Austin Film Festival + Fantastic Fest

Tell someone you’ve just spent a few days in Austin watching independent films and chatting with some of the biggest actors, writers, and directors in the business and they’ll ask you how you liked the SXSW Film Festival. Right town, wrong festival. While many think SXSW is the only reason to visit, Austin has been slipping in a few others you may want to put on your calendar for next year. Two of those took place in October – the Austin Film Festival which has been around for a dozen or so years, and the brand new Fantastic Fest. Fantastic Fest was the brainchild of director Tim McCanlies and producer Paul Alvarado-Dykstra. But Alvarado-Dykstra gives a large amount of credit to the knowledgeable team they put together which includes film encyclopedian Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News, Tim League, founder of the #1 movie house in the country – the Alamo Drafthouse, and Matt Dentler, producer and programmer for the SXSW Film Festival. Together they drew in an impressive array of films from inside and outside the U.S. ”We’re extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish our first year with only four months of prep,” says Alvarado-Dykstra. “We worked very hard on the programming selections in particular.” The entire festival took place at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse. For the uninitiated, the Drafthouse is a moviegoer’s dream. Prefacing each feature presentation is everything from vintage trailers to foreign TV commercials. And (joy of joys) in addition to popcorn and soda, you’ve got a menu that includes beer, pizza, and pasta served right to your seat. While other movie houses are closing their doors, the Drafthouse is selling franchises. One of the marvelous things about a young festival like Fantastic Fest is the access film fanatics have to filmmakers like director Jon Favreau, who introduced his unofficial premiere of Zathura with actor Dax Shepard and editor Dan Lebental who gladly chatted with attendees during the opening night party – even media slime like me. Other highlights included exclusive unseen footage and props from The Chronicles of Narnia, an extended director’s cut of Sin City hosted by director Robert Rodriguez, a regional premiere of Project Greenlight’s Feast with director John Gulager (winner of the fest’s Jury Award for Best Director) and a sneak peak at Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. Some yet-to-be-released films also shown at Fantastic Fest: Hostel – one of the most terrifyingly wonderful horror films you’ll ever see, if it’s not edited down for U.S. audiences. Winner of Fantastic Fest’s Audience Awards for Best Film and Best Director and Jury Award for Best Screenplay The Big White-Robin Williams and Holly Hunter star in a dark comedy loosely imitating something the Coen Brothers might do. (They might, but probably wouldn’t.) Tim Blake Nelson won the Audience Award for Best Supporting Actor The Dark Hours-a Canadian thriller that won the Jury Award for Best Film, the Audience Award for Best Screenplay plus the Audience and Jury Awards for Best Actress (Kate Greenhouse) The Night of the Living Dorks-If Shaun of the Dead hadn’t beat them to it, this could have been the definitive spoof of zombie movies. A German film that shows like a 1990s American high school flick and will someday be worth the price of a DVD rental The Austin Film Festival is unique among national festivals in its dedication to the writer. Sure, there are a lot of cool films with directors, actors, writers, producers, and the occasional agent hanging out at parties and introducing films. But they’re also giving lectures and workshops on the craft of writing. And there’s a screenwriter’s competition to help struggling writers receive rejection live and in person. But you don’t need to be a writer to enjoy the festival. Just buy a film pass and see every film for a grand total of $35. And quite an impressive line up there was, including: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang-with writer/director Shane Black in attendance we got to learn how Robert Downey, Jr. fell into a part that could be his best work in years, and how Mel Gibson convinced the studio to take a chance on Downey because Gibson knew a thing or two about addiction and rehab. Shopgirl-director Anand Tucker, actor Jason Schwartzman, and the beautiful Claire Danes talked about the film and slathered praise on one another. The Ice Harvest-In addition to hosting a retrospective of his 1984 film Ghostbusters director Harold Ramis showed, and discussed, his new dark comedy-thriller with John Cusack (he works hard, talks a lot) and Billy Bob Thornton (shows up, has fun). The Squid and the Whale-Actor Jeff Daniels stopped in to talk about his role as an angry father/husband who just doesn’t get it. But Daniels might get it-“it” being an Oscar. My surprise pick of the festival (by “surprise” I mean I may be quite alone on this): Winter Passing – a kind of dreary, slow starting drama by first-time director Adam Rapp with some first-rate performances by Zooey Deschanel, Ed Harris, and Will Ferrell. The film exemplifies the reasons for attending film festivals. There’s gold in them there hills! I also had an opportunity to sit in on a panel for the semi-finalists of the screenwriting competition. (Alright, I admit it. I walked in the wrong door. But damn glad I did.) Accomplished writers such as James V. Hart (Tuck Everlasting, Contact, and Hook); Dan Petrie, Jr. (Beverly Hills Cop and The Big Easy; and Donal Logue (Tennis, Anyone?… and Just Like Heaven) talked about the craft, and craftiness, of writing to an absorbed group of happy writers-just one of the incredibly informative panels that went on throughout the week. Though March’s SXSW will always be king, it’s good to know about a few other reasons to visit Austin in October-Fantastic Fest and the Austin Film Festival.