Short Cuts

Too Many Films, Not Enough Time Redux Dept.: If you're trying to find a room at either the staid and stately Driskill Hotel or the more funkified Hotel San José down on SoCo (or for that matter the Omni), you're doomed, I say, doomed to disappointment. On the other hand, if you're in town to hawk that killer script about Norwegian space-ferrets taking over Wall Street, well buddy, you couldn't have arrived at a more opportune time. I'm speaking, of course, about the Austin Film Festival and Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference, which kicks off today, Thursday, Oct. 10, at various venues around town. As always, the festival serves as not only a great chance to preview upcoming studio and indie flicks, but also to go knock back a few at the Driskill bar with the screenwriters du jour. Psycho-screen scribe Joseph Stefano's not here this year so you can even shower in peace (as opposed to pieces). Ahem. This year's crop of incoming talent includes Darren Star, Anne Rapp, Bill Broyles, Lem Dobbs, Brian Helgeland, and reams more, and passes, tickets, badges, and so forth are still available, so there's no excuse for you not to wipe out yet another weekend with yet another excellent Austin-based film festival (this brings us up to something like five for the year, not counting the upcoming Jewish Film Festival and a few others rounding out the season -- yeesh!). All the info you need -- prices, ticket availability, schedule changes, etc. -- can be found at www.austinfilmfestival.com. Go. Sit. Watch. Learn. Write... Did I say Jewish Film Festival? That'd be the Austin Jewish Film Festival, happening Monday, Oct. 21-Monday, Oct. 28, at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (409 Colorado). Tix are $7 per film, which comes out to around $48, judging from the eight features and shorts to be screened, including Brian Bain's ballyhooed Shalom Y'all, a documentary that follows a young Jew as he discovers his Mississippi roots and learns that yarmulkes make bad body armor. Not exactly Boychiks in the Hood, but much anticipated nonetheless. Call 735-8040 to snag the $30 everything-and-the-kitchen-sink festival pass and to find out if Alamo owner Tim League will be serving up kosher noshes during the fest. Unleavened does not mean unenlightened, baby... Finally, there's a new Web resource in town for Austin filmmakers and their ilk, and it's a doozy. Currently in Beta testing, www.cineshare.com is the brainchild of Erick Opeka, and brings together in one, easy-to-access place everything you might want to know about the who/what/where of Austin's sprawling film community. The best part is a downloads section that contains ready-made templates for everything from production reports to call sheets and beyond. How often have you begun work on a new multimillion dollar film project only to have things grind to a halt when your crew complains they can't read the fine print on their deferred payment statements because you wrote it in runny yellow crayon? No more! Opeka's site is a godsend, the sort of thing you discover and wonder why it took so long to arrive. Kudos are in order here, people...

Charlie Sotelo's The Show With No Name moves to 10pm, Sunday nights, on Channel 10 starting this week. That's a half-hour earlier, kids. Synchronize your watches.