The Austin Film Festival (AFF) unveiled the first wave of films and award honorees for its 28th-anniversary festival program. AFF will award the Outstanding Television Writer Award to Emmy award-winning writer and producer Michael Schur and the Polly Platt Award for Producing to the prolific producer of film and television, Stephanie Allain. The film festival will run from October 21-28, 2021.
In anticipation of the October festival, AFF is proud to present the first ten films of this year’s extraordinary lineup.
AFF’s first announced 10 films (the full lineup will be revealed in September) includes seven world premieres and a number of first-time feature filmmakers.
Featuring seven world premieres and highlighting films by talented first-time feature filmmakers, this year’s lineup celebrates diverse storytellers. Highlights include Stephen Karam’s haunting debut The Humans from A24, a chilling Icelandic horror It Hatched by first-time writer/director and filmmaker to watch Elvar Gunnarsson, and the cautionary drama Everything I Ever Wanted To Tell My Daughter About Men which was helmed by an impressive 15 female directors including Talia Balsam, Saffron Burrows and Fuschia Sumner.
The first ten films of the 2021 AFF lineup are:
- Everything I Ever Wanted To Tell My Daughter About Men (Directed by an ensemble of 15 women, Written by Lorien Hayes) – World Premiere
- Ghosts Of The Ozarks (Directed by Jordan Wayne Long and Matt Glass, Written by Tara Perry, Jordan Wayne Long, Sean Anthony Davis) – World Premiere
- It Hatched (Directed/Written Elvar Gunnarsson) – World Premiere
- Memoria (Directed/Written by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – Texas Premiere
- Petite Maman (Directed/Written by Cรฉline Sciamma) – Texas Premiere
- Ragged Heart (Directed by Evan McNary, Written by Evan McNary and Debrah McNary) – World Premiere
- Swamp Lion (Directed/Written by Torben Bech) – World Premiere
- The Big Bend (Directed/Written by Brett Wagner) – World Premiere
- The Humans (Directed/Written Stephen Karam) – Texas Premiere
- With This Breath I Fly (Directed by Sam French and Clementine Malpas) – World Premiere
This year’s lineup features breakthrough talent and pivotal narratives that challenge traditional storytelling. Explore the woods through a child’s eyes in Neon’s acclaimed French drama Petite Maman from Cรฉline Sciamma (AFF 2019 selection Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) which explores the connection between mother and daughter in the wake of their grandmother’s death. In Ragged Heart, first-time filmmakers Evan McNary and Debrah McNary explore loss and love as the film follows a washed-up musician who is haunted by his estranged daughter’s ghost to finish the last song she wrote.
Incredibly timely and important documentary With This Breath I Fly follows two women in Afghanistan as they courageously fight for their freedom against a patriarchal Afghan society that imprisons them for “moral crimes.”
AAF also welcomes back festival alumni and Texas filmmakers with their latest films. The Big Bend stars Jason Butler Harner, Virginia Kull, Erica Ash and David Sullivan in a West Texas-set drama where two families meet for a reunion that doesn’t go as planned. Faced with mountains of debt from his son’s cancer treatment, director Torben Bech shows how far a father will go to save his son in Swamp Lion, one of Michael Ray Escamilla’s final films.
Go back in time to post-Civil War Arkansas with Ghosts Of The Ozarks starring Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette and Phil Morris where a Black doctor is summoned to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover that the utopian paradise is not all it seems to be. Audiences can also immerse themselves in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s meditative and complex Memoria starring Tilda Swinton as a woman attempting to discover the cause of a sound only she can hear.
Outstanding TV Writer Award recipient Schur and Polly Platt Award winner Allain join the previously announced recipient of the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting, Scott Frank.
Getting his start at Saturday Night Live, Schur is known for creating the critically acclaimed NBC comedy The Good Place and co-creating Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn 99. Allain is one of the most prolific African American producers working today. Known for launching the careers of many first-time directors, including John Singleton, Craig Brewer, Justin Simien and Gerard McMurray, her award-winning films shape the cultural landscape. A longtime advocate for inclusion, she is the only Black woman to produce the Oscars, for which she was Emmy nominated. Previous recipients of the Outstanding Television Writer Award include Benioff & Weiss, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marta Kauffman, and Norman Lear. The previous recipient of the Polly Platt Award for Producing was Sarah Green.
Taylor Swift wins big and Rita Ora pays tribute to Liam Payne at the MTV EMAs
Taylor Swift came out on top at the 2024 MTV EMAs on Sunday, walking away with best artist, best U.S. act, best live act and best video for "Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone).
Swift, who is finishing up her Eras tour on the other side of the Atlantic, thanked the fans for the bounty of prizes via video message.
The U.K. show opened with an acrobatic Benson Boone suspended in the air on a gold grand piano performing his viral hit "Beautiful Things" and latest release "Slow it Down." Boone also accepted his first EMA for best new act.
South African newcomer Tyla gave Swift a run for her money picking up three awards for best afrobeats, best R&B and best African act.
Tyla performed her smash hit "Water" for the EMA audience at the Co-op Live, Manchester, flanked by a host of dancers, as well as singing energetic new track "Push 2 Start."
British singer Rita Ora, who hosted the show for a record third time, paid tribute to former One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires.
Ora had a close relationship with the singer and the pair recorded a song together in 2018, "For You (Fifty Shades Freed)." She addressed the audience saying, "I want to take a moment to remember someone. Liam Payne was one of the kindest people I knew." Her voice broke as she asked the crowd to take a moment to remember Liam saying, "He had the biggest heart and he left such a mark on this world."
Hip-hop legend Busta Rhymes was awarded the EMAs global icon award from British rapper Little Simz telling the crowd that in 34 years of professionally recording this was his first award from MTV and it felt incredible. The 12-time Grammy Award nominee, who has more than 10 million album sales under... Read More