Film News

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'August Evening' is smokin'

Chris Eska's August Evening is red-hot, snaring a distribution deal and scoring the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The $50,000 prize is the largest award of its kind in the nation. Also, the jury gave the award for Outstanding Perfomance in the Narrative Competition to the ensemble of mostly first-time actors. Shot primarily in the Gonzales area, the film follows an aging undocumented farmworker and his widowed daughter-in-law as their lives are turned upside down. Maya Entertainment acquired the film for theatrical release after its premiere at the fest. Eska's film was awarded two Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grants from the Austin Film Society, one of which kept the production shooting in its final weeks. Last year, Austin writer/director Steve Collins' Gretchen won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

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Film alliance: year II

The Texas Motion Picture Alliance wrangled a $20 million film-incentives program out of the Texas Legislature; now, it's on to round two. Dallas producer Meredith Stephens took the reins as the second president of the group after a recent meeting in Austin and has the task of keeping the film community from getting complacent. Her immediate goals? Conduct regional meetings to educate industry leaders and Texans in general about the film incentives and develop a new legislative agenda before the Lege meets again in 2009. "I expect to see results pretty much immediately," she says of the incentives. Two projects that are almost certain to reap some incentives are Dallas-shot Prison Break, which has just started production for the coming season, and Austin-shot Friday Night Lights, which should start lensing any day now.

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And the Rest ...

The animated Flatland: The Movie, based on Edwin A. Abbott's novel, is now available on DVD in a special educator's edition. The Austin-shot feature (austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A475845) includes the voices of Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, Michael York, and Joe Estevez and was directed by Jeffrey Travis. It's about geometric characters living in a two-dimensional world. The DVD includes – boooo! – math worksheets and – yeah! – a bonus featurette about the fourth dimension. Look for a home-edition DVD in the fall… The SXSWclick Festival, a 4-year-old online shorts contest, is down to 15 finalists (austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A499249). Three finalists from five categories will spend the month competing for prizes and a slot at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival. Check the films out at www.sxswclick.com/watch… Paul Bright is done with drag queens. His comedic film Theft of the Drag Queen's Wig is now officially Theft … . The reason? "Drag Queen" in the title is the kiss of death to sales, according to the money folks who will be releasing the pic on DVD. If Leslie is reading this, Bright would no doubt love your thoughts on this move and movie. The film's new website is www.theftmovie.com. Oh, and this story of an evangelical preacher who will go to any lengths to shut down a gay bar comes out on DVD in January.

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