Short Cuts

The SXSW Film Festival and the Austin Film Society have announced plans for a special premiere screening of Matthew McConaughey's new movie EDtv on Wednesday, March 17, one day after the film's Los Angeles premiere. The film is directed by Ron Howard and stars McConaughey as an unambitious video store clerk who is plucked from obscurity and becomes the blockbuster hit of the season when he agrees to have his life aired on cable TV 24 hours a day. Other cast members include Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Landau, and Dennis Hopper. Confirmed to attend the Austin premiere are McConaughey, Howard, and producer Brian Grazer. The screening will be a benefit for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund. Ticket prices and other details are yet to be announced, but we will present that information as it becomes available. At that time, information can also be obtained by calling the Film Society... Just checked out the SXSW Film Web site (http://www.sxsw.com) and discovered it contains a whole host of new and improved information. For example, the complete list of panels, workshops, and mentor sessions and their participants for the four days of the conference (Saturday, March 13 - Tuesday, March 16) are there for perusal, as well as a preview of some of the films and highlights. There's also a customizable search engine for looking up the film schedule once the titles have been announced... How about those Oscar nominations? We have our pick between World War II sagas or Elizabethan costumers. Just days after the announcement all the contenders for best picture are flooding back onto local screens. Actually, all the nominees -- except for Saving Private Ryan, which was re-released for the occasion last week -- were currently playing on at least one Austin screen. But now, thanks to the Academy, Elizabeth and Life Is Beautiful were expanded to more screens andShakespeare in Love and The Thin Red Line get to hang on to the ones they presently have. (Although Rushmore and its favored starBill Murray were snubbed by the Academy voters, the film is also experiencing a theatrical expansion this weekend. After its opening week, during which the film played at only one local theatre as part of a marketing strategy that can only be described as inscrutable, it now, during its second weekend, can be found in theatres around town -- which is as it should be.) Lots of good Oscar info can be found at the official Academy Web site (http://www.oscar.com), including a complete list of nominees, live video-streams of the red carpet arrivals, and backstage interviews on the night of the awards ceremony, photo galleries of past winners, a complete database, weekly fashion reports, video clips, and trivia games... The next meeting of Reel Women is scheduled for Wednesday, February 17, 7:30pm, at GSD&M. The speaker will be independent documentary filmmaker Anne Lewis (not to be confused with Anne S. Lewis who so ably writes about documentary film and other topics for The Austin Chronicle). Anne Lewis, the filmmaker, moved to Austin from Kentucky last year and has been making films for more than 25 years. She is an independent producer/director for Appalshop and is an active participant in their Appalachia Media Center. For more info call 280-8706... Tickets for QTIII, the third annual Quentin Tarantino Festival, go on sale to the general public on Saturday, February 13. Tickets are available at theAlamo Drafthouse box office. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Austin Film Society's Free Cinema series.