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While we wait for various summer movie series to begin, Austin still has lots of interesting alternative film choices this week. And of course the summer blockbusters have begun and you already have your choice of the new movie with the Star Trek gang or the movie that released last week (and therefore is practically ancient) with the man in the iron suit.

Tickets are still available through the Austin Film Society website for Sunday's triple-feature of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and the sneak peek of Before Midnight, with director Richard Linklater in attendance after the first movie.

On Tuesday, Violet Crown Cinema presents Holiday Road, a comedy in which 13 filmmakers each devote a short film to a different American holiday. Ut alum Todd Berger tackled January and October, and Austin's own Kelly Williams was a producer for this anthology.

If you're interested in young filmmakers, Afs presents the 2013 Film...

For their 9th annual edition, the Atlanta Underground Film Festival will be assaulting the south from its Goat Farm Arts Center screening center on Sep. 13-16 with four days and nights of independent feature films, shorts and documentaries.

Some of the feature films screening include Lisa Duva’s multi-dimensional Cat Scratch Fever, Jason Lapeyre’s thriller Cold Blooded and Brady Hall’s hilariously named Hello, My Name Is Dick Licker.

This year’s Auff is also packed to the gills with short films with multiple blocks of shorts screening per day. Some of the special ones to look out for are Neil Ira Needleman‘s A Few Words in Favor of God, Jim Haverkamp‘s When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl and Mike Salva‘s award-winning animated short Pound Dogs.

The full film lineup is below, but please visit the official Atlanta Underground Film Festival website for more details and to buy advance tickets.

Occasionally, Austin Cinematic Limits is going to post interviews with key players in Austin’s film community. It might be common knowledge that there is a rich pool of directors in Austin, but there are also a ton of fantastic actors, cinematographers, composers, animators, make-up artists, and other cinematic people with whom we also want to converse. Maybe — just maybe — we will gain a better understanding of why all of these talented people have chosen to live and work in Austin rather than Los Angeles or New York City. We are starting with producer Kelly Williams — partly because there are only a handful of producers who actually live and work in Austin, but also because he is currently juggling so many great projects. Since resigning from his role as Film Program Director at the Austin Film Festival in June 2011, Williams has already produced Kat Candler’s Hellion (premiered at Sundance 2012), the anthology film Holiday Road (premiered at...

Slamdance A scene from ‘Holiday Road’

Named after the Lindsey Buckingham song featured in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Holiday Road” brings 13 varied directors together to create a dark- humored 72-minute feature film about national holidays.

The film opens and ends with a New Year’s Eve party countdown and in between, segments range from a band shooting a sex-fueled Labor Day music video to a Christmas Eve crime drama starring Wendi McLendon-Covey of “Bridesmaids” fame.

The only rules for the...

Here's the latest Austin film news. 

Austin Film Critics Association has just announced its 2011 awards. Martin Scorsese's movie Hugo was chosen for Best Picture; the gritty film Drive also won several awards. Take Shelter, written and directed by Austin filmmaker Jeff Nichols, won not only Best Austin Film but also a Best Actor award for Michael Shannon. This year's list of 25 movies selected to be added to the National Film Registry includes one with Austin ties: Robert Rodriguez's 1992 indie flick El Mariachi.Independent video rental and music store Encore Records, Video & Apparel, located at 1745 West Anderson Lane, is closing after more than 23 years of business in Austin. Encore President Chuck Lokey announced a final store clearance is in effect. Ut alumni take a walk down Holiday Road: The comic anthology film Holiday Road will be screened in the narrative special screenings division at next month's 2012 Slamdance Film Festival.

The Slamdance Film Festival announced a long list of special screenings and short films that will play at its 2012 edition. Included in the mix is Jonathan Demme's "Neil Young Journeys," a portrait of the rock star at his 2011 summer solo shows in Toronto. The festival will also screen a never-before-seen TV pilot from Ed Wood as part of their program. The Slamdance Film Festival will run from January 20-26 in Park City, Utah. The complete list of films announced today is below. For the competition slate for this year's Slamdance, check out the earlier announced list. Special Screenings – Narrative: Holiday Road – Directors/Screenwriters: Todd Berger, Bill Palmer, Bobby Miller, Daron Nefcy,Benny Grinnell, Ian Eastin, Marcy McIlwain, Aaron Arendt, Michael Suter, Dee Robertson, DougManley, Helena Wei, Andrew Putschoegl. (USA) World Premiere A feature length comedic anthology celebrating the hilarious,...

There's now officially another female in the world of male strippers.

The cast of Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike" continues to indulge a woman's touch with the inclusion of Wendi McLendon-Covey, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The "Reno 911!" actress, who made quite a splash this summer as the cynical Rita in "Bridesmaids," joins Olivia Munn, Cody Horn and Riley Keough as the ladies of the male stripper drama, which follows a veteran exotic dancer (Channing Tatum) as he teaches his young protege (Alex Pettyfer) how to hustle both on and off the stage.

It's unknown what role McLendon-Covey will be playing, though our guess is she might be the wife (or ex-wife) of Matthew McConaughey's character, who owns the strip club where all the excitement takes place. Either that or Alex Pettyfer's mom.

Wendi McLendon-Covey, like many of her "Bridesmaids" co-stars, has been keeping plenty busy since the...