Austin, TX- Austin Film Festival (AFF) is proud to announce that two of its award-winning films from 2011 are also now Academy Award® winners. THE ARTIST, which won the 2011 Austin Film Festival Audience Award for Out-of-Competition Feature, was named Best Picture of the Year by the Academy. The film’s writer/director Michel Hazanavicius was named Best Director of the Year while the star, Jean Dujardin, was given the award for Best Actor. THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS FOR MR. MORRIS LESSMORE, winner of both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award for Best Animated Short at AFF 2011, was named Best Animated Short at the Oscars®. AFF’s 2010 Best Animated Short winner, THE LOST THING, also went on to win the Academy Award®, making THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS the second AFF film in a row to win the Oscar® in that category.
Other AFF 2011 films that were nominated this year include THE DESCENDANTS (winner, Best Adapted Screenplay), ALBERT NOBBS (nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress), PUSS IN BOOTS (nominated for Best Animated Feature), HELL AND BACK AGAIN (nominated, Best Documentary Feature), and RAJU (nominated, Best Live Action Short Film). 2007 AFF Alumnus Terry George also took home an Oscar® for his live action short film THE SHORE.
Austin Film Festival has a long history of screening films that continue on to make Oscar® history. In 2008, AFF Audience Award winner SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE went on to win eight Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director – Danny Boyle, and Best Adapted Screenplay – Simon Beaufoy. Boyle and Beaufoy’s 127 HOURS screened at AFF 2010 and subsequently went on to gain six Academy Award® nominations. Other AFF films that have gone on to win Oscars® include JUNO (AFF 2007 Audience Award for Out-of-Competition Feature), PRECIOUS (AFF 2009), UP IN THE AIR (AFF 2009), and BLACK SWAN (AFF 2010). THE ACCOUNTANT, AFF 2001 Best Narrative Short Film, went on to win an Academy Award® in 2002.