News

It makes welcome sense that a locally owned and operated movie theater would present a program that highlights its home state while also supporting one of its own Austin friends. Violet Crown Cinema has announced a new ongoing film series called Texas Spotlight, which will feature the work of Texas filmmakers and Texas-based films.

Three monthly screenings have been announced so far, and all ticket sales from these initial shows will be donated to a fund for Evan West, a Violet Crown employee severely injured in the March 13 hit-and-run on Red River Street. 

This first trio of films features two newer selections and one retrospective screening, and all three directors hail from Texas (either Austin or Dallas). Tickets are available here. 

Read on for screening details and descriptions (provided by Violet Crown), and stay in touch for updates about future Texas Spotlight screenings. If you'd like to donate directly to the Evan West fund,...

Fandor has won the distribution rights for "Easy," the new short film by Dallas-based writer/director Daniel Laabs. The film follows two brothers, one entering adulthood, the other becoming a teenager. The film will play on Fandor starting March 7, the day of its debut at SXSW. Laabs's earlier films "Sleet/Snow" and "8" will also play as part of a Laabs showcase, part of Fandor's "Spotlight on Texas." The program will also feature work by Richard Linklater, the Zellner brothers, the Duplass brothers, Eric Steele's "Cork's Cattlebaron" starring Robert Longstreet, the debut film by Tobe Hooper, "Eggshells," and Eagle Pennell's "The Whole Shootin' March," alongside a documentary about Pennell, "The King of Texas." In addition to wining the Grand Jury Prize for Texas Shorts for "8" at SXSW 2011, Laabs' "Sleet/Snow" played at SXSW in 2009 as a part of the Austin Film Society Shorts Showcase.

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave pulled a five finger discount at the 2014 Indie Spirit Awards grabbing hardware in the Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography categories. Apart from the larceny in the Best Doc category, the winners in the above mention category (excluding Bobbitt’s work) and the double win pairing of Leto and McConaughey along with Cate Blanchett’s perf win in Blue Jasmine will likely repeat itself less than 24 hours later at tomorrow’s Academy Awards celebrations obviously begging many to ponder the following: who needs the 86th Academy Awards when we have the Indie Spirit Awards? While today’s most pleasurable wins come from the truly indie kudos for Best First Feature (Ryan Coogler for Frutivale Station) the John Cassavetes award for Chad Hartigan’s This is Martin Bonner, and the Piaget Producers Award to Ain’t Them Bodies Saints...

Film Independent announced nominations for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards this morning.

Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at the W Hollywood, with actresses Octavia Spencer and Paula Patton presenting the nominations.

Nominees for Best Feature included 12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska.

Mud was selected to receive the annual Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.

In its commitment to recognizing the importance of below the line contributions to the art of filmmaking, Film Independent has now introduced, for the first year, the Best Editing category in the Spirit Awards.

Winners will be announced at the Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The awards ceremony will be held as a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening...

Adding to the awards show season buzz, the list of hopefuls for 2014 Film Independent’s Spirit Awards was just unveiled.

Hosted by Patton Oswalt, the much-anticipated event is slated to get underway on March 1st in Santa Monica, and there will be plenty of stars to be seen.

Bruce Dern, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, Matthew McConaughey, and Robert Redford will all compete in the Best Male Lead Category, while the Best Female Lead nominees are Cate Blanchett, Julie Delpy, Gaby Hoffman, Brie Larson, and Shailene Woodley.

The 29th Spirit Awards contenders are:

Best Feature

12 Years A Slave

All is Lost

Frances Ha

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Best Director

Shane Carruth, Upstream Color

J.C. Chandor, All Is Lost

Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave

Jeff Nichols, Mud

Alexander Payne, Nebraska

Best Female Lead

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Julie Delpy, Before Midnight

Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy

Brie Larson, Short Term 12

Shailene Woodley,...

Team Fox Searchlight should be returning to the winner’s circle at the next edition of the Indie Spirits awards. After winning with Black Swan three years back, and losing out in the Best Feature category with Beasts of the Southern Wild and The Descendants, Fox Searchlight’s 12 Years a Slave leads all other films with seven nominations Best Feature, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography and three of the four acting categories. Alexander Payne’s Nebraska follows with six noms. Both Sundance (Fruitvale Station) and SXSW (Short Term 12) winners figure among the noms, but they weren’t as plentiful with only three noms a piece. Among our favorite titles for 2013 which were left off the scorecard, David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George Saints got no recognition, while Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love would have got my vote for the Annual Someone To Watch Award.

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" led the pack of the nominations for the 29th Annual Film Independent Spirit Award. The film received 7 nominations including best feature, director, and acting noms for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, and Michael Fassbender.

Winners of the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards will be announced on Saturday, March 1st at a daytime luncheon in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica with the premiere broadcast airing later that evening at 10:00 pm Et/Pt exclusively on IFC.

Congrats and good luck to all the nominees!

Here's the complete list of the nominees of the 2014 Spirit Awards:

Best Feature (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded)

12 Years a Slave

Producers: Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad

All Is Lost

Producers: Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb

Frances Ha

Producers: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Rodrigo Teixeira, Lila Yacoub...

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave is in contention for seven Spirit Awards followed closely by Alexander Payne’s Nebraska on six as Film Independent top brass announced nominees on November 26.

McQueen earned a director nomination and will compete against Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Jc Chandor for All Is Lost, Jeff Nichols for Mud and Share Carruth for Upstream Color.

Not surprisingly given the strength and depth of this awards season, the categories are strong across the board.

Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is among a mighty crop of international contenders that includes Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and A Touch Of Sin from China’s Jia Zhang-Ke.

12 Years A Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor will contest the lead actor race with veterans Bruce Dern for Nebraska and Robert Redford for All Is Lost, as well as...

The Lone Star Film Festival kicks off tonight in Fort Worth, and it will live up to its name with a number of Austin and Texas selections, as well as some honored guests. The festival runs through Sunday, November 10.

The Austin Chronicle co-founder and SXSW director Louis Black, musician and actor Lyle Lovett and Fort Worth businessman Stephen Murrin, Jr. will be honored tomorrow for their role in film and the arts at the Fort Worth Club. In addition, the following movies all have Austin or Lone Star connections:

Bob Birdnow's Remarkable Tale of Human Survival and the Transcendence of Self, about two friends who reunite at a conference, just won the Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award at this year's Memphis Indie fest. Writer/director Eric Steele and producer Adam Donaghey are owners of the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, Texas. Donaghey also produced Lsff selection Little Hope Was Arson.

Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news. 

Texas filmmakers Kat Candler (Hellion), Russell O. Bush (Vultures of Tibet), Craig Whitney (The Garden and the Wilderness), Tony Costello (Little Lions), Eric Steele (Cork's Cattlebaron), and Angela and Mark Walley (Vincent Valdez: Excerpts for John) were recently honored at this year's Texas Filmmaker's Showcase in L.A. (pictured above). The Houston Film Commission selected these filmmakers' short works to represent the Lone Star State and be screened for producers, agents and studio reps at the annual event.The Texas Archive of the Moving Image recently received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History for its newly redesigned website, Austin Movie Blog reports. The website, which launched last September, was credited as having "an overall richer interactive experience" for visitors, who have online access to historical films. Tami, one of 88 national recipients, will be presented with...

Here's the latest Austin film news. 

Austin Film Society recently announced the participants in its inaugural Artist Intensive, a program designed to mentor narrative feature writers/directors in the development stages of their projects. Last weekend, Austin and New York-based independent bigwigs, like Amy Hobby (producer of Gayby) and Austinite Jeff Nichols (Mud), mentored six filmmakers, which included Austinites Mallory Culbert and Carlyn Hudson with The Big Spoon; 2012 Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund recipients Andy Irvine and Mark Smoot with Lovers Crossing; 2011 Tfpf recipient Daniel Laabs with an untitled project about the aftermath of a fatal car accident in Pennsylvania; and the Texas revenge thriller Seize The Body by James M. Johnston and Todd Connelly. The Houston Film Commission has announced this year's Texas Filmmaker's Showcase, a selection of short films representing the Lone Star State. The showcase will be screened in Los Angeles on June 30 for producers, agents and studio reps.

Austin-based actress Heather Kafka shows up in features Pit Stop, The Bounceback, Loves Her Gun, When Angels Sing, and short Black Metal which are all screening at SXSW next month. Let's just say that if you see a film with local ties during the festival, there's about a 75% chance that Kafka will be in it. You might have seen her previously in locally made movies like Lovers of Hate, Saturday Morning Massacre, Slacker 2011 (pictured above) ... and she's the woman trying to buy from the Carl's Jr. kiosk in Idiocracy.

Kafka took some time to talk to us (via email) about working in the friendly Austin film community and taking on roles that her grandma shouldn't see.

Slackerwood: You appear in a number of the films showing at SXSW this year. How did you become involved with these film projects?

Heather Kafka: Sometimes I'm lucky. When I came back...

Here are some of the twitter feeds for those participating in the Sundance Film Festival’s 2013 Next section including (image featured above) Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice. If you know of any other twitter feeds (producers, editors, Dps, scribes) we can add for each individual film – please let us know.

Next

Blue Caprice – @BlueCapriceFilm

Actors Isaiah Washington – @IWashington, Tequan Richmond – @TdashRICH, Cassandra Freeman – @cassiefree

Computer Chess – @computer_chess

I Used to Be Darker – @IUsedToBeDarker

It Felt Like Love – @ItFeltLikeLove

Director and screenwriter Eliza Hittman – @ElizaHittman

Milkshake – @MilkshakeFilm

Newlyweeds – @NewlyweedsMovie

Actors Trae Harris – @GypsyBruja, Colman Domingo – @colmandomingo, Isiah Whitlock Jr. – @IsiahSheeitlock

Pit Stop

Director and screenwriter Yen Tan – @PitStopTheMovie

Screenwriter David Lowery – @davidlowery

Actor Corby Sullivan – @corbysullivan

Actor John Merriman: twitter.com/jmerriman

Richard C. Jones: https://twitter.com/richardo

Producer Kelly Williams: twitter.com/kellywilliams

Producer James M. Johnston: twitter.com/jmjfilm

Producer Eric Steele: twitter.

We're deep in the heart of the 18th Austin Film Festival we've been spotlighting the Austin films, but Uncertain, TX has so many Texas filmmakers working on it, we just had to do a quick interview with director Eric Steele and producer Adam Donaghey, both based up in the Dfw area. Austin's Clay Liford (Wuss, Earthling) did the cinematography. Uncertain, TX may be Steele's first feature film, but he's been active in the local film community. Steele, Donaghey, Barak Epstein and Jason Reimer are all part of Aviation Cinemas, which revived the historic Texas Theatre in 2010.

Describe your film for us, in a quick and dirty paragraph.

Eric Steele: Uncertain, TX is, in essence, the worst bed and breakfast experience imaginable. Two drifters happen upon an old bed and breakfast in a bayou town near the Louisiana/Texas border and encounter a very odd family who psychologically torments them during their stay.