Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.
The Houston Film Critics Society has chosen five nominees for its second annual Texas Independent Film Award: Comedy Warriors, which premiered at this year's San Antonio Film Festival; the German drama Houston, from Austinite Bastian Gunther; the Central Texas-shot Prince Avalanche (Elizabeth's review), directed by Austinite David Gordon Green; An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story (Jette's review), a documentary from Houston filmmaker Al Reinert, which premiered at SXSW 2013; and the Austin-shot feature Zero Charisma (Jette's review). The winner of the award, given to a film which is primarily financed and filmed in Texas, will be announced on Jan. 6 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. (via Hfcs member Alan Cerny on Twitter)Drafthouse Films release The Act of Killing (Elizabeth's review), a documentary that sees former Indonesian death squad leaders reenacting their real-life mass killings, and Dallas native Shane Carruth's Upstream Color (J.
The Houston Film Critics Society has chosen five nominees for its second annual Texas Independent Film Award: Comedy Warriors, which premiered at this year's San Antonio Film Festival; the German drama Houston, from Austinite Bastian Gunther; the Central Texas-shot Prince Avalanche (Elizabeth's review), directed by Austinite David Gordon Green; An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story (Jette's review), a documentary from Houston filmmaker Al Reinert, which premiered at SXSW 2013; and the Austin-shot feature Zero Charisma (Jette's review). The winner of the award, given to a film which is primarily financed and filmed in Texas, will be announced on Jan. 6 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. (via Hfcs member Alan Cerny on Twitter)Drafthouse Films release The Act of Killing (Elizabeth's review), a documentary that sees former Indonesian death squad leaders reenacting their real-life mass killings, and Dallas native Shane Carruth's Upstream Color (J.
- 12/2/2013
- by Jordan Gass-Poore'
- Slackerwood
I'll be out at Zilker Park this weekend for the second round of the Austin City Limits festival, but you can avoid the crowds (and potential thunderstorms) by hitting the movies. For those of you who missed out on Fantastic Fest this year, take note that several of this year's titles are opening or being featured with select screenings in town over the next week.
I am truly saddened that Acl is going to keep me away from Austin Film Society's 35mm booking of Peeping Tom, but it's one that you won't want to miss. It's the movie that basically destroyed Michael Powell's reputation upon release, but has since gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest thrillers of all time. It's playing tonight and again on Sunday afternoon at the Marchesa. An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year,...
- 10/11/2013
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
The timing for An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story to premiere in Austin at SXSW could not have been more appropriate, if you know the news story it recounts. And how much you know about Michael Morton's life may dictate how much you enjoy this documentary from Houston writer/filmmaker Al Reinert (For All Mankind, Apollo 13). The film won the Documentary Spotlight audience award at SXSW earlier this month.
The short and incomplete version: Chris Morton, Michael's wife, was found beaten to death in their Williamson County home in 1988. Michael Morton was charged with the crime, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. But he continued to assert his innocence. If you've paid attention to Austin-area news in the last week, you know how this situation has played out.
An Unreal Dream is structured as though Michael Morton is casually telling the story of his life to us.
The short and incomplete version: Chris Morton, Michael's wife, was found beaten to death in their Williamson County home in 1988. Michael Morton was charged with the crime, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. But he continued to assert his innocence. If you've paid attention to Austin-area news in the last week, you know how this situation has played out.
An Unreal Dream is structured as though Michael Morton is casually telling the story of his life to us.
- 3/28/2013
- by Jette Kernion
- Slackerwood
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced Audience Award-winners today from the Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal, Festival Favorites and Design Award categories. Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter. The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2013 Jury Awards, which included Grand Jury Winners Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 for Narrative Feature, and Ben Nabors’ William And The Windmill for Documentary Feature. For the complete list of 2013 Award Winners, visit sxsw.com/film. The 2013 SXSW Film Festival hosted a total of 133 features, consisting of 78 World Premieres, 13 North American Premieres and 9 U.S. Premieres, with 76 first-time directors. 110 shorts will screen as part of 10 overall shorts programs. The nearly 250 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, over 5,700, comprised of approximately 2,100 features and 3,600 shorts,...
- 3/17/2013
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
I took it somewhat easy on Wednesday and just went to one film: the 6:30 pm showing of An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story at Alamo Drafthouse Village. As I drove up at 5:40, the line for tickets was already out the door. There's definitely local interest in Morton's situation, as well as the resulting documentary.
Once I got in and was snacking on my chips and queso, I spotted Morton himself walking around and being introduced to folks in the audience. Producer Marcy Garriott spoke before the film and mentioned special guests in attendance for the Q&A afterwards; I surmised Morton was likely one of them.
The film itself largely consists of interviews recorded at the Williamson County Courthouse. Morton sits in a wooden chair below the judge's dais in an empty courtroom and talks about his relationships with his wife Chris and his son Eric, and...
Once I got in and was snacking on my chips and queso, I spotted Morton himself walking around and being introduced to folks in the audience. Producer Marcy Garriott spoke before the film and mentioned special guests in attendance for the Q&A afterwards; I surmised Morton was likely one of them.
The film itself largely consists of interviews recorded at the Williamson County Courthouse. Morton sits in a wooden chair below the judge's dais in an empty courtroom and talks about his relationships with his wife Chris and his son Eric, and...
- 3/16/2013
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
Continued from earlier today, here are the rest of the SXSW 2013 films with Austin or Texas ties: documentaries and films that have already been hits at other festivals.
Documentary Spotlight:
An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story -- If you watch the local news, you are likely quite familiar with the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton in Williamson County. This documentary looks further into his story and the years of work by his attorneys to get him released.
Jette butts in: Filmmaker Al Reinert (screenwriter for For All Mankind, Apollo 13) lives in Houston. The film is produced by local filmmakers Clark and Jesse Lyda (who also own Monument Cafe) and Marcy Garriott -- all three worked previously on The Least of These (SXSW 2009). Jason Wehling (The Retrieval) is credited as a consulting producer. One of the composers is Chuck Pinnell, brother of the late Texas filmmaker Eagle Pennell. (screening...
- 2/6/2013
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
South by Southwest (SXSW) is just one of many film festivals, we here at Sound On Sight cover yearly. The fest, which takes place every spring in Austin, Texas, began in 1987, and has continued to grow in size every year. The fest announced the first wave of films back in early January, and the lineup included some highly anticipated films such as The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Evil Dead, Downloaded and Spring Breakers. Now the full lineup has been announced, and it just might be one of the best lineups the festival has ever programmed.
SXSW takes place March 8-16 in Austin Texas. Here are just some of the films we are excited about.
Narrative Feature Competition – This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,191 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.
Awful Nice
Director/Screenwriter: Todd Sklar, Screenwriter: Alex Rennie
Estranged brothers Jim and Dave must travel to Branson together when...
SXSW takes place March 8-16 in Austin Texas. Here are just some of the films we are excited about.
Narrative Feature Competition – This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,191 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.
Awful Nice
Director/Screenwriter: Todd Sklar, Screenwriter: Alex Rennie
Estranged brothers Jim and Dave must travel to Branson together when...
- 2/1/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Some of the best films of the 2012/2013 calender year from Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Bujalski, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Shane Carruth and Joshua Oppenheimer are among the headliner names for the 2013 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival. With a little over 100 plus film line-up (a whopping 2000+ titles were submitted), almost 70 are world premieres: there is the highly anticipated sophomore film (that has been on our radar since it first went into production) with M. Blash’s (The Wait), Joe Swanberg who makes SXSW his second home will premiere Drinking Buddies, veteran indie filmmaker John Sayles saddles in with Go For Sisters, and rounding out the Narrative Spotlight section we’ve got The Bounceback from Bryan Poyser, Loves Her Gun from Geoff Marslett along with titles we thought might break into Park City, but found an Austin home instead with Jacob Vaughan’s Milo and...
- 2/1/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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