We are delighted to announce the first round of films in the 20th Anniversary Festival Lineup! From World Premieres, to anticipated films that will compete for Oscars, these early films are a great sampling of things to come! Join us for a 8 days of film by getting your Film Pass here. Don’t want to wait in the film pass line? Upgrade to a Festival & Conference Badge!
First Round of Films
Director: Nathan Marshall
Writer: Sigurd Ueland
The first feature film from director Nathan Marshall, follows ten
executives who secretly meet to sell off their company but instead become victims of an outrageous
murder scheme. The script, written by Sigurd Ueland — a 2010 Austin Film Festival Screenplay
Competition Semifinalist — is a dark comic romp through the halls of corporate America.
Writer/Director: Hilary Brougher
Producer: Christine Vachone
INNOCENCE follows a young woman who discovers that her elite private school harbors a dark secret. This suspenseful horror film, based on Jane Medelsohn’s 2000 novel, explores themes of loss, love, and the supernatural. Innocence will screen as a part of AFF’s Dark Matters Category.
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MOM, DAD, I’M MUSLIM (US Premiere)
Writer/Director: Anat Tel Mendelovich
A documentary film, written and directed by Anat Tel Mendelovich and distributed by Seventh Art Releasing, examines the trials of May Davidovich, a 22- year old devout Muslim searching for equilibrium between her belief in Islam and her parents’ devotion to Judaism. The religious conflict between May and her parents makes for a fascinating case study on the balance between pursuing spiritual fulfillment and inherent family expectations.
Director: Alexander Payne
Writer: Bob Nelson
After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern) thinks he’s struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Will Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Shot in black and white across four states,
Nebraska tells the stories of family life in the heartland of America.
Director: Rajeev Nirmalakhandan
Writer: Rajeev Nirmalakhandan and Peter Touche
THE ODD WAY HOME film follows Maya (Rumer Willis), the product of a neglected childhood, and Duncan (Chris Marquette), a slave to his obsessions of order and pattern, as they journey through the American Southwest, finding
happiness in the unlikeliest of places.
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SIREN (North American Premiere)
Writer/Director: Jesse Peyronel
Television writer Jesse Peyronel’s feature script directorial debut. Starring Vinessa Shaw (3:10 to Yuma, The Hills Have Eyes) and Rob Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Siren is a dark fairytale about a woman with an unusual curse: an alluring scent. She is irresistible to every man she meets, but when confronted with a man immune to her power, she is presented with the possibility of real love.
Writer/Director: Kelly Daniela Norris
The Spanish-language feature film debut of local Austin writer/director, Kelly Daniela Norris, who re-imagines her own experience of bereavement following the death of her brother by weaving together real memory and personal reflection
through the sights and sounds of Cuba.
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SPEAK NOW (World Premiere)
Director: Noah Harald
Writer: Erin Cardillo
Speak Now is a Romantic Dramedy following high school friends reuniting for a wedding. Old offenses and newly
mounting scandal plunge the group back into a pool of high-school drama. Entirely improvised from an outline and character studies, the whole feature was shot in three days. Speak Now will screen as part of Austin Film Festival’s new WRITE/REC Series, focusing on the best in low-budget storytelling.
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TAKE AWAY ONE (World Premiere)
Writer/Director: William Lorton
The first feature film written and directed by seasoned tv editor William Lorton (Face Off, Bridezillas), this documentary film follows Lorton’s aunt, Mary Baratta-Lorton, and her mysterious unsolved murder. Mary, in her short 38 years, rose from obscurity to become one of the most famous teachers in the US. Personally inept with math, yet placed as a UC
Berkeley student-teacher in one of the roughest inner-city classrooms of the San Francisco Bay Area – Mary’s intuitive strategy of teaching arithmetic with hands-on manipulative materials quickly blossomed into a nation-wide career as an author, lecturer, and movement leader.
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