Matthew Weiner

For the second year in a row, the Austin Film Festival is raiding the AMC larder for its Outstanding Television Writer Award honoree – first with Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) and now with the just-announced Matthew Weiner (Mad Men).

Frankly, we’re not sure it’s safe for Weiner to leave the house; what with Mad Men season 7’s second half not airing until spring 2015, we imagine Weiner can’t even go grocery shopping without somebody ramming his cart wanting to know how it’s all going to end. (No, really: How’s it gonna end?!) Still, the guy’s a pro – 11 Emmy noms, a seat at The Sopranos’ table, and his feature film debut, You Are Here with Owen Wilson and Zach Galfianakis, out later this summer – he probably knows how to handle the riff raff at this point.

Weiner joins previously announced AFF 2104 Distinguished Screenwriter honoree Jim Sheridan (In America, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot) and a still-growing roster of panelists that include Cary Fukunaga (True Detective director), Scott Neustadter (The Fault in Our Stars co-screenwriter), Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex creator), Franklin Leonard (creator of the Black List), Ashley Miller (X-Men: First Class co-writer), Neil LaBute (Some Girls writer/director), Christopher Cantwell (Halt & Catch Fire co-creator), and a bunch of other forces of mostly good (and the occasional evil) in film and TV.

The 2014 Austin Film Festival & Conference takes place Oct. 23-30.

This article appears in May 30 • 2014.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...