Austin Film Festival & Screenwriters Conference (AFF), the premier film festival recognizing the writers’ contributions to film, television, and new media, announced today the full schedule of films and panels for the 22nd annual Festival, this October 29-November 5.
John Singleton and Chris Cooper will accept the Extraordinary Contribution to Film and Acting Awards, respectively, at the 2015 Awards Luncheon held Saturday, October 31st at the Austin Club.
John Singleton’s credits include writing and directing Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Shaft, and Baby Boy, and directing 2 Fast 2 Furious, Four Brothers, and Abduction. Most recently, Singleton has ventured into television, directing an episode for Empire and developing Snowfall, an original series for FX. Singleton will present a retrospective screening of Boyz n the Hood at the 2015 AFF, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay in 1991.
Extraordinary Contribution to Film – Actor award recipient and Academy Award® winning actor, Chris Cooper, will be presented by Lonesome Dove creator Bill Wittliff. Cooper has more than 50 film and television credits to his name including August: Osage County, The Bourne Identity, Breach, Capote, The Horse Whisperer, Lonesome Dove, Matewan, My House in Umbria, Seabiscuit, Silver City, The Town, Where the Wild Things Are, and many others. Cooper received the Academy Award® and a Golden Globe Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Adaptation, the Screen Actors Guild Award for his supporting performance in American Beauty, and the Best Actor nomination in 1997 for his work in John Sayles’ Lone Star from the Independent Spirit Awards. Cooper will be in attendance for the AFF “Heart of Film” screening of Coming Through the Rye, where he plays the reclusive, renowned author JD Salinger.
Singleton and Cooper join previously announced honorees Outstanding Television Writer Norman Lear and Distinguished Screenwriter Brian Helgeland. Past recipients of the Extraordinary Contribution to Film & Acting awards include Johnny Depp, Susan Sarandon, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Danny Boyle, Oliver Stone, Sydney Pollack, and others.
Academy Award® winner Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) will present the 2015 Opening Night Film, Legend, on Thursday, October 29 at the Paramount Theatre. Written and directed by Helgeland, Legend is the true story of the rise and fall of London’s most notorious gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, both portrayed by Tom Hardy in a powerhouse double performance. Legend is a classic crime thriller taking us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray twins. The film will be released in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, November 20. It will expand to additional U.S. markets on November 25 and further on December 11.
AFF’s Centerpiece Film, Burning Bodhi, will have its World Premiere on Sunday, November 1, with featured cast Andy Buckley, Kaley Cuoco, Cody Horn, Landon Liboiron, Sasha Pieterse, and Eli Vargas in attendance. From writer/director Matthew McDuffie, Burning Bodhi is about a group of friends who reunite after high school when word goes out on Facebook that the most popular among them has died.
Additional Marquee titles include Go With Me (with Julia Stiles and director Daniel Alfredson in attendance), Miss You Already (with director Catherine Hardwicke in attendance), Last Days in the Desert (with writer/director Rodrigo Garcia in attendance), Man Up (with writer Tess Morris in attendance), By Sidney Lumet (with director Nancy Buirski in attendance), Remember, Brooklyn, Mojave, The Adderall Diaries, and the World Premieres of Until 20, A Single Frame, and We’re Still Here: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, all with filmmakers in attendance.
Other films making their World Premiere in the 2015 slate are Baby Baby Baby (with Adrianne Palicki and writer/director/actor Brian Klugman in attendance), Jack’s Apocalypse (from AFF alum and Austinite Will Moore), Mully (with director Scott Haze in attendance), Of Dogs and Men (a documentary on the rise of domestic dog shootings by police), Since: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (a chronicle of the terrorist bombing of 1988), Tear Me Apart (a post-apocalyptic thriller), and Two Lunes (a poignant, dual-sided narrative on the struggles of immigration).
Austin Film Festival also revealed today their full Screenwriters Conference schedule, which will take place the first four days of the Festival, October 29-November 1. The Conference features a roster of prominent screenwriters in film and television, including Michael Arndt, Amy Berg, Shane Black, Jack Burditt, Charles Burnett, Helen Estabrook, Rodrigo Garcia, John Lee Hancock, Mark Heyman, Angela Kang, Todd Kessler, Simon Kinberg, Jenny Lumet, Kelly Marcel, Karen McCullah, Scott Neustadter, Nicole Perlman, Issa Rae, Jason Reitman, John Ridley, Phil Rosenthal, Gary Ross, Kirsten Smith, David Wain, Andrew Kevin Walker, Michael H. Weber, and many more. The full Film and Conference schedule can be found at www.austinfilmfestival.com.
Austin Film Festival’s 2015 Film slate:
Marquee Features
The Adderall Diaries
Writers: Stephen Elliott (memoir), Pamela Romanowsky
Director: Pamela Romanowsky
Brooklyn
Writer: Nick Hornby
Director: John Crowley
By Sidney Lumet
Director: Nancy Buirski
Burning Bodhi
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Matthew McDuffie
Carol
Writer: Phyllis Nagy
Director: Todd Haynes
Go With Me
Writers: Joe Gangemi, Gregory Jacobs
Director: Daniel Alfredson
I Saw the Light
Writers: Marc Abraham, Colin Escott
Directors: Marc Abraham
Last Days in the Desert
Writer/ Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Legend
Writer/Director: Brian Helgeland
Man Up
Writer: Tess Morris
Director: Ben Palmer
Miss You Already
Writer: Morwenna Banks
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Mojave
Writer/ Director: William Monahan
Remember
Writer: Benjamin August
Director: Atom Egoyan
Until 20
World Premiere
Writers: Geraldine Moriba, James Ragan
Director: Jamila Paksima
We're Still Here: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited
World Premiere
Writer/ Director: Antonino D'Ambrosio
Youth
Writer/ Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Retrospective Screenings
Boyz n the Hood presented by John Singleton
Writer/Director: John Singleton
Pleasantville presented by Gary Ross
Writer/Director: Gary Ross
Rudy presented by Angelo Pizzo
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Director: David Anspaugh
The Shining presented by Phil Rosenthal and Leon Vitali
Writers: Stephen King (novel), Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson
Director: Stanley Kubrick
The Southerner presented by Charles Burnett
Writer: George Sessions Perry (novel), Hugo Butler, Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
Television
The Bureau
Writer/Director: Eric Rochant
I’ll Have What Phil’s Having
Creator/Host: Phil Rosenthal
Casual
Creator: Zander Lehmann
Director (episodes 1 & 2): Jason Reitman
Narrative Features
Booger Red
North American Premiere
Writers: Berndt Mader, Johnny McAllister
Director: Berndt Mader
Fallen Stars
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Brian Jett
Forward. Side. Close!
Writer/Director: Alexander Peter Lercher
Her Composition
U.S. Premiere
Writer/Director: Stephan Littger
Keep in Touch
Writers: Sam Kretchmar, Michael Angelo Covino
Director: Sam Kretchmar
Memoria
World Premiere
Writers/Directors: Nina Ljeti, Vladimir de Fontenay
Newcomer
North American Premiere
Writer/Director: Kai Barry
The Exile
North American Premiere
Writer/Director: Arturo Ruiz Serrano
Documentary Features
Monsterman
U.S. Premiere
Director: Antti Haase
Mully
World Premiere
Writer/ Director: Scott Haze
No Más Bebés
Director: Renee Tajima-Peña
Of Dogs and Men
World Premiere
Director: Michael Ozias
The Sex Temple
North American Premiere
Director: Johan Palmgren
Since: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
World Premiere
Director: Phil Furey
Sympathy For The Devil: The True Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment
Director: Neil Edwards
TRAFICANT: The Congressman of Crimetown
Writers: Eric Murphy, Salvatore Cardoni
Director: Eric Murphy
Comedy Vanguard
3rd Street Blackout
Writers/ Directors: Negin Farsad, Jeremy Redleaf
Baby, Baby, Baby
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Brian Klugman
Headfirst
North America Premiere
Writer/Director: Antti Heikki Pesonen
The Night is Young
World Premiere
Writers/Directors: Matt Jones, Dave Hill
Paperback
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Adam Bowers
Dark Matters
After Death
U.S. Premiere
Writer: Andrew Ellard
Directors: Gez Medinger, Robin Schmidt
Isolation
World Premiere
Writers: Shane Dax Taylor, Chad Law
Director: Shane Dax Taylor
The Lion's Path
U.S. Premiere
Writer: Sophie-Anne Beaudry
Director: Stéphan Beaudoin
Reparation
Writers: Kyle Ham, Steve Timm
Director: Kyle Ham
Sunny Side Up
Writer: Willem Bosch
Director: Lourens Blok
Tear Me Apart
World Premiere
Writer: Tom Kerevan
Director: Alex Lightman
Heart of Film
All Mistakes Buried
Writers: Tim McCann and Shaun Sanghani
Director: Tim McCann
The Bad Guys
World Premiere
Writer: Carlos Rincones, Rock Shaink Jr., Alena Smith
Director: Carlos Rincones
Clarence
Director: Kristin Catalano
Coming Through the Rye
Writer/Director: James Sadwith
The Great Alone
Director: Greg Kohs
In Defense of Food
Director: Michael Schwarz
In Transit
Directors: Albert Maysles, Lynn True, David Usui, Nelson Walker III, Benjamin Wu
It Had To Be You
Writer/Director: Sasha Gordon
Jeff Lowe's Metanoia
Writer: Jeff Lowe, James Aikman
Director: James Aikman
Oyler
Director: Amy Scott
A Single Frame
World Premiere
Director: Brandon Dickerson
Upstairs Inferno
Director: Robert L. Camina
The Week
Writers: John W. Mann, Jon Gunn, Rick Gomez
Directors: Jon Gunn, John W. Mann
Zen & the Art of Dying
Director: Broderick Fox
Texas Independent
County Fair, Texas
Writer: Bradford Thomason
Director: Brett Whitcomb
Jack's Apocalypse
World Premiere
Writer: Will Moore, Jonathan Ray Case, Brad Montesi
Director: Will Moore
The Teller and the Truth
World Premiere
Writers: Andrew Shapter, Nevie Owens
Director: Andrew Shapter
Stories from Abroad
Autumn Fall
North American Premiere
Writer/Director: JanVardøen
Beautiful Girl
North American Premiere
Writer/Director: Dominik Hartl
El Jeremías
Writer: Ana Sofía Clerici
Director: Anwar Safa
Two Lunes
World Premiere
Writer/Director: Huieun Park
Wanja
U.S. Premiere
Writer/Director: Carolina Hellsgård
