AFF: 'Main Street' Comes to Downtown Austin

Horton Foote's daughter, Hallie Foote, an actress who has appeared in many stage productions of her father's acclaimed plays, was in attendance for the Austin Film Festival's world premiere of Main Street, the film made from the unproduced, final screenplay left behind at the time of the author's death in 2009.

Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies) was the inaugural recipient of AFF’s Distinguished Screenwriter Award in 1995, thus it's fitting that his final film should appear in this festival as well. Said Hallie Foote while introducing the film, "He loved Austin. He loved Texas. He loved to write. This was the last thing he wrote. He was 92 when he finished it." Main Street, however, is set in Durham, NC, instead of Foote's beloved Texas. The screenplay has a touch of John Sayles-like topicality in its story line about a dying town attempting to improve its fortunes through questionable business practices, the down-home flavor of the ensemble cast makes it an identifiably Foote work. The cast includes Ellen Burstyn, Colin Firth, Patricia Clarkson, Orlando Bloom, and Amber Tamblyn.