https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2015-08-14/film-flam/

Film Flam

By Josh Kupecki, August 14, 2015, 1:15pm, Picture in Picture

One of our own joins a prestigious club, a local author gets some help from Meryl Streep, and more in this edition of Film Flam.

On Tuesday, the Austin Film Critics Association announced three new members to its 2015 roster, and one of those names looked awfully familiar. Yes, the Chronicle's own resident Englishman and highly prolific staff writer Richard Whittaker has been inducted into the distinguished ranks of the AFCA (joining other esteemed Chronicle critics Marjorie Baumgarten, Kimberley Jones, and Marc Savlov). Along with Whittaker, the AFCA welcomes Don Simpson, editor of the online film site Smells Like Screen Spirit, who's also written for Film Threat and Film School Rejects, and Ed Travis, co-founder of Cinapse, who has also written for Ain't It Cool News and Chud.com. You can blame all of them when your favorite movie of 2015 doesn't make their list at the end of the year.

Local author Sarah Bird has become one of 12 participants in a program funded by Meryl Streep in collaboration with the New York Women in Film & Television called the Writer's Lab, which mentors female screenwriters over 40 with an intense, three-day retreat to help the screenwriters work on their scripts. Bird will be working on Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, which tells the true story of Cathy Williams, a 17-year-old slave conscripted as a cook in the Union army. After the Civil War, she disguises herself as a man and joins the Buffalo Soldiers.

Did you miss local comedian Maggie Maye on Conan last night? Well, you can watch it right here.

Speaking of video, local luminary Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn drops its second season soon on the El Rey Network. The premiere is Tuesday, Aug. 25. Check out the trailer below.