Don't you just love surprises? We do! Especially ones that involve movies and John Cusack. So we were excited to hear that Grace Is Gone will screen as one of four top-secret "TBA" films at this year's Austin Film Festival.

The film stars Cusack (in what some are already calling an Oscar-worthy performance) as a middle-class American father who can't figure out how to tell his two young daughters that their mother has been killed while serving in Iraq. Desperate to avoid the sad task, he takes the girls on a spontaneous road trip while he struggles to deal with the loss.

Check out the screening details below, and keep checking in with us this week as we'll have the scoop on even more AFF surprises.

Grace is Gone | Writer/Director: James C. Strouse
Thursday, October 18, 9:30pm
Bob Bullock Theater

There was a time when Stanley Phillips (John Cusack) could see his entire life clearly. He dreamed of patriotic service and was destined for a military career. He came close to that dream until it was cut short simply because of his poor eyesight. Now he’s serving customers at a home supply store while his Sergeant wife is fighting in Iraq.

Equally as awkward at home as he is at work, he’s raising Heidi, their twelve-year-old daughter and her 8-year-old sister Dawn. Although a loving father, Stanley is unable to conform to a more affectionate role and the girls miss their mother deeply.

While tolerating his job and stumbling through parenting he is abruptly awakened when tragedy strikes. Ill prepared to deal with it himself, he is at a complete loss contemplating how to tell his children. Desperate to delay telling the children they embark on a spontaneous road trip. Grasping to give them their last moments of innocence, Stanley reveals a softer side as they travel to Dawn’s chosen destination – Enchanted Gardens Theme Park.

The farther they drive the closer they become yet Stanley knows he must face the inevitable task of changing their lives forever.

Grace Is Gone won both the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

[AFF Bside Page]
[Official Website]