Austin is well known for the South By Southwest Music and Media Festival and Conference each spring and the Austin City Limits Music Festival each fall. But music isn’t the only thing that puts Austin on the map. Austin also hosts the Texas Book Festival and the Austin Film Festival and Conference every year.
Started in 1994, the Austin Film Festival is all about the creative process of screenwriting and filmmaking. The annual film festival and conference held in October highlights local organizations and businesses working in all elements of the film industry.
This year’s festival features movies starring actors like George Clooney and Meg Ryan. The conference and festival attract many big names in the film industry to Austin, but the event stays true to the laid-back feel of the capital city. There are no red carpets or little paparazzi at the eight-day event.
The conference itself offers panels, lectures, and roundtables on all aspects of the film industry and screenwriting, and encourages budding film writers to participate. The festival is a screening cycle for all kinds of films: short films, documentaries, animation, independent films and premieres. Unknowns in the film industry rub shoulders with the bigwigs and many have had their work come to the fore because of this film festival.
The film festival is also a series of parties with different themes in different places in the center. Austin’s restaurants, bars, shops and hotels benefit from festival sponsors. Awards at this year’s festival will go to industry greats like Ron Howard.
The Texas Book Festival, also taking place this October in Austin, was started in 1995 by Laura Bush. The former first lady has always been an advocate for literacy and she launched the Texas festival to honor Texas writers and promote a love of reading.
The two-day event has the unique location of the buildings and grounds of the Texas state capital. Hopefully the weather gods will smile on Austin with more blue skies and sunny fall weather in the forecast for the last weekend of October. Nearly 50,000 people will fill the marble halls and hallowed chambers of the state house to hear lectures and panels. Other downtown venues also get involved, like the historic Paramount Theater and the Austin Children’s Museum, which hosts special events for children’s authors.
The festival not only celebrates literature, but also addresses some of the issues facing the book industry. One of this year’s conferences, “Are Books Dead?”, addresses the future of books and the changing ways we will read them. This year will feature more than 200 authors including Margaret Atwood, Jane Smiley, Harold Evans, Gail Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The festival is free and open to the public, with plenty of opportunities for book signings.
SXSW and ACL may bring the national camera crews and the biggest names in music, but they’re not the only festivals promoting the arts in this unique capital city.