Other Worlds Austin Goes Intergalactic, Intercontinental

Second year, second wave: Other Worlds Austin, Central Texas' dedicated science-fiction film festival, has just added multiple features and shorts to its slate of U.S. and Texas premieres, including drama, comedy, a kid-friendly addition, and a new documentary on steampunk.

OWA (running Dec. 3-5) already announced its opening night film, an adaptation of Dutch Young Adult dystopian novel Boy 7. The European theme extends with titles from the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Switzerland, plus the local debut of Vintage Tomorrow, a documentary examining the strange and burgeoning cultural movement of steampunk, and what it says about the artisan in us all.

There will also be three packages of shorts, including the debut of "Roadside Assistance" by none other than festival founder Bears Fonte. He said, "When you have your own festival, you can program your own film. I did however charge myself a submission fee."

Features

Vintage Tomorrows
D: Byrd McDonald, USA, Texas Premiere
Vintage Tomorrows examines the steampunk movement's explosive growth, origins, and cultural significance. It explores the fundamental question: What can we learn about tomorrow from steampunk's playful visions of yesteryear?

T.I.M. The Incredible Machine
D: Rolf van Eijk, Netherlands, Texas Premiere
Eleven-year-old Tibor has only one friend: his ancient house robot T.I.M. When his dad decides to replace the robot, Tibor saves his buddy from demolition. Together they start looking for the only one who can fix T.I.M.: the mythical robot maker Hector Sammler.

Reconnoiter
D: Neil Rowe, UK, Texas Premiere
A pilot is marooned on an alien planet and soon discovers the planet’s only inhabitants are predatory robots.

Polder
D: Samuel Schwarz and Julian M. Grünthal, Switzerland, Texas Premiere
Neuroo-X, a German-Swiss-Chinese entertainment company group, creates games that dissolve the boundary between reality and gaming. A new gadget, Red Book, transforms everyone’s dreams into reality and fantastic adventures, breaking into a parallel world, with no escape.

Night of the Living Deb
D: Kyle Rankin, USA, Texas Premiere
Deb wakes up on the Fourth of July in the apartment of the most attractive man she has ever seen. An awkward walk of shame turns ugly when they discover the town has been overrun by a zombie virus, and the duo has to band together to survive.

Jackrabbit
D: Carleton Ranney, USA, Austin Premiere
In the not-to-distant future, two hackers negotiate the dystopian overseeing of City Six, one of the last vestiges of humanity after "the Reset." When a friend's suicide leaves behind a mysterious computer drive, they must decipher the message left in his wake.

House of Time
D: Jonathan Helpert, France, US Premiere
Robert d'Eglantine invites five of his friends to spend a weekend in his castle. He has uncovered secret Nazi scientific research on time travel and he's able now to take his guests seventy years back in time, to 1944, during the French Occupation and only few weeks before the landing in Normandy.

Shorts

"Aden" D: Gary H. Lee
"Artifitial" D: David Pérez Sañudo
"The Blood of Love" D: Jeff Meyers
"Fragment" D: Noah Griffith
"Happy Fun Room" D: Greg Pak
"Iris" D: Richard Karpala
"Legacy" D: Josh Mawer
"ON/OFF" D: Thierry Lorenzi
"Pact" D: Zach Endres
"The Pig Child" D: Lucy Campbell
"Remote Viewing" D: Kristen Anderson-Sauve
"Replika" D: Luc Walpoth
"Roadside Assistance" D: Bears Fonte
"Starlight" D: Andrew Salerno
"The Surface" D: Willem Kampenhout
"The Taker" D: Maximillian Stenstrom
"Transference" D: Matthew Ninaber
"The Trap" D: Dick Grunert
"Traveler" D: Simon Brown
"Viv 1.0" D: Scarlet Moreno
"Yo Soy Pedro" D: Jordan Inconstant

---

Other Worlds Austin runs Dec. 3-5 at the Galaxy Highland, 6700 Middle Fiskville. Passes and info at www.otherworldsaustin.com.