By Lance Avery Morgan   Photography courtesy of Austin Film Festival

Follow Her

We love film, and the craft of screenwriting behind it. That’s why we love that the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference (AFF), the premier festival that champions the writers’ contributions to film, television, and new media, announced today two distinguished awardees to be honored at this year’s festival from October 27 – November 3. Academy Award-winning producer Dede Gardner will receive AFF’s Polly Platt Award for Producing, and Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Stephen Merchant will receive AFF’s Outstanding Television Writer Award. Gardner and Merchant will be recognized at the 2022 Awards Luncheon on Saturday, October 29, and will participate in Festival and Conference programming. Additional panelists confirmed to speak at the Writers Conference, held the first four days of the Festival, October 27-30 include Max Borenstein (“Winning Time”), Nkechi Okoro Carroll (“All American”), Edward Neumeier (RoboCop), Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water), and many more.

But wait, there’s more. The Austin Film Festival has a dynamic schedule of upcoming films and panels for the 29th annual event, October 27 – November 3. Austin Film Festival’s (AFF) feature film slate includes over 33 World, North American, US, and Texas Premieres. In addition to the previous announcement of the opening night film THE WHALE, AFF is proud to announce the film’s director, Darren Aronofsky will be receiving the 2022 Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award. Aronofsky and Samuel D. Hunter, writer of THE WHALE, will attend the screening and participate in additional programming for AFF’s Writers Conference.

Austin Film Festival is excited to announce the world premiere of Vertical Entertainment’s SAM & KATE on Friday, October 28. SAM & KATE is Writer/Director Darren Le Gallo’s directorial debut. Joining Le Gallo in Austin will be the film’s stars, Oscar®-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, Oscar®-winning actress Sissy Spacek, Jake Hoffman, and Schuyler Fisk. This is the first time Jake and Schuyler (Sissy’s daughter) are working with their parents.

AFF is also world-premiering DANIEL’S GOTTA DIE Jeremy LaLonde’s film where DANIEL seeks to reconnect with his family, but they would rather kill him for his inheritance. Starring Bob Saget in his last film appearance, Joel David Moore, Jason Jones, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carly Chaikin, and Iggy Pop.

Then there’s Darren Aronofsky will be receiving Austin Film Festival’s 2022 Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award in addition to the previously announced awardees Dede Gardner (12 YEARS A SLAVE, MOONLIGHT, THE BIG SHORT) accepting AFF’s Polly Platt Award for Producing, James Gray (LITTLE ODESSA, LOST CITY OF Z, AD ASTRA) accepting AFF’s Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting, Nikyatu Jusu (SUICIDE BY SUNLIGHT, NANNY) accepting AFF’s New Voice Award, and Stephen Merchant (“The Office,” “Extras,” “Outlaws”), who will be accepting the Outstanding Television Writing Award.

“Sam & Kate”  Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

We look forward to the film, Follow Her, which stars Dani Barker and Luke Cook (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), as well as Mark Moses (Desperate Housewives, Madmen) and shows the female lead’s perspective on the seedy underbelly of online streaming — and the danger fame-seekers face when pushing themselves and others too far. Struggling actress and live-streamer Jess Peters (Dani Barker), known to her online followers as J-PEEPS, has finally found her hook: Secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin. Once there, Tom (Luke Cook), the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter, hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This client isn’t what he seems, and even though the money’s great…the real payment here could cost her her life. With arresting visuals and an engrossingly lurid mystery, Follow Her is a nail-biting, seat-squirming, stylish suspense thriller that swept the recent Fantasporto Film Festival, including wins for Best Picture, Best Actress, and the Audience Award as well as the Audience Award at Slovenia’s Grossmann Fantastic. You can see more here.

A second A24 film being featured this year is Elegance Bratton’s debut THE INSPECTION which opens in theaters November 18 and is the story of a young man who, after being rejected by his mother, joins the Marines with the determination to succeed despite a system that would cast him aside. Bratton will join the Festival for a screening of the film and will participate in the Writers Conference to discuss the project based on his real-life experience. THE INSPECTION  is produced by Effie T. Brown and Chester Algernal Gordon.

Other World Premieres include THE WILD MAN (Riley Cusick’s debut film about a son caring for his father who thinks he’s a wild animal), DANCE DADS (a film, by Brock Harris, about a father trying to win back his family by forming a dance team of dads), BLOW UP MY LIFE (a former pharma employee discovers a deadly vape conspiracy in this film by Ryan Dickle and Abigail Horton), BEAUTY OF A BLANK SPACE (Ryan Love and Laurel Toupal’s film about a siblings’ road trip to find a long-buried time capsule), SONG OF THE CICADA (Aaron & Robert Weiss’ film chronicling 10 years of the life of an eccentric mortician in Galveston, Texas), THE BYSTANDERS (Gabriel Foster Prior’s comedy about immortals who interfere with their human subjects), WHAT REMAINS (Nathan Scoggins portrait of forgiveness by a small-town Texas pastor to the man who killed his wife), LITTLE JAR (Dominic Lopez and Kelsey Gunn’s pandemic set story of one women’s time in isolation and her friend, a dead mouse), and CHECKOUT (Jonathan Dekel’s story of a Mossad spy trying to secure his legacy).

In fact, there’s something for every taste at the festival. Learn more about AFF’s 2022 slate below or online at www.austinfilmfestival.com.

Quicksand

Marquee Features:

THE WHALE

OPENING NIGHT SELECTION

Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

Written by: Samuel D. Hunter

In attendance: Director Darren Aronofsky accepting Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award and Writer Samuel D. Hunter

SAM & KATE

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed/written by: Darren Le Gallo

In attendance: Director/Writer Darren Le Gallo and stars Dustin Hoffman, Sissy Spacek, Jake Hoffman, and Schuyler Fisk

WOMEN TALKING

Directed/written by: Sarah Polley

In attendance: Producer Dede Gardner accepting AFF’s Polly Platt Award for Producing and Director/Writer Sarah Polley

ARMAGEDDON TIME

Directed/written by: James Gray

In attendance: Director/Writer James Gray accepting AFF’s Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting

NANNY

Directed/written by: Nikyatu Jusu

In attendance: Director/Writer Nikyatu Jusu accepting AFF’s New Voice Award

THE INSPECTION

Directed/written by: Elegance Bratton

In attendance: Elegance Bratton

THE LOST KING

Directed by: Stephen Frears

Written by: Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope

THE BAKER

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Jonathan Sobol
Written by: Thomas Michael & Paolo Mancini

GOOD NIGHT OPPY

Directed by: Ryan White

AFTER SUN

Directed/written by: Charlotte Wells

WHO INVITED CHARLIE?

Directed by: Xavier Manrique

Written by: Nicholas Schutt

SAVAGE WATERS

Directed by: Mikey Corker

1-800-HOT-NITE

Directed/written by: Nick Richey

CAUSEWAY

Directed by: Lila Neugebauer
Written by: Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, & Elizabeth Sanders

TURN EVERY PAGE

Directed by: Lizzie Gottlieb

FOUR SAMOSAS

Directed/written by: Ravi Kapoor

MOON GARDEN

Directed/written by: Ryan Stevens Harris

ASHKAL

Directed/written by: Youseff Chebbi

ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
Written/Directed by: Laura Poitras

THUG ROSE

Directed by: Marius Markevicius

Narrative Features

THE WILD MAN

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed/written by: Riley Cusick

LITTLE JAR

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Dominic López

Written by: Dominic López & Kelsey Gunn

BLOW UP MY LIFE

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed/written by: Abigail Horton & Ryan Dickie

GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Directed by: Jason Karman

Written by: Gorrman Lee

SALMA’S HOME

Directed/written by: Hanadi Elyan

UNDER WATER

Directed by: Edgar Kapp & Kuba Szutkowski

Written by: Simon Weeda, Julia van de Graaff, Kuba Szutkowski, & Edgar Kapp

QUICKSAND

Directed by: JohnPaul Morris
Written by: JohnPaul Morris, Jake Burgess, & Broderick Steele

ABSENCE

Directed/Written by: Ali Mosaffa

WELCOME, VIOLETA!

Directed by: Fernando Fraiha

Written by: Inéz Bortagaray & Fernando Fraiha

MEDUSA

Directed/written by: Sophie Levy

Documentary Features:

SONG OF THE CICADA

WORLD PREMIERE

Co-directed by: Aaron Weiss & Robert Weiss

Written by: Robert Weiss

WITH THIS LIGHT

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Nicole Bernardi-Reis & Laura Bermudez

THE OTHER FELLOW

Directed by: Matthew Bauer

Written by: Rene van Pannevis

AMERICAN: AN ODYSSEY TO 1947

Directed/written by: Danny Wu

FOR THE LOVE OF FRIENDS

Directed/written by: Cara Consilvio

THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER

Directed by: Patricia E. Gillespie

THE ‘VOUS

Directed by: Jack Porter Lofton & Jeffrey Dailey

THE BABY DADDY

Directed by: Yair Cymerman & Adi Rabinovici

Written by: Yair Cymerman, Adi Rabinovici, Tal Shefi & Noam Amit

FENOM

Directed by: Kayla Johnson

SHOWBIZ IS MY LIFE

Directed by: GB Shannon

Dark Matters:

FIXATION

Directed by: Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Written by: William Day Frank

THE DOMESTIC 

Directed/written by: Brad Katzen

FOLLOW HER

Directed by: Sylvia Caminer

Written by: Dani Barker

#BLUE_WHALE

Directed by: Anna Zaytseva

Written by: Evgeniya Bogomyakova, Anna Zaytseva, & Olga Klemesheva

DO NOT DISTURB

Directed/written by: John Ainslie

Comedy Vanguard:

DANIEL’S GOTTA DIE

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Jeremy LaLonde

Written by: Matthew Dressel

THE BYSTANDERS

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Gabriel Foster Prior

Written by: Gabriel Foster Prior & Jack Hughes

CHECKOUT 

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed/written by: Jonathan Dekel

DANCE DADS

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Brock Harris

Written by: Brock Harris & Jared Bonner

THE LIBRARY BOYS

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed/written by: Zane Borg

WAKE UP, LEONARD

Directed by: Kat Mills Martin
Written by: Nigel DeFriez, Kat Mills Martin, Kira Pearson

LONG FLAT BALLS (BROKEN PROMISES)

Director: Harald Johan Zwart

Writer: Paul Sparre Enger

Texas Features:

BEAUTY OF A BLANK SPACE

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Ryan Love

Written by: Ryan Love & Laurel Toupal

PEPE SERNA: LIFE IS ART

Directed by: Luis Reyes

WHAT REMAINS

WORLD PREMIERE

Directed by: Nathan Scroggins