Austin Film Festival: Monday Film Picks

The Screenwriter's Conference is over and done with, so now it's just down to the films. Here are our picks for Monday at the Austin Film Festival, including some you may have missed the first time around.

You can start your evening of film off at 5:00pm with Shorts 13. This collection is made up of short films by various directors from the Houston and Austin area. Office drama, relationship issues, these shorts have it all. Support your local short filmmaker!

You could just stay at the Arbor afterwards; our first pick for 7:00 is the buddy drama How I Got Lost. Two male pals dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 decide to hit the road. This movie had us at Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married).

Torey's Distraction, also at 7pm, plays at the Rollins Theater. This documentary focuses on Torey Harrah, a child born with Apert Syndrome. This appears to be a haunting, touching look into how our society's expectations/standards of beauty hurt the most fragile.

At 9:30, there's Happy Ending. It has the quirkiness of Amelie, without the green tint . . . and in Japanese. What can we say? We really, really like this one. It serves as a sort of antidote to Hollywood's typical romantic comedy formula.

Eric Bana's ode to his car, Love the Beast, has its only AFF showing at 10:30pm. A hunky Australian movie star and his car—is there a better cure for a case of the Mondays?

Since the conference is over, you shouldn't have any trouble getting into the screenings that you want to see. We still recommend that you arrive at smaller theaters like the Alamo Ritz 45 minutes in advance of the start time. Check out the full AFF schedule here.