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 24th annual event, this October 26-November 2. AFF's feature film slate includes over 25 World, North American and US Premieres, a robust retrospective series, and highly anticipated marquee titles, including Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, WWII drama The Darkest Hour featuring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, The Upside starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart, and Armie Hammer romance Call Me By Your Name.
AFF has also announced Chappaquiddick as its Closing Night Film. A drama recounting Ted Kennedy's infamous 1969 car accident resulting in the death of his campaign worker, Chappaquiddick will close out the Festival with writers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan in attendance. Chappaquiddick will join already announced Opening Night Film Lady Bird with writer/director
Greta Gerwig in attendance and Centerpiece Film The Current War with director
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon in attendance.
A staple of the Festival, AFF's retrospective series this year will feature Philip D'Antoni's 1973 drama The Seven-Ups presented by David Simon and George Pelecanos (The Deuce, The Wire),
Jack Fisk's 1981 film Raggedy Man-a tribute to
Sam Shepard-presented by writer William D. Wittliff in partnership with the Wittliff Collections, and seminal 1987 action film Predator presented by
Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys) who is currently working on the film's reboot. Additionally, already announced Extraordinary Contribution to Film awardee
Walter Hill will present his cult classic The Warriors.
In addition to the slate of 150+ films, AFF will present premieres and retrospectives of television programming, including the season 2 premiere of Hulu's darkly comedic psychic drama Shut Eye with executive producers
Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, John Shiban and
Amy Berg in attendance, the premiere of YouTube Red's new comedy series Do You Want to See a Dead Body? with creator Rob Huebel in attendance, and the premiere of the Season Finale of HBO's drama The Deuce with creators David Simon and George Pelecanos in attendance.
Also confirmed to attend is
Dan Rather, who will help present the World Premiere of the documentary Fail State, chronicling the rise of predatory for-profit colleges. Writer/producer
Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, The Walking Dead) will also be in attendance for AFF's screening of documentary Mankiller about barrier-breaking female Cherokee leader Wilma Mankiller.
Other World Premieres include Wild Honey (Francis Stokes' comedy about a phone sex operator searching for love), Coming to My Senses (a documentary following a man's journey to regain his mobility after an accident), and Transformer (chronicling the transition of world-renowned body builder Matt Kroczaelski into Janae after being outed as transgender). Making its US Premiere at AFF is comedy Don't Talk to Irene, which also won AFF's Comedy Screenplay Award in 2013. Written and directed by Pat Mills, Irene premiered this month at Toronto International Film Festival to a receptive audience.
Austin Film Festival also revealed today their full Screenwriters Conference schedule, which will take place the first four days of the Festival, October 26-29. The Conference features a roster of prominent screenwriters in film and television, including
Kenneth Lonergan,
Keenen Ivory Wayans, Noah Hawley, Courtney A. Kemp, Lindsay Doran, Misha Green,
Michael Arndt, Mark Frost,
Michael Green, Sarah Gubbins,
Christopher Vogler, Scott Frank, Megan Amram,
John August,
Eric Heisserer, and many more
The full Film and Conference schedule can be found at www.austinfilmfestival.com.
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