Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers' creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
AFF is known for its annual October Austin Film Festival & Conference, which is an Oscar-qualifying film festival. The Conference was the first event of its kind, bringing professional and amateur screenwriters together to celebrate the role of screenplays in filmmaking and host conversations focusing on craft and on particular films and television series. In addition, the Screenplay Competition receives more entries than any other competition in the world. Several competition finalists and semi-finalists have made sales or found managers and agents at the conference.
Film Festival
Overview Each October, Austin Film Festival & Conference presents a program of narrative, animated and documentary features and shorts, including premieres, advance screenings and independent films. Films showcase the art and craft of strong narrative storytelling and screenings are often accompanied by question and answer sessions with cast members and filmmakers.
Past guests of the Festival include Joel and Ethan Coen, Ron Howard, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Steven Zaillian, David Milch, Wes Anderson, Robert Duvall, Buck Henry, Dennis Hopper, Shane Black, Robert Altman, Caroline Thompson, David Chase, James Franco, Johnny Depp, John Landis, Garry Shandling, Bryan Singer, Oliver Stone, James L. Brooks, Harold Ramis, Mitchell Hurwitz, Lawrence Kasdan, Claire Danes, Barry Levinson, Russell Crowe, Sydney Pollack, Mike Judge, Buck Henry, John Lasseter, Robert Rodriguez, Jeff Daniels, and David Simon.
Past films Recent major films screened at recent festivals include Saltburn (2023), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), The Artist (2011), The Descendants (2011), Jeff Who Lives at Home (2011), 127 Hours (2010), Black Swan (2010), Up in the Air (2009), Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire (2009), and the US Premiere of Jeff Nichol's first film Shotgun Stories in 2007.
In 2009, AFF screened Ron Howard's Apollo 13 – winner of two Oscars in 1996 – as part of a special presentation In 2006, playwright/screenwriter Horton Foote and actor Robert Duvall were present at AFF for a special screening of their 1983 film Tender Mercies. In 2005, Austin Film Festival hosted a screening of Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which had been given a staged reading at the 2003 Festival. In 1998, The Coen Brothers premiered the director's cut of Blood Simple at the Festival. Dennis Hopper was on hand at the 1997 Festival for a screening of 1969's Oscar-nominated classic Easy Rider. In 1996, AFF held an anniversary screening of 1987's indie classic Hollywood Shuffle attended by writer/director Robert Townsend;
2011 Among 2011's screenings were Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Jay and Mark Duplass' Jeff Who Lives at Home, and Alexander Payne's The Descendants. Restive, a thriller written and directed by newcomer Jeremiah Jones won the Esurance Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, while there was a tie in Best Documentary Feature category between Adam Cornelius' Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters and Dennis Rice's Stories from an Undeclared War. The award for Extraordinary Contribution to Film-Actor award was given to Johnny Depp.
2012 The 2012 Austin Film Festival opened with David Chase's Not Fade Away with Chase in attendance. Julia Stiles represented both Silver Linings Playbook and It's a Disaster, the screening for which included a majority of the cast and crew. Distinguished Screenwriter Awardee Eric Roth presented a screening of The Insider and Outstanding Television Writer awardee Chris Carter showed episodes from both The X-Files and Millennium as well as a retrospective screening of Murder By Decree. Other guest programmers included Paul Feig who selected The Human Tornado and Phil Rosenthal who selected Broadway Danny Rose. The film slate, programmed by Bears Fonte and Stephen Jannise, featured more World and U.S. Premieres than in any prior year of the festival including the world premieres of Ambush at Dark Canyon (as To Kill a Memory), Come Morning, Congratulations, Ex-Girlfriends, Flatland 2: Sphereland, Idol Is Dead, Junk, Last Man(s) on Earth, Mar Del Plata, Murt Ramirez Wants to Kick My..., The Muslims Are Coming!, Pictures of Superheroes, The Rep, Sample This, Spinning Plates, and Spring Eddy, which was produced by Executive Director Barbara Morgan and written and directed by George Anson, one of the first AFF programmers.
2013 The 20th Anniversary Austin Film Festival honored actress Susan Sarandon with the 2013 Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award. Sarandon presented a retrospective screening of John Turturro's Romance and Cigarettes, and joined a conversation on the art and craft of storytelling with the other 2013 awardees, Vince Gilligan (Outstanding Television Writer), Jonathan Demme (Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking), Callie Khouri (Distinguished Screenwriter), and Barry Josephson (Heart of Film Award).
Austin Film Festival's Opening Night featured the US premiere of Jonathan Sobel's break-out Toronto International Film Festival heist hit The Art of the Steal starring Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon and Jay Baruchel, as well as the world premiere of AFF success story Coffee, Kill Boss, a film that emerged from the festival's Screenplay Competition in 2011. Coffee, Kill Boss stars Eddie Jemison (Ocean's 11-13, Hung), Noureen DeWulf (Anger Management) and Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Mulholland Drive). AFF's closing night film featured the US premiere of All Cheerleaders Die. Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson co-wrote and directed the film, hailed as a monster midnight sensation in the Toronto International Film Festival.
Programmed by Ryan Darbonne and Bears Fonte, the 20th anniversary lineup featured more world and U.S. premieres than ever before in the festival's history. Overall, the 2013 festival included 28 world premiere features: Cavemen, Finding Neighbors, Jack, Jules, Esther and Me, The Odd Way Home, Siren, Dog Days, Living Dolls, Political Bodies, Take Away One, 120 Days, La Navaja de Don Juan, Brightest Star, Coffee, Kill Boss, Mop King, Blood Punch, Dark Mountain, Innocence, Dug Up, Dear Sidewalk, The Road to Livingston, Sombras de Azul, Always Learning, The Bloc, The Fable of Shannon Cable, Handy, Not Safe For Work, Speak Now, and 3 References, as well as another 8 US premieres. 9 films were picked up for distribution within two weeks of the festival's close.
2014 The 2014 Austin Film Festival honored writer and director Jim Sheridan with the 2014 Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Sheridan presented his 1993 film In the Name of the Father, followed by a conversation with other 2014 awardees, Matthew Weiner (Outstanding Television Writer), and Edward Zwick (Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking).
Austin Film Festival's Opening Night featured a screening of Richard Lagravenese's The Last Five Years starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. During the Closing Night, Jon Stewart made his screenwriting and directorial debut when he screened his feature film Rosewater. Rosewater, based on the New York Times best-selling memoir Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, stars Gael Garcia Bernal.
Overall, the 21st annual Austin Film Festival featured 18 world premieres including: 7 Minutes and Dawn Patrol. The festival also featured the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, as well as Big Hero 6, winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
2018 Notable films screened at AFF included Shoplifters, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Front Runner, Little Woods, Roger Corman's Rock All Night (1957), and The Black String.
2019 AFF screened features A Hidden Life (Writer/Director: Terrence Malick), Clemency (Writer/Director: Chinonye Chukwu), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh My God I Think It's Over (Director: Katie Hyde), Ford v Ferrari (Writer: Jez & John Henry Butterworth, Jason Keller, Director: James Mangold), Harriet (Writer: Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons, Director: Kasi Lemmons), Honey Boy (Writer: Shia LaBeouf, Director: Alma Har’el), Last Week At Ed's (Director: Meg Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan), Marriage Story (Writer/Director: Noah Baumbach), Motherless Brooklyn (Writer: Edward Norton (Screenplay), Jonathan Lethem (based on the novel by), Director: Edward Norton), Peace (Writer/Director: Robert Port), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Writer/Director: Céline Sciamma), Rattlesnake (Writer/Director: Zak Hilditch), Skyman (Writer/Director: Daniel Myrick), The Kill Team (Writer/Director: Dan Krauss), The Report (Writer/Director: Scott Z. Burns), The Truth (Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda, Adaption by Lea Le Dimna, Director: Hirokazu Koreeda), The Two Popes (Writer: Anthony McCarten, Director: Fernando Meirelles), Waves (Writer/Director: Trey Edward Shults), Yellow Rose (Writer: Diane Paragas & Annie J. Howell, Director: Diane Paragas), The Bygone (Writer/Director: Graham Phillips, Parker Phillips), DC Noir (Writer: George Pelecanos, Director: George Pelecanos, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Nick Pelecanos, Stephen Kinigopoulos), Drowning (Writer/Director: Melora Walters), Family Obligations (Writer/Director: Kenneth R. Frank), The Illegal (Writer/Director: Danish Renzu) The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (Writer/Director: David Midell), Limbo (Writer: Anil Kizilbuga, Director: Tim Dunschede), Not To Be Unpleasant But We Need To Have A Serious Talk (Writer: Giorgos Georgopoulos, Maria Fakinou, Director: Giorgos Georgopoulos), Undertow (Writer/Director: Miranda Nation), Wade in the Water (Writer: Chris Retts, Director: Mark Wilson), The Witness (Writer: Mitko Panov, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, David Riker, Director: Mitko Panov).
2020 AFF screenings in 2020 went all-virtual due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
Writer-Director Paul Kowalski won the Narrative Feature Audience Award and a Jury mention for his film Paper Tiger, which made its world premiere. Kowalski was subsequently named one of “25 Screenwriters To Watch” by the festival.
The Badger, written and directed by Kazem Mollaie, made its North American premiere, and won the Best Narrative Jury Award.
The virtual writer's conference included panels and workshops featuring Lindsay Doran, Scott Frank, Kevin Willmott and Tracey Scott Wilson.
2021 The first in-person return since 2019 was held. The Writer's Conference featured Brad Ingelsby, Lisa Joy and Linda Yvette Chavez (Gentefied). The opening night film was Peter Hedges' COVID-19 themed The Same Storm on October 21–28. Notable films were C'mon C'mon, The French Dispatch, The Souvenir Part II and The Worst Person in the World.
Film competition AFF is accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, making all Jury Award-winning Narrative Short, Documentary Short, and Animated Short films eligible for an Academy Award.
Notable Past Winners In 2000, Jason Reitman won the Jury Award for his short film In God We Trust and later won AFF Audience Awards for Juno (2007) and Up in the Air (2009). Juno went on to receive four Academy Award nominations, winning the Oscar for Best Writing: Original Screenplay in 2008; Up in the Air was nominated for six Oscars in 2010, including a nomination for Best Director for Reitman. In 2003 and 2005, Cary Fukanaga received AFF awards for his student short films; Fukanaga has since gone on to direct the critically acclaimed Sin Nombre (2009) and Jane Eyre (2011).