John Singleton & Chris Cooper to Be Honored at 2015 Austin Film Festival

Austin Film Festival & Screenwriters Conference (AFF), the premier film festival recognizing the writers' contributions to film, television, and new media, announced today the full schedule of films and panels for the 22nd annual Festival, this October 29-November 5.

John Singleton and Chris Cooper will accept the Extraordinary Contribution to Film and Acting Awards, respectively, at the 2015 Awards Luncheon held Saturday, October 31.

Singleton's credits include writing and directing Boyz n the Hood and Shaft, and directing 2 Fast 2 Furious and Four Brothers. Singleton will present a retrospective screening of Boyz n the Hood at the Festival, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Extraordinary Contribution to Film - Actor award recipient and Academy Award winning actor, Chris Cooper, will be presented by Lonesome Dove creator Bill Wittliff. Cooper has more than 50 film and television credits to his name and received the Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Adaptation, the Screen Actors Guild Award for his supporting performance in American Beauty, and the Best Actor nomination for his work in John Sayles' Lone Star from the Independent Spirit Awards. Cooper will be in attendance for the AFF "Heart of Film" screening of Coming Through the Rye, where he plays the reclusive author JD Salinger.

Singleton and Cooper join previously announced honorees Outstanding Television Writer Norman Lear and Distinguished Screenwriter Brian Helgeland.

Academy Award winner Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) will present the 2015 Opening Night Film, Legend, on Thursday, October 29 at the Paramount Theatre. Written and directed by Helgeland, Legend is the true story of the rise and fall of London's most notorious gangsters, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, both portrayed by Tom Hardy in a powerhouse double performance. Legend is a classic crime thriller taking us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray twins.

AFF's Centerpiece Film, Burning Bodhi, will have its World Premiere on Sunday, November 1, with featured cast Andy Buckley, Kaley Cuoco, Cody Horn, Landon Liboiron, Sasha Pieterse, and Eli Vargas in attendance. From writer/director Matthew McDuffie, Burning Bodhi is about a group of friends who reunite after high school when word goes out that the most popular among them has died.

Additional Marquee titles include Go With Me (Julia Stiles and director Daniel Alfredson in attendance), Miss You Already (director Catherine Hardwicke in attendance), Last Days in the Desert (writer/director Rodrigo Garcia in attendance), Man Up (Tess Morris in attendance), By Sidney Lumet (director Nancy Buirski in attendance), Remember, Brooklyn, Mojave, The Adderall Diaries, and the World Premieres of Until 20, A Single Frame, and We're Still Here: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited.

Other films making their World Premiere in the 2015 slate are Baby Baby, Jack's Apocalypse, Mully, Of Dogs and Men, Since: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Tear Me Apart, and Two Lunes.

AFF also revealed today their full Screenwriters Conference program, taking place the first four days of the Festival, October 29-November 1. The full Film and Conference schedule, and badge/passes, can be found at www.austinfilmfestival.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.