As part of the Austin Film Society's current Comedies of Remarriage series, Preston Sturges' classic The Palm Beach Story will screen this week at Alamo South Lamar. The 1942 film tells the story of a mismatched couple (there's a quick glimpse at why they're mismatched in the opening credits sequence) who is down on their luck. more ›

We know that many of you will be spending the weekend at Auditorium Shores for the annual Fun Fun Fun fest, but if you aren't going to be rocking out in a park for the next few days there is plenty to see on area screens. more ›

Point Blank (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema) This relentless thriller from French director Fred Cavaye wastes no time throwing you into the action. The movie begins with a chase scene and barely stops to let you catch your breath over the course of its 84-minute running time. more ›

Twenty-four-year-old writer/director/actress Lena Dunham is triple threating all over the place. Funny, considering her first full-length feature, Tiny Furniture, is the quintessential comfort film for lost twenty-somethings with useless degrees and no direction. Might she lose the affection of this particular target audience after winning Best Narrative Feature at SXSW 2010, selling out Austin Film Society's "Best of the Fests" screening tomorrow night, AND getting her own Judd Apatow-produced comedy series picked up by HBO? 'Cause those things sound like the accomplishments of an extra-aged person that really has their shiz together. For those recent grads still staring off into space, you can find solace in Dunham's portrayal of lost and lonely Aura when SXSW Presents screens the low-key tragicomedy again on January 30th and February 1st at the Alamo Ritz. more ›

Bhutto, a documentary exploring the life of Benazir Bhutto, premieres in Austin on Wednesday night, providing a look at one of the world's most polarizing and fascinating political figures. more ›

• The Gulf has a concussion from all the recent trauma.
• Who knew The Fantasticks -- the longest-running musical ever -- had a tie to UT?
• The Rice Mob protested the sale of the Rice radio station KTRU during their halftime show at the Rice/University of Houston football game. The gloves are off.

We've all been THAT person. The one who misses out on the documentary or the acclaimed short screening, only to go home and curse our time management skills when we discover there is no distributor and no way of experiencing the film unless we somehow manage to get to a rural Australian Film Festival in two days. more ›

Kicking off this fourth annual Children of Abraham/Ibrahim 4: Films of The Middle East and Beyond series is Cairo Station, a film so bold and boundary-crossing that it was banned in Egypt for several years following its 1958 premiere. Directed by (and starring) Youssef Chahine, Cairo Station tells the tale of a tense love triangle involving a train porter, his sexy lemonade-selling wife and a handicapped newspaper vendor. more ›

In preparation for the sensory overload that is ACL (or just because it’ll be cool), check out Guatemalan Residue, a crazy hodgepodges of visual and aural insanity that’s part of Austin Film Society’s Avant Cinema line of programming. more ›

in the war-torn country of Afghanistan, there’s a TV show much like our own inexplicably popular American Idol, where anyone can compete regardless of race, age, religion, or any other factor. And people all over the country use their cell phones to vote for their favorite performer. This remarkable film (winner of Directing and Audience Awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival) follows four finalists as they compete to become the next Afghan Star.It's sure to inform, inspire, enlighten, and entertain you. And that’s a lot more than Simon Cowell could ever do for you. more ›

To kick off their third series of films from the Middle East and North Africa, "Children of Abraham/Ibrahim 3", the Austin Film Society is showing Earth, a 1998 film by Deepa Mehta, a female director who was born in India and immigrated to Canada in the '70s. Part of Mehta's elements trilogy of films, which also includes Fire and the more recent Water, Earth focuses on the story of a young girl growing up in Lahore during the 1947 partition. more ›

With a hopefully ridiculously large pair of scissors, filmmakers Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez will slice through a 70mm celluloid ribbon this evening, commencing the Austin Film Society's Make Watch Love Film Party, celebrating the Grand Re-Opening of Austin Studios. The old airplane hangers on East 51st have gotten a dramatic face lift, thanks to a $5 million bond measure passed by Austin residents in 2006, including full soundproofing and air-conditioning for two stages, improved security and safety, and state-of-the-art digital infrastructure with a 3 wall hard cyclorama (read: gigantic green screen!), which is the largest in Texas. more ›

This weekend, the Blanton Museum of Art is celebrating the completion of the Blanton complex by unveiling the Edgar A. Smith Building. The new facility, which is adjacent to the James A. Michener gallery building, houses the museum's cafe, a gift shop, an auditorium, and classrooms for art and education events. The Smith building also provides much needed administrative offices for the Blanton staff. The opening of the new structure makes the Blanton the largest university museum in the United States. The Blanton has plans to use the auditorium and classrooms for both UT and community events, and is working with the Austin Film Society to screen films in the 300 seat theatre. more ›

Tonight at the Alamo South Lamar, the AFS is screening “Private Fears in Public Places,’ Alain Renais’ acclaimed collection of vignettes about loneliness of six strangers in modern-day Paris as they search for love. Originally written as a stageplay, the film takes a humorous but intimate look at each character, exploring the emotions and circumstances they share, sometimes without even knowing it. more ›

After taking a short pause in their bi-monthly schedule to allow everyone a full recovery from the nine day movie marathon that is SXSW, the Avant Cinema Series is back with a bullet. The series featuring short experimental, avant-garde films and videos by regional filmmakers, curated by Austin Film Society programming director extraordinaire Chale Nafus and local filmmaker Scott Stark, presents its second night of films-that-you-won't-see-in-theaters tonight, yes tonight. A Dazzling Trio highlights the works of three prominent Austin filmmakers: Samantha Krukowski, PJ Raval, Rick Reed. more ›

So, we know that there is some other film awards show going on this weekend that involves statues and crimson carpets and such, but how many nominees can claim Austin as their hometown? None that we can think of, which is what makes the Film Independent's Spirit Awards a bazillion times more interesting to us than the stodgy old Oscars! more ›

MovieMaker Magazine has just named Austin the "Number One City to Live, Work and Make Movies". This is the seventh year in a row that Austin has placed in the top three, and the second time we've been numero uno (unseating longtime fave New York City, which slipped all the way down to #4 this year). more ›

Are you tired of the same old narrative structure in todays Hollywood and/or Independent Films? Thirsty for the more challenging side of cinema? We're happy to tell you that your welcome glass of avant-garde respite is about to be served up by the good folks over at the Austin Film Society. In keeping with the more artistic nature of our fair city, AFS boldly bounds into the world of the other with their new bimonthly Avant Cinema series, with the first installment Going Nowhere Slow scheduled for next Wednesday, January 30th at the Austin Studios Screening Room. more ›

With the faith of a thousand men, Pastor Richard Gazowsky set out ten years ago on a divine mission: to make the greatest film ever made. Nevermind that the first film he ever saw was The Lion King, at the tender age of 40. Nevermind that he had absolutely no background in directing, editing, or producing an epic so grand that it's concept was enthusiastically described as "The Ten Commandments meets Star Wars." Nevermind that his only solid source of funding was the generous tithes of his congregation at the Voice of Pentecost Church. more ›

Garrel met Nico, German model, actress and moody monotone of The Velvet Underground, in 1969. They quickly became lovers and partners, with Nico being featured in seven of Garrel's films during the 1970's. Nico was already a heroin addict at this point and shortly after her death in 1988, Garrel created this stark portrait of people on the edge, inspired by his muse's undoing. Using characteristic long take shots with very little action, he created the tension of extreme solitude, for not only the characters but the actors playing them, leaving everyone in cold boxes. The salacious nature of the subject matter is dealt with antiseptically, without emotion. We are guessing that the title of the film refers not only to the character inspired by Nico, but also to Garrel himself and his feelings not only after her death, but also immediately following the end of their relationship in 1979. We suppose all tomorrow's parties just wouldn't be as interesting if you could no longer hear the music. more ›

AFS Essentials: Les Amants Réguliers Tuesday, November 27thAlamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)6:15pm, $4 / Free for AFS members[info]Poor Philippe Garrel. He has made dozens of films over the last four decades, but has been mostly overlooked stateside because he didn't fit into the tidy (or not so tidy) box of French New Wave, thereby not enjoying the peripheral fame brought about by heavy hitters such as Godard, Truffaut, or Melville. In truth,... more ›

Photo of Frantz Fanon courtesy of AFS website AFS Essentials: Black Is, Black Ain’t and Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White MaskTuesday, November 20thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)$4 / Free to AFS Members, 7PM[info] | [tickets]Most of the time it is easier to just blend in with everything around you, to not be different, to avoid rocking the proverbial boat, perhaps to the detriment of your true identity and eventually your soul. In the... more ›

AFS Essentials Presents Black DjuTuesday, November 13thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)7pm, $4 / Free to AFS Members[info] | [tickets]It's bad enough being a stranger in a strange land, but when you need assistance from the local people to help solve the mysterious disappearance of your father, things can get downright maddening. Tonight, the Austin Film Society sends us on a suspenseful quest as they presents Black Dju, the fifth offering in the... more ›

Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye & Youssou N’Dour at the Maison des Esclaves AFS Presents Return to GoréeTuesday, November 6thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)$4 / Free for AFS members, 7pm[info]The place where my fathers died, return to the land of Gorée, the place where my mothers cried, return to the land of Gorée. – Harmony Harmoneers We'll admit it: our jazz knowledge consists of a couple of Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums mixed with... more ›

Sugar Cane Alley, the third offering of the current Austin Film Society series Torn From the Motherland: Films from the African Diaspora, introduces us to a young boy named Jose who has grown up in the shanty towns of Martinique. Life in his village has been poor in material possessions, but rich with lessons. He has learned about race relations through his friendship with a child of mixed ethnicity, the bastard son of the Creole... more ›

Arthur Seaton (a young, bright Albert Finney) reminds us of ourselves--a hard working man that refuses to let the daytime sweat on his brow dictate his ability to personify something more grand in the twilight hours. (Granted our job doesn't necessarily make us "sweat" in the conventional definition, and we are actually of the female persuasion, but that's all semantics really.) He cares not what toll his rabble rousing may bring upon those around him,... more ›

more ›

Fat Man and Little Boy seem like innocuous pejorative phrases, possibly used to tease other kids on the monkey bars, but when associated with a date, specifically August 6th and 9th, 1945, those words become something else altogether. No longer mere verbal darts, those words evoke images of pillars of fire and shredded skin, of a war certainly ended, but possibly not won. Wednesday night, Academy Award winning director Steven Okazaki will take you on... more ›

One truly is the loneliest number. We prefer things in multiples: beers, potato chips, orgasms (was that taking it too far? Eh, fugetaboutit.) And we definitely enjoy the chance to experience two landmark films in one compact bundle. Tonight, the Austin Film Society presents not one, but two sensational films as part of their gritty Essential series Blokes 'n' Birds: British Realist Cinema (1958-1965). In the past several years, you may have noticed that a... more ›

Tuesday night, the Austin Film Society presents Girl with Green Eyes, a tale of the naive-girl-in-the-big-city and the second offering in their Essential Cinema Series "Blokes 'n Birds: British Realist Cinema, 1958-1965." more ›