Austin Film Festival Announces Second Wave of Screenings

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Still from ‘Christmess’ Courtesy of the Austin Film Festival.

​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.
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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.’

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