Film Flam

If you haven't been paying attention to our Screens blog, Picture in Picture – and you really should; it comes in color – then you've missed an awful lot of news lately. Consider this the new clearinghouse. First up, a whole passel of Austin filmmakers have nabbed serious accolades recently. The Independent Spirit Awards recognized Anish Savjani with a nomination for the Piaget Producers Award for his work on Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff, while Lovers of Hate, written and directed by Bryan Poyser, received a nod for the John Cassavetes Award. (Poyser will have an easy commute to the Santa Monica, Calif., awards ceremony in February; he's currently hunkered down at Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton's L.A. digs working on new scripts while on sabbatical from his day job as the Austin Film Society's director of artist services.) Meanwhile, the Sundance Film Festival tapped a chosen few locals to screen in Park City, Utah, in January, including Jeff Nichols, who reteamed with Michael Shannon for his second feature, Take Shelter, as well as the Zellner Bros. and David Lowery, who are taking new shorts to the fest. And finally, filmmaker and University of Texas faculty member Anne Lewis won – egads! – a $50,000 fellowship from the national arts foundation United States Artists for her work on socially conscious documentaries like Morristown: In the Air and Sun... In less celebratory news, the Texas Film Commission – already in flux after the surprise resignation of head honcho Bob Hudgins amid a sexual harassment inquiry – denied film incentive funds to Robert Rodriguez's "Mexploitation" film Machete, citing a much-mocked provision in the 2007 incentives bill (House Bill 1634) that bars funding to film or TV with "inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion." Further irony? Gov. Rick Perry signed a revised incentives bill, HB 873, into law at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in 2009. As incentive programs around the country fall prey to economic woes, one can't help but wonder if Texas' hard-fought program will be fighting for its life when the Lege goes back into session come January... But let's not end on a downer, eh? It may only be December – a shockingly festival-free month in Austin's packed calendar – but it's never too soon to start thinking South by Southwest, which kicks off March 11. To that end, the Film Festival announced today that Duncan Jones, a SXSW '09 alum (Moon), will be returning to SXSW to open the Festival with his new film, Source Code, a sci-fi actioner starring Jake Gyllenhaal. You can check out the trailer – where else? – online at austinchronicle.com/pip.

---

Direct tips/comments/complaints here: [email protected].