Summer Film Camp. The camp offers students unparalleled access to in-depth, personal instruction on screenwriting, filmmaking and claymation from local industry professionals. This year, the camp's workshops and panels will take place at Austin High School.

Austin Film Society is rolling out a new Essential Cinema series starting on Tuesday night: "Smashing the Rules: Films of Oshima Nagisa." The films span a nearly 20-year period in the Japanese director's career. The most notorious in the series is probably the 1976 film In the Realm of the Senses -- I remember being shocked in college when someone told me about a certain explicit scene. But as AFS Director of Programming Nafus tells us, "Every one of his films is like a roller coaster ride through the subterranean areas of the human psyche."

All the films in the Essential Cinema series are on Tuesday nights at 7 pm at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. (Notice the series skips a week during SXSW.) You can get tickets online through the AFS site. While admission is free for AFS members, definitely get your tickets in advance because Essential Cinema screenings tend to fill up quickly. I've listed the films after the jump.

This week, the Blanton Museum of Art opens a new exhibit, "Desire," featuring work by contemporary artists on that theme. Austin Film Society is teaming up with the museum to show four films this month about desire.

The movies will be shown at the Blanton, with discounted admission for AFS members, museum members, and UT students/faculty/staff.

The four movies:

• Sunday, Feb. 7 at 3 pm: L'Avventura, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960 film
• Sunday, Feb. 14 at 3 pm: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodovar's crazy, chaotic comedy from 1988, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas
• Sunday, Feb. 21 at 3 pm: She's Gotta Have It, Spike Lee's first feature film, from 1986
• Sunday, Feb. 28 at 3 pm: Happy Together, the 1997 film from Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai