Austin Film Festival: Sunday Film & Panel Picks
Austinist Pick: The Messenger - 7:00pm at The Paramount
11:30 am gets more action than it ever has before. Your AFF goodie bag runneth over with panel options. While we were tempted by What Gets Producers Excited and Script-to-Screen: Alabama Moon, our pick goes to Adaptation in the Stephen F. Austin Assembly Room. Jessica Bendinger (Bring it On) and Beau Thorne (Max Payne) are among the panelists that will delve into adapting a screenplay from a variety of material. Find out what you can do with that article, book, or failed relationship that you just can't stop obsessing over.
If you need a break from live humans and want to look at a screen instead of continuing with the panels, we suggest heading over to the Alamo Ritz at 12:15 pm to see Happy Ending. It's cutetastic premise is that of a girl who finds herself in a romantic comedy situation even though she is obsessed with the slasher genre.
For you panel people, 1:00 pm also has an overabundance of choices. The Art of Storytelling in the Driskill Ballroom should be more than worthwhile. Richard Linklater is one of the panelits! We dare you to find more "authenticity" and "memorable dialogue" than the power duo that is Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Go learn from him. Our back-up is practical panel Documentaries: From the Ground Up.
There are also some great niche-y panels for aspiring Austinite filmmakers at 2:30 pm: Music In Film: The Creative Side in the Driskill Hogg Room and Turning Your Shorts/Webisodes Into a Film Career in the Driskill Maximilian Room.
We've narrowed our evening film picks down to the three we're most excited about, but you should take a look at the full schedule because we could go on forever. First up is the 7:00 pm screening of The Messenger at the Paramount. Ben Foster had us at Disney's Flash Forward and then he really had us with his role in Six Feet Under. Here, Foster stars as a U.S. Army Officer that works in the Army's Casualty Notification Service when he returns from Iraq. He is partnered with none other than Woody Harrelson and soon finds himself drawn to a woman (Samantha Morton, one of our favorite actresses; excuse us while we take this opportunity to kiss the person in charge of casting) that has just found out from Foster that her husband has died. Heavy roles for a heavy film, but the performances look extremely promising. Hey, Precious had more uplifting moments than we expected. You never know. Further incentive to attend: Director Owen Moverman and Ben Foster will be in attendance.
This is the part where we turn to the black arts to split ourselves in two so we can experience two films at 9:00 pm. The Independent at 501 will be screening D Tour, a documentary about Rogue Wave's Pat Spurgeon and his experience with a failing kidney that coincided with his band's rising popularity. The film features some other great musicians like Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), Nada Surf, and John Vanderslice. It also screens on Thursday if you can't make it tonight.
The other 9:00 pm film is The Fourth Kind at the Texas Spirit Theatre. It's still October and we want to take every opportunity to freak ourselves out. Please get a slight hint of chills by reading the first few lines of the film's summary: "In 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien encounters. When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document...until now." It stars Milla Jovovich and a few of the elements sound kind of like the alien abduction version of that Paranormal Activity movie all the kids are talking about these days.
The day is full of so many more panels, narrative films, comedies, dramas, and documentaries. Really, this is only the beginning. Be sure to check out the full listing of AFF Sunday happenings.
