AFF

It's no secret that Austin Film Festival has a stellar lineup this year. Although we here at Slackerwood are always eager to tell you our top picks for upcoming films, we thought we would switch it up a bit by also telling you a little about the conference panels we are most excited to attend.

AFF left no stone unturned with their lineup of speakers and presenters for this year's 20th anniversary celebration. If you know anyone on the AFF staff, you know how long and hard they worked to bring you these stellar writers, actors and filmmakers. The awardees alone are names to be marveled at: Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, The X-Files) will receive the Outstanding Television Writer Award; Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) will receive the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award (to be presented by Paul Thomas Anderson); Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise, Nashville) will take home the Distinguished Screenwriter Award, and AFF recently announced Susan Sarandon will receive the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking -- Actor Honoree Award. The fest will also present a special Heart of Film Award to producer Barry Josephson for all of his work with the festival these past 20 years.

In Hellaware, a sly comedy written and directed by University of Texas graduate Michael M. Bilandic, a young New York City photographer stumbles upon a crude and downright terrible YouTube video made by a group of suburban Delaware rappers. Oddly intrigued, he tracks them down in the hopes they'll offer up enough perfectly edgy material to help him break into the fancy art world scene, but all he really ends up exposing is his own naivete. 

Bilandic's second feature has already captured more attention than usual for an indie film thanks to a creative promotional strategy. Weeks before Hellaware's first screening, the filmmakers posted the music video featured in the movie (which they designed to be over-the-top and hilariously horrible), and sat back and watched as it amassed over 100,000 combined views. Commenters called it out for being vulgar and just plain bad, unaware they were critiquing something never meant to be taken seriously.

Hellaware stars Keith Poulson, Sophia Takal and Kate Lyn Sheil, and it will screen Friday, Oct. 25 (10:45 pm, Alamo Village) and Wednesday, Oct. 30 (9:45 pm, Hideout) during Austin Film Festival. Via email, I had the chance to ask Bilandic a few questions about the video experiment, his life as a filmmaker thus far, and what he's looking forward to seeing at AFF. 

Slackerwood: Have you always wanted to be a filmmaker? 

Michael Bilandic: Yeah, pretty much, but I didn't really know what that meant. I remember reading some quote from Madonna a million years ago where she accused Abel Ferrara of sitting in a corner drinking wine while everyone else made the movie (Dangerous Game). I remember thinking, "Shit, I could do that! If that's what being a filmmaker is, I could get into that!" I honestly thought it would be some easy career.

Unfortunately, it's a lot harder than lurking around getting drunk. I actually wound up being Abel's assistant for a while, and it turns out he's one of the busiest and hardest working people ever. So the job description I was working with turned out to be wrong. I blame Madonna for disseminating that false info.

Austin Film Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, features an eight-day program of panels and films specifically focused on screenwriters. Along with a handful of highly anticipated festival favorites bolstering the lineup (among them 12 Years a Slave and Inside Llewyn Davis), the film schedule contains dozens of features, documentaries and shorts chosen for their original points of view and creative storytelling techniques. Of course several of these have Austin or Texas ties -- they were either made by local filmmakers or were filmed in the state.

Here are a few potential gems found on this year's AFF Features lineup that happen to have strong Texas connections:

All of Me (Documentary Feature Competition) -- This documentary was filmed here in town and features a group of friends who met through Austin's Big Beautiful Women community. The dynamic of their social club begins to change when many of the women choose to undergo weight loss surgery, and what results is a poignant study of relationships, body image and societal norms. All of Me is directed by Alexandra Lescaze. 

Hellaware (Comedy Vanguard) -- Written and directed by University of Texas grad Michael Bilandic, Hellaware is a "biting satire of the art scene" and tells the story of a New York photographer who finds himself in a messy situation. The film stars a few familiar faces for indie fans: Keith Poulson (Harmony and Me, Somebody Up There Likes Me), Kate Lyn Sheil (Green, The Color Wheel, Somebody Up There Likes Me) and Sophia Takal (Gayby, V/H/S). 

Highlights of the Austin Film Festival 2013 lineup, announced Tuesday, include Cannes Grand Prix winner Inside Llewyn Davis from former Austinites Joel and Ethan Coen, Toronto IFF favorite 12 Years a Slave, and the star-studded ensemble August: Osage County. The full lineup consists of over 70 features and over 100 short films, including several US and world premieres. 

Other eye-catchers selected for the 20th anniversary lineup include Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (starring Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela), Philomena (Stephen Frears' latest), a documentary directed by Whoopi Goldberg (HBO's Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley), and the previously announced Nebraska from Alexander Payne.

Films are presented in traditional categories like Marquee Screenings, Documentary Features, Comedy Vanguard and Dark Matters, and this year reveals a couple of new sections: Heart of Film and Write/Rec, which both highlight the best in low budget filmmaking and "out of competition jewels." (We were excited to see that Write/Rec selection 3 References comes from local filmmaker James Christopher, who guest blogged the film's shoot for Slackerwood.)

The full lineup for the 2013 Austin Film Festival has yet to be fully revealed, but the first wave of feature titles was announced a few days ago and news of the short film program has been inventively trickling out via the Twitter feeds of AFF Film Department Director Ryan Darbonne and Director of Programming Bears Fonte.

This week I checked in with Bears to find out more about the selections, which vary wildly in tone, style and worldview (that's a good thing, of course). He gave me brief descriptions of each film and also revealed which shorts have Texas and/or Austin connections. Whether you’re looking to push yourself to explore the unknown or just filling an empty time slot when you don’t know what else to see, sitting down for a couple of shorts programs is usually a smart film festival strategy. 

To help guide you a little, here's what we know about this year's promising AFF Short Films lineup:

• Abandoned -- Haunted by memory, a Romantic grapples for meaning after the unexplained disappearance of his lost love.  
• Barbie Boy -- A boy who plays with dolls is forced to reconsider things after his father tells him he's different.

Are you looking for a place to network, bid on movie memorabilia, and nibble on tasty tidbits from local restaurants? Austin Film Festival's 11th annual Film & Food Party -- a fundraiser for AFF's Young Filmmakers Program -- offers you the chance to do just that in one night. 

Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3) will be the honorary chair for the event on Wednesday, October 23 at the Driskill -- the night before AFF begins.

Jette took me as her plus-one to last year's party, and we got to taste a variety of flavors from local spots. While I was slightly disappointed that the "cheese balcony" only had two or three types of cheese available (I was expecting a ridiculous cornucopia of cheeses), I did enjoy them all. Mini cupcakes and sweet-and-spicy popcorn were among other yummy options available.

Restaurants involved in the Film & Food Party this year include Foreign & Domestic, Garrido's, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill, and Kenichi ... along with many more.

To give you some idea of the scope of the silent auction, items in 2012 ranged from a leather messenger bag (which Jette bid on*) to spa bundles to autographed scripts and movie posters. The live auction is likely to include some nifty getaways. 

Slackerwood's own Marcie Mayhorn is on the planning committee for the festivities, so it's sure to be great. You can buy tickets on AFF's site; $100 online, $125 at the door, $80 for AFF members or badgeholders.

In addition to the short films already leaked via Twitter, the Austin Film Festival has now announced the first ten films of the 2013 lineup (including one from an Austin-based director) as well as a special retrospective series featuring an array of talented directors. Jonathan Demme will even screen scenes from a work in progress.

Standing out from the list are Alexander Payne's latest (Nebraska), a documentary about religious conflict within a family (Mom, Dad, I'm Muslim), and the world premiere of Sombras de Azul (production still above), based on the experiences of Austin director Kelly Daniela Norris, who traveled to Cuba in the hopes it would help her come to terms with her brother's suicide.

In an interview last year, Norris described the challenges of creating such a personal film and discussed how she was able to finish the project with the help of Kickstarter. Norris also drew from her experience working with award-winning television writer David Milch and calls Sombras de Azul "a diaristic manifestation of my need to heal." 

Austin Film Festival will run from Oct. 24 to 31 at venues around the city. This is the 20th anniversary of the screenwriter-focused festival, and we'll continue to keep you updated as more films (with hopefully many more Austin and Texas connections) are announced. Badges for AFF 2013 are available here.

The Austin Film Festival has compiled a slate of short films for "An Evening of Texas Shorts" as part of their 20th anniversary celebration. This Wednesday evening at the Texas Spirit Theatre of the Bob Bullock State History Museum, 11 shorts with Texas ties from past AFFs will be shown (tickets are $5, free for AFF members).

In the program:

Some Analog Lines (2006), David Lowery
An essay film about technology. Lowery's buzzworthy feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints comes out later in August.

The Significant Other (1994), Tassos Rigopoulos
A single woman's friends bug her about finding a guy. Filmed at an Amy's Ice Creams (it looks like it's the original Guadalupe location) in 1993 and shot on 16mm.

Oh My God (2004), John Bryant
Looks like this one is a very dark comedy. Jette says, "I had to watch it peeking between my fingers over my eyes, but it was hilarious." The short also screened at Sundance Film Festival. Bryant is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for another dark comic short, John 3:16.

Pigeon: Impossible (2009), Lucas Martell
Animated short about a special agent troubled by a pigeon in his suitcase. Martell is now working on a new short film, The OceanMaker. Watch Pigeon Impossible below:

Slackerwood has a standard process for publishing details about a local film festival's lineup and other news. Someone from the festival, or the fest's PR company, sends us a press release with the info. We do a little research to find out the Austin and Texas connections, write it up into an interesting (I hope) article, maybe add a nice photo or two and embed some trailers ... and share it with you.

Austin Film Festival, however, is shaking things up this year in a fun way. Programmers Bears Fonte and Ryan Darbonne will be announcing the first films in the 2013 lineup via Twitter. It seems that we'll all find out together what the first batch of the festival's shorts programming will be sometime today. It hasn't happened yet.

So if you are interested in finding out what will screen at the October 24-31 festival, follow @austinfilmfest on Twitter today. You might also want to check out @BearsFonte and @RyanDarbonneATX too just in case. Meanwhile, the suspense is killing me.

We've already covered AFF's previous conference and honoree announcements, if you want a little taste of what the film fest and conference will be like this year.

The Austin Film Festival keeps the typewriter smoking this summer with its recent announcement of this year's second round of conference panelists, which includes DFW-area filmmaker David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) and Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries). 

From October 24-31, Lowery and Rivera (and maybe even you) will join the minds behind such films as the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey, (500) Days of Summer, The Silence of the Lambs, Fight Club and television shows like Veronica Mars, House of Cards and Breaking Bad. 

There wouldn't be panelists if there weren't panels. AFF will continue its "Conversation With..." series, which joins filmmakers and moviegoers for in-depth, one-on-one discussions about their experiences in the industry.

Participants include this year's AFF Outstanding Contribution to Filmmaking honoree, director Jonathan Demme, who won an Academy Award for The Silence of the Lambs; creator/executive producer of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, who is this year's Outstanding Television Writer honoree; writer Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind); Academy Award-winner Barry Levinson (Rain Man); Robin Swicord, whose writing credits include Memoirs of a Geisha, Matilda and Little Women; and Beau Willimon, executive producer/showrunner/creator of the Netflix series House of Cards.