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
