Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
​
One of the most exciting aspects of hitting the home stretch in our wait to attend a film or television festival… is the sheer excitement that hangs over the fact, it is near, and that we will be treated to something quite special. Because at last, our creativity and imagination will be fed and fed well, through programming that we either lose ourselves within or are in awe of when it comes to the masterful story presented to us and we simply need that, and we cannot wait to experience it. But of course, for that excitement to reach its peak, there’s one other key element we require. 

Specifically… we need the complete schedule, to properly plan for the feast ahead and well… that latter element is precisely why anyone planning to attend the Austin Film Festival is as excited as can be. For earlier today, the AFF released its complete schedule and now, attendees can prepare for every single moment of the festival and the incredible stories this festival provides. And well, since you’re undoubtedly ready to feel that same excitement and make your own plans for the festival ahead… here is that schedule and all the details on the films that will await us, when we assemble in Austin to enjoy this incredible celebration of creativity in a month’s time. 

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL REVEALS FULL SCHEDULE FOR ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL AND WRITERS CONFERENCE 
 
PROGRAM INCLUDES JEFF NICHOLS’ THE BIKERIDERS, JACK HUSTON’S DAY OF THE FIGHT, CORD JEFFERSON RECEIVING THE WRITER’S WRITER AWARD, AND MUCH MORE 
 
Austin Film Festival (AFF), the premier film festival recognizing writer’s and filmmaker’s contributions to film, television, and new media, supports creatives at all levels, including its support for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA in their ongoing strike efforts. For 30 years, AFF has been a platform for open discussion, a place where the screenwriting community comes together to pass on experience, craft, and the writers’ journey from script to screen. Today AFF announced its entire slate of programming for the 30th Anniversary Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference, happening October 26 – November 2, 2023. 
 
Highlights from the program include a screening of Jeff Nichols' acclaimed new film The Bikeriders. The film tells the story of the rise of a Midwestern motorcycle club, and stars Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy. Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special) will be in attendance and will be taking part in a live Q&A after the screening. The Closing Night film will be Jack Huston’s Day of the Fight, which stars Michael C. Pitt, Nicolette Robinson, John Magaro, Anatol Yusef, Steve Buscemi with Ron Perlman and Joe Pesci. Huston’s directorial debut is a redemptive journey through past and present of a once celebrated boxer on the day of his first fight since leaving prison. Huston will be present for a Q&A following the screening. 
 
The film program for the 30th Festival includes the world premieres of the drama Re: Uniting, the uplifting Texas film ImPossible, and The Problem with People, written by and starring Paul Reiser, who will be in attendance and speak at the Writers Conference. AFF is proud to program two films whose scripts placed in the second round or above in previous AFF Screenplay Competitions, Don’t Tell Larry and Last Straw. AFF will be hosting a costumed retrospective of Iron Man 3 with writer/director Shane Black leading a discussion on the film’s creation post screening. Other films scheduled include The Promised Land, Sunlight, Studio One Forever, a screening of the pilot episode of the upcoming Paramount+ original series Lawmen: Bass Reeves, executive produced by Oscar® nominee Taylor Sheridan, Chad Feehan, who also created the show for television, and series lead David Oyelowo.  
 
Austin Film Festival is also celebrating the launch of its new Writer’s Writer award, a natural addition to AFF’s other accolades, which honor both established storytellers with accomplished bodies of work, and emerging storytellers with an impressive new voice. Austin Film Festival is thrilled to present Cord Jefferson with the inaugural Writer's Writer award. An Emmy-winning writer who worked on visionary shows including Watchmen, Succession, The Good Place, and Master of None, Cord’s remarkable foray into features with new film American Fiction has cemented him as a singular talent of 2023. 
 
Austin Film Festival also revealed today the full Writers Conference schedule, which will take place the first four days of the Festival, October 26-29. Also scheduled to appear at this year’s Conference are Dan Erickson, Tracy Oliver, Damon Lindelof, Lauren Shuler Donner, Lee Eisenberg, Celine Song, Karyn Kusama, Charmaine DeGraté, Nicole Perlman, Meg LeFauve, Joanna Calo, Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszewski. 
 
Find out more about AFF’s 2023 feature slate below or see the entire schedule for the Festival and Writers Conference online at www.austinfilmfestival.com. 
 
Marquee Features: 
Saltburn - USA/UK 
OPENING NIGHT SELECTION 
Writer/Director: Emerald Fennell 
In Attendance: Emerald Fennell 
  
The Trap - UK 
CENTERPIECE SELECTION/WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Lena Headey 
In Attendance: Lena Headey 
  
Day of the Fight - USA 
CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION 
Writer/Director: Jack Huston 
In Attendance: Jack Huston 
 
The Bikeriders - USA 
Writer/Director: Jeff Nichols 
In Attendance: Jeff Nichols 
 
American Fiction - USA 
Writer/Director: Cord Jefferson 
In Attendance: Cord Jefferson 
  
Problem With People – USA/Ireland 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writers: Paul Reiser, Wally Marzano-Lesnevich 
Director: Chris Cottam 
In Attendance: Paul Reiser, Wally Marzano-Lesnevich, & Chris Cottam 
 
The Holdovers - USA 
Writer: David Hemingson 
Director: Alexander Payne 
  
All of Us Strangers - UK 
Writer/Director: Andrew Haigh 
  
Finestkind - USA 
Writer/Director: Brian Helgeland 
In Attendance: Brian Helgeland 
  
Not an Artist – USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writers: Alexi Pappas, Jeremy Teicher, Matt Walsh 
Directors: Alexi Pappas, Jeremy Teicher 
 
Smoking Tigers - USA 
Writer/Director: So Young Shelly Yo 
In Attendance: So Young Shelly Yo 
  
Bucky F*cking Dent – USA 
Writer/Director: David Duchovny 
 
Chestnut - USA 
Writer/Director: Jac Cron 
  
Fingernails - USA 
Writer/Director: Christos Nikou 
  
Last Straw - USA 
Writer: Taylor Sardoni 
Director: Alan Scott Neal 
  
Lawmen: Bass Reeves - USA 
Writer/Creator: Chad Feehan 
Director: Christina Alexandra Voros 
 
The Promised Land – Denmark 
Writer: Nikolaj Arcel, Anders Thomas Jensen 
Director: Nikolaj Arcel 
 
Monster – Japan 
Writer: Yûji Sakamoto 
Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu 
 
Robot Dreams – Spain 
Writer/Director: Pablo Berger 
 
Scab Vendor - USA 
Directors: Lucas de Barros, Mariana Robles Thome 
 
The Disappearance of Shere Hite – USA 
Director: Nicole Newnham 
 
Narrative Features 
Grapefruit - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Chase Joliet 
  
Autumn - Portugal 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: António Sequeira 
  
Bolt from the Blue - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Jack Martin 
  
Christmess - Australia 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Heath Davis 
 
Invaders from Proxima B – USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Ward Roberts 
 
The Highest Brasil - Ireland 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Jeremy Curl 
 
Re: Uniting – Canada 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Laura Adkin 
  
Midnight at the Paradise - Canada 
Writer: Bill Robertson 
Director: Vanessa Matsui 
  
Secret Art of Human Flight - USA 
Writer: Jesse Orenshein 
Director: H.P. Mendoza 
  
Summer of Violence - USA 
Writer/Director: Nicki Micheaux 
  
Sunlight - Ireland 
Writer: Ailbhe Keogan 
Director: Claire Dix 
  
The Battle - Brazil 
Writer/Director: Vera Egito 
 
Documentary Features: 
Born To Fly – Sweden 
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE 
Director: Brennan Robideaux 
 
Studio One Forever - USA 
Director: Marc Saltarelli 
  
The Philadelphia Eleven - USA 
Director: Margo Guernsey 
  
This Is Not Financial Advice - USA 
Directors: Chris Temple, Zach Ingrasci 
  
First We Bombed New Mexico - USA 
Writer: Joel Marcus 
Director: Lois Lipman 
  
Home Is A Hotel - USA 
Director: Kevin Wong 
  
Susan Feniger. FORKED – USA 
Director: Liz Lachman 
  
Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun - Canada 
Director: Banchi Hanuse 
 
Dark Matters: 
Wild Eyed and Wicked - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Gordon Shoemaker Foxwood 
  
Inhabitants – USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Matt McClung  
 
The Veil - USA 
Writer/Director: Cameron Beyl 
  
Jonah - Canada 
Writers: Trevor Vandelac, Ben Van Kleek 
Director: Ben Van Kleek 
  
Unfinished Business from Beyond – Mexico 
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE 
Writer: Eduardo Espindola 
Director: Ian Martin 
  
Cannibal Mukbang - USA 
Writer/Director: Aimee Kuge 
  
Comedy Vanguard: 
Don't Tell Larry - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writers/ Directors: Greg Porper, John Schimke 
  
For When You Get Lost - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer: Jennifer Sorenson 
Director: Michelle Steffes  
 
Soweto Blaze - South Africa 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Brad Katzen 
 
Egghead & Twinkie - USA 
Writer/Director: Sarah Kambe Holland 
  
Villains Inc. - USA 
Writers: Matt Moen, Jason Gray, Jeremy Warner 
Director: Jeremy Warner 
   
Sour Party - USA 
Writers/Directors: Amanda Drexton, Michael A. Drexton 
 
All the Wrong Ingredients – USA 
Writer/Director: Nicholas Livanos 
 
Texas Features:  
I'll Be There - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer: Cindy McCreery 
Director: Andrew Shea 
  
The Stars At Night - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writer/Director: Elizabeth Buckley 
  
ImPossible - USA 
WORLD PREMIERE 
Writers: Brandon Lewis, Seckita Lewis 
Director: Seckita Lewis 
 
Home Free - USA 
Writer: Lenny Barszap 
Director: Aaron Brown 
 
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL & WRITERS CONFERENCE  
Entering its thirtieth year, Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the art, craft and business of writers and filmmakers and recognizing their contributions to film, television, theater, and new media. AFF champions the work of aspiring and established storytellers by providing unique cultural events and services, enhancing public awareness and participation, and encouraging dynamic and long-lasting community partnerships. This project is supported in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts. The 30th Annual Austin Film Festival will take place October 26 – November 2, 2023. All attendees and events are based on permitting schedules and are subject to change and/or cancellation without notice. Badges and passes are available for purchase online at www.austinfilmfestival.com or by phone at 1-800-310-FEST. 
 
Austin Film Festival is supported by the following sponsors: Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Writers Guild of America, East, Writers Guild of America, West, John Paul & Eloise DeJoria, Texas Association of Film Commissions, Bogle Family Vineyards, Too Far Media, and University of Texas Department of Radio-Television-Film.

​This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being covered here wouldn’t exist.
​
As we continue to inch closer to this year’s Austin Film Festival, our excitement for the festival only continues to grow. After all, we now have the first wave of screenings in hand, and we are all pouring over them and are eager to deeply examine the incredible films this festival is going to be host to. Because everyone knows that the AFF only brings the best to the table and that makes this wait akin to Christmas Eve in many ways and well… our long sleepless night to open the presents the AFF is offering, became far more unbearable earlier today. 

For the Austin Film Festival more or less jingled sleigh bells in the dead of night, by announcing, it’s second wave of screenings. Which gives us more to pour over and savor and eagerly await, and today’s announcement also made it known, that another important contributor to the industry will be celebrated, since Damon Lindelof will be honored this year for his work in film and television. And well, since you’re eager to learn more about what honor Damon will receive and what movies are in the second wave of screenings, here is all of that information… courtesy of the Austin Film Festival.

AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL REVEALS SECOND WAVE OF SCREENINGS, PLUS ANNOUNCES DAMON LINDELOF TO RECEIVE OUTSTANDING TELEVISION WRITER AWARD 
Second Wave of films include the world premieres of Wild Eyed And Wicked and Christmess, plus screenings of The Holdovers, All of Us Strangers, and Fingernails.  
 
‘Austin Film Festival (AFF), the premier film festival recognizing writer’s and filmmaker’s contributions to film, television, and new media, supports creatives at all levels, including its support for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA in their ongoing strike efforts. For 30 years, AFF has been a platform for open discussion, a place where the screenwriting community comes together to pass on experience, craft, and the writers’ journey from script to screen. Today AFF announced its second wave of screenings to be included in their 2023 film slate, taking place Thursday, October 26 – Thursday, November 2. 
 
AFF announced today Emmy Award-winner Damon Lindelof will be honored with the Outstanding Television Writer Award at the 30th Anniversary Festival. AFF is recognizing Lindelof for his acclaimed body of work. In 2004, he partnered with J.J. Abrams to create Lost. Lindelof then worked as a writer and producer on Star Trek, Prometheus, World War Z and Tomorrowland. Returning to TV, Lindelof spent three seasons showrunning HBO’s critically-acclaimed The Leftovers and the award-winning HBO limited series Watchmen.  
 
Austin Film Festival is also welcoming a wide slate of films including Alexander Payne’s newest comedy film The Holdovers, Andrew Haigh’s highly acclaimed romantic drama All of Us Strangers, and retro-futuristic romantic film Fingernails by Christos Nikou. In addition, AFF will be world premiering Gordon Shoemaker Foxwood’s fantasy-horror Wild Eyed and Wicked, the Australian comedy Christmess, and the North American premiere of the delightfully amusing ghost story Unfinished Business from Beyond from Mexico. AFF will also be hosting the superhero parody Villains Inc. starring Colin Mochrie and Jeff Bryan Davis of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and the documentary First We Bombed New Mexico, which traces the radiation effects of the Oppenheimer-Trinity test on residents in New Mexico. 
 
AFF SECOND WAVE: 
 
THE HOLDOVERS (USA) - Focus Features 
Written by: David Hemingson 
Directed by: Alexander Payne 
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa 
Synopsis: From acclaimed director Alexander Payne, The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during the holiday break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). 
 
ALL OF US STRANGERS (UK) - Searchlight Pictures 
Written/Directed by: Andrew Haigh 
Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy 
Synopsis: One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry, which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents, appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before. 
 
FINGERNAILS (USA) - Apple Original Films 
Written/Directed by: Christos Nikou 
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson, Annie Murphy 
Synopsis: Anna and Ryan have found true love. It’s been proven by a controversial new technology. There’s just one problem: Anna still isn’t sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir. 
 
WILD EYED AND WICKED (USA)  
Written/Directed by: Gordon Shoemaker Foxwood 
Synopsis: Lily Pierce is sick of being haunted. She decides to reconnect with her estranged father, a disgraced history professor, and learn how to draw upon a time of steel and blade when armor-clad knights rode out and dueled their monsters to the death. 
World Premiere 
 
CHRISTMESS (Australia)  
Written/Directed by: Heath Davis 
Synopsis: Fresh out of rehab, a washed-up actor - Chris Flint (Steve Le Marquand) - takes a job as a suburban strip mall Santa Claus where he encounters his long-estranged daughter. With the support of his kind and caring sponsor - Nick (Darren Gilshenan) - and a young, sharp tongued, musician in recovery named Joy (Hannah Joy of indie rock darlings Middle Kids) Chris sets about staying sober in order to win his daughter’s forgiveness for Christmas. 
World Premiere 
 
UNFINISHED BUSINESS FROM BEYOND (Mexico) 
Written by: Eduardo Espindola 
Directed by: Ian Martin 
Synopsis: In a haunted apartment building, a once-successful investigator has to reunite with his daughter to solve a paranormal mystery and regain his credibility as a writer and a parent. All this, while they try to escape from the terrible creature that haunts the place, killing the tenants one by one... 
North American Premiere 
 
SOUR PARTY (USA) 
Written/Directed by: Amanda Drexton, Michael A. Drexton 
Synopsis: Sour Party follows Gwen and James, two broke 30-something Angelenos, on a quest to scrounge money from a collection of low lives and failed artists in order to show up at Gwen’s sister’s baby shower with a proper gift…from the registry. 
 
VILLAINS INC (USA) 
Written/Directed by: Jeremy Warner 
Synopsis: After the death of their villainous boss, low-level hench people Beatrix, Cain, and Harold are left destitute living in an abandoned grocery store. Not content with the situation they find themselves in, Beatrix is determined for them to strike out on their own and take over the world by any means necessary. 
 
FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO (USA) 
Directed by: Lois Lipman 
Synopsis: A formidable Hispanic cancer survivor bangs on the corridors of power to fight for compensation and an apology for Native and Hispanic communities in New Mexico whose land and water was radiated by the Trinity Bomb... The story that Oppenheimer leaves out. 
 
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL & WRITERS CONFERENCE  
Entering its thirtieth year, Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the art, craft and business of writers and filmmakers and recognizing their contributions to film, television, theater, and new media. AFF champions the work of aspiring and established storytellers by providing unique cultural events and services, enhancing public awareness and participation, and encouraging dynamic and long-lasting community partnerships. This project is supported in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts. The 30th Annual Austin Film Festival will take place October 26 – November 2, 2023. All attendees and events are based on permitting schedules and are subject to change and/or cancellation without notice. Badges and passes are available for purchase online at www.austinfilmfestival.com or by phone at 1-800-310-FEST. 
 
Austin Film Festival is supported by the following sponsors: Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Writers Guild of America, East, Writers Guild of America, West, John Paul & Eloise DeJoria, Texas Association of Film Commissions, Bogle Family Vineyards, Too Far Media, and University of Texas Department of Radio-Television-Film 

ABOUT THE OUTSTANDING TELEVISION WRITER AWARD 
Introduced in 2000, the Outstanding Television Writer Award highlights the artistic achievements and contributions of television creators and their importance in shaping the landscape of serialized storytelling. Past award recipients include David Chase (2000), Marta Kauffman (2016), Norman Lear (2015), Keenen Ivory Wayans (2017), and Stephen Merchant (2022). 

ABOUT THE WRITERS’ WRITERS AWARD 
The new Writer’s Writer Award will be given to a singular talent already recognized within the industry and by their peers, whose latest project has illustrated their versatility across mediums, elevated the trajectory of their career, and propelled them forward to join a new class of storyteller.’