Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great…
Virtual Cinema
AFS offers some of our anticipated programming during our period of closure via our partner’s virtual cinemas. Proceeds from the virtual ticket purchases will help sustain our programming and support our efforts to reopen the AFS Cinema.
Looking for AFS-supported films by Texas filmmakers? Visit The Lone Star Slate: austinfilm.org/lonestarslate.
Stories
AFS Viewfinders Podcast: Precode Movies with Professor Caroline Frick Austin Film Society
Watch This Rare Sci-Fi Short From FANTASTIC PLANET Director René Laloux Austin Film Society
Watch This: Behind The Scenes with John Woo on his First American Movie Austin Film Society
Toronto International Film Festival 2020 Highlights, Part 1: Lars Nilsen
AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen shares his highlights from this year’s Virtual Toronto International Film Festival. Later this week we will share Head of Film & Creative Media Holly Herrick’s picks, so be sure to check back soon. The experience of film festivals for a professional programmer or buyer is usually a pretty intensive one – building a plan of must-see titles, a backup slate of might-sees, etc. Then there’s the matter of scheduling those all-important 5 or so screenings per…
THE INFILTRATORS Q&A with filmmakers Cristina Ibarra & Alex Rivera Austin Film Society
BULL Q&A with Director, Producer, and Cast Austin Film Society
Watch this: Robert Rodriguez Revisits The Mexico Trilogy at AFS Cinema Austin Film Society
Lists
Art Horror Watchlist 89 films
Here are the films that AFS has presented as part of its multiple Art Horror series as well as some…
Giallo Cinema Directors & Directions 58 films
From the AFS website post: Giallo Cinema: Directors & Directions written by AFS lead programmer Lars Nilsen and inspired by Andrew…
Other Minds, Other Worlds: Global Sci-Fi Cinema Series 9 films
In 1902 French director Georges Melies released A TRIP TO THE MOON and delighted audiences worldwide, but science-fiction films didn't…
Ousmane Sembene: The Father of Post-Colonial African Cinema Series 7 films
Ousmane Sembene is known as the “father” of African cinema, a reference that means from everything to absolutely nothing. “Father…
Action, Anarchy, and Audacity: A Seijun Suzuki Retrospective Series 9 films
Seijun Suzuki is a towering giant of world cinema, a master of action and crime films with few rivals. He…
All The TV Movies Mentioned in Amanda Reyes' AFS Viewfinders Podcast 64 films
Not on Letterboxd: OVERBOARD (1978)
Here's a link to the podcast: www.austinfilm.org/2020/04/afs-viewfinders-podcast-author-tv-movie-expert-amanda-reyes/
Recent reviews
Plug: AFS Members can join us for a Discussion Club on October 27th, hosted by our Lates programmer, Jazmyne Moreno (jaz_m on LBX). RSVP here: bit.ly/34uR8uM
Belgian writer/director Harry Kumel’s lush and eccentric vampire movie DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS is a fascinating work. This is a full-on art-horror film hybrid, with overtones of homoeroticism and camp (in its classical sense). The extraordinary Delphine Seyrig (LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOSIE) plays a mysterious, ageless Countess, who drifts through the proceedings clad in silk and feathers, like a phantom of old-Hollywood glamour.
Here’s a bizarre cinematic relic that we can barely believe exists. Way back in 1971, at the International Film Festival in Belgrade, a number of the attendees were given the assignment of shooting a 3 minute magazine of film that would be edited together with the footage from the other participants, a sort of cinematic Exquisite Corpse.
This was not a new idea. It has been done before. But what makes this so special is the level of talent involved…
Last month we hosted a member-exclusive Zoom discussion with Professor Caroline Frick of the University of Texas and the invaluable Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) on the subject of the precode film THREE ON A MATCH. The following discussion covers a good deal of the history of Hollywood’s self-censoring production code, and the films made before it was strictly enforced.
We should warn you that the discussion gets into the particulars of the plot of THREE ON A…
Guest Intro by Fantastic Fest Programmer Logan Taylor: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV2t5_aKsqI
When four young orphans—Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi, and Takemura—first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and yet none of them can shed a tear. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a…
Intro by AFS LATES Programmer Jazmyne Moreno: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ait3wNbBeAw
Watch the film here: www.austinfilm.org/virtual-screening/son-of-the-white-mare/
One of the great psychedelic masterpieces of world animation, SON OF THE WHITE MARE is a swirling, color-mad maelstrom of mythic monsters and Scythian heroes, part-Nibelungenlied, part-Yellow Submarine, lit by jagged bolts of lightning and drenched in rivers of blue, red, gold and green. A massive cosmic oak stands at the gates of the Underworld, holding seventy-seven dragons in its roots; to combat these monsters, a dazzling…
Watch it at AFS: www.austinfilm.org/virtual-screening/made-in-bangladesh/
Shimu fled her village as a child when her stepmother threatened to marry her off to a middle-aged man. Now 23 and living in the capital, she works grueling hours at a textile factory for paltry sums while her husband searches for work. She decides to start a union with her co-workers, despite threats from the management and the disapproval of her husband. Together, the women working in the factory must fight and find a way.
Watch it at AFS: www.austinfilm.org/virtual-screening/sibyl/
A sly, sultry character study from filmmaker Justine Triet, SIBYL follows a psychotherapist (Virginie Efira) who decides to quit her practice and return to writing instead. As Sibyl starts dropping patients, she begins to struggle with excess time and a lack of inspiration–until she gets a call from Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a young actress wrapped up in a dramatic affair with her costar, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel), who happens to be married to the film’s director…
Watch it at AFS: www.austinfilm.org/virtual-screening/space-dogs/
Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. Following her traces and filmed from a dog’s perspective, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s “Space Dogs” accompanies the adventures of her descendants: two street dogs living in today’s Moscow.
Warning: SPACE DOGS is Not Rated, and contains some graphic content that may not be suitable for younger audiences. Parental guidance is suggested.