Local Film News: Austin Film Society Announces 2018 Presenters & Additional Guests for Texas Film Awards

Source: AFS

WHO: Austin Film Society

WHAT: Austin Film Society announces Texas Film Awards presenters and special guests TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET, THANDIE NEWTON, REGINA HALL and RICHARD LINKLATER

WHEN and WHERE: Thursday, March 8, 2018

Honoree Brunch and Press Conference, 11 a.m., Fairmont Hotel, 101 Red River St, Austin, TX 78701

Texas Film Awards, 7 p.m., AFS Cinema, 6406 N Interstate 35 Suite 3100, Austin, TX 78752

WEB: www.austinfilm.org

HOW: Tickets to the Texas Film Awards start at $350 and may be purchased online at www.austinfilm.org/tfa.

MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Davidson, Frank PR, Stephanie@frankpublicity.com for more information or to apply for credentials to cover the event’s red carpet

DETAILS

Academy-Award nominated actor Timothée Chalamet will take part in the tribute to his CALL ME BY YOUR NAME co-star Armie Hammer, who will receive the Variety “One To Acclaim” Award at the Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Awards. Chalamet appeared in two of the year’s most critically acclaimed and award-winning films, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead on Saturday and earned him an Oscar Nomination in the same category, and LADYBIRD, which was nominated for five Oscars. 

BAFTA and SAG-award winning actress Thandie Newton, a longtime collaborator and friend of Jonathan Demme’s, and star of his films THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE and BELOVED, will present the inaugural Jonathan Demme Award to Paul Thomas Anderson. Newton currently stars in HBO’s Westworld, which was the most watched first season of a show in the network’s history. Her upcoming film roles include, SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, GRINGO and JOHN F. DONOVAN. 

After the presentation of the Jonathan Demme Award, AFS Founder and Artistic Director Richard Linklater will lead a conversation with Jonathan Demme Award recipient Paul Thomas Anderson, the Academy-Award® nominated screenwriter and director of PHANTOM THREAD.  Linklater will also participate in the Variety Panel at the Honoree Brunch.

Actress Regina Hall joins AFS for the Texas Film Awards Variety Panel at the Honoree Brunch on March 8. She joins Paul Thomas Anderson, Armie Hammer and Richard Linklater on a panel moderated by Variety’s Executive Editor, Steven Gaydos. Hall recently starred in the summer blockbuster hit GIRLS TRIP and can be seen in the upcoming film SUPPORT THE GIRLS, an indie drama premiering at SXSW, written and directed by Texas filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, who has received multiple grants from AFS in support of his filmmaking work. Hall will also be on the red carpet at the Texas Film Awards that evening. 

AFS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission to make Austin synonymous with great film. The Texas Film Awards raises funds for the Austin Film Society’s year-round artistic and educational program.

The evening includes Red Carpet Arrivals presented by New Republic Studios; Cocktail Party, Award Ceremony, and After Party  presented by Bullfight.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Timothée Chalamet

Timothée Chalamet can currently be seen starring in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME for director Luca Guadagnino. He has been named Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle, Independent Spirit Awards and the LA Film Critics Association; was named the Best Breakthrough Performance by the National Board of Review and won Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Awards; and has been nominated as Best Lead Actor by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and has been nominated for the EE BAFTA Rising Star Award. He also appears in Greta Gerwig’s LADY BIRD opposite Saoirse Ronan, and in Scott Cooper’s HOSTILES opposite Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike. He plays the lead role in HOT SUMMER NIGHTS for director Elijah Bynum which premiered at SXSW in April and will be released by A24 in the Spring.  Chalamet recently finished shooting the lead role in Woody Allen’s A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK opposite Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez. And he recently wrapped filming the title role in BEAUTIFUL BOY opposite Steve Carrell; the film is directed by Felix van Groeningen and produced by Plan B. BEAUTIFUL BOY will release by Amazon this fall.

Last year, Chalamet opened to rave reviews and received Drama League and Clive Barnes nominations and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actor for his performance in the world premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s play PRODIGAL SON. He received glowing reviews for his performance in the independent film MISS STEVENS, starring opposite Lily Rabe for director Julia Hart, which premiered at SXSW in 2016.

Other film credits include Christopher Nolan’s INTERSTELLAR and Jason Reitman’s MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN.  He was first noticed in the second season of HOMELAND opposite Claire Danes and Damian Lewis for Showtime.

 

Thandie Newton

Thandie Newton is currently starring on HBO’s critically acclaimed series WESTWORLD. For her role as Maeve Millay, she recently won the 2016 Critics Choice Award, and was nominated for a 2017 Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two SAG Awards.

On the big screen, she will next star in Ron Howard’s SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY which will be released by Disney on May 25, 2018 and Nash Edgerton’s GRINGO opposite Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton which will be released by Amazon on March 9, 2018. She also recently completed production on Xavier Dolan’s THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN opposite Jessica Chastain and Natalie Portman.

Thandie is well-known for her work in the Academy Award-winning Best Picture, CRASH. For her performance, she received a BAFTA Award and a SAG Award for “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.” Thandie was also praised for her role in Gabriele Muccino’s critically acclaimed box office hit THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS opposite Will Smith. She has starred in several other blockbuster films including John Woo’s MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 opposite Tom Cruise, which grossed over $540 million worldwide and Roland Emmerich’s 2012, which grossed over $760 million worldwide.

Thandie’s other film credits include: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s HALF A YELLOW SUN opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tyler Perry’s GOOD DEEDS and FOR COLORED GIRLS opposite Whoopi Goldberg, Guy Ritchie’s ROCKNROLLA, Olive Stone’s W opposite Josh Brolin, in which she plays Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, David Schwimmer’s RUN FAT BOY RUN, Jonathan Demme’s THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE and she received rave reviews for her astonishingly original and bold performance as the title character in Jonathan Demme’s BELOVED co-starring Oprah Winfrey.

In 2012, Thandie made her stage debut in London’s West End starring in DEATH AND THE MAIDEN by Ariel Dorfman.

 

Regina Hall

Regina Hall began her acting career in the late 1990’s while simultaneously earning a master’s degree from New York University. With numerous film and television credits to her name, Regina Hall has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought after comedic actresses.

 

Regina recently completed filming New Line’s SHAFT, a remake of the 1970’s film of the same title, directed by Tim Story and co-written by Alex Barnow and Kenya Barris. The film has a Summer 2019 release date.

 

She can next be seen in Fox 2000’s THE HATE U GIVE alongside Common, Anthony Mackie, and Issa Rae. Directed by George Tillman Jr. and based on the book with the same name, the film is set to debut on February 28, 2018. The film revolves around a teenage girl who witnesses a police shooting of her friend and is forced to testify in trial.

 

Regina just lit up the big screen in the summer blockbuster GIRL TRIP alongside Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish.  Directed by Malcom D. Lee, the film and produced by by Will Packer, the film follows four friends who travel to New Orleans to celebrate the annual Essence Festival.


Regina can also be seen in the indie drama Support the Girls opposite Haley Lu Richardson and Shayna McHayle.  The general manager at a highway-side restaurant has her incurable optimism and faith–in her girls, her customers, and herself–tested over the course of a long, strange day.  Written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, the film is slated to be released in 2018.

 

Richard Linklater

Before SLACKER, an experimental narrative revolving around 24 hours in the lives of 100 characters, garnered acclaim in 1991, Richard Linklater had made many shorts and completed a Super 8 feature, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN TO PLOW BY READING BOOKS (1988).

 

Linklater’s additional credits include the 70’s cult hit DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993); BEFORE SUNRISE (1995), for which Linklater won the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award for Best Director; SUBURBIA (1997); THE NEWTON BOYS (1998), a western/gangster film set in the 1920s; the animated feature WAKING LIFE (2001); the real-time drama TAPE (2001); the hit comedy SCHOOL OF ROCK (2003); $5:15 AN HOUR (TV), BEFORE SUNSET (2004) which earned him an Academy Award nomination; BAD NEWS BEARS (2005); A SCANNER DARKLY (2006); FAST FOOD NATION (2006); INNING BY INNING: A PORTRAIT OF A COACH (2008); ME AND ORSON WELLES (2009); BERNIE (2012); UP TO SPEED (2012, HULU); BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013); BOYHOOD (2014); EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (2016); LAST FLAG FLYING (2017); and WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE? (2018).

 

Linklater also serves as the Artistic Director for the Austin Film Society, which he founded in 1985 to showcase films from around the world that were not typically shown in Austin. Now one of the nation’s top film organizations, the Austin Film Society shows hundreds of films a year, has educational programs, and has given out over $1,700,000 in cash grants to Texas filmmakers since 1996.

 

About Austin Film Society

Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, the Austin Film Society’s mission is to empower our community to make, watch, and love creative media. AFS curates and screens hundreds of repertory, international, and art house films annually at the AFS Cinema; delivers financial support to Texas filmmakers through the AFS Grant; operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, and Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate. Through its award-winning after school classes, intern training, and the Ed Lowry Student Film program, AFS encourages media literacy and provides a place for youth of all backgrounds to learn the craft of filmmaking and gain access to tools for media production. By hosting premieres, special events, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community.

To learn more about the AFS Cinema or about Austin Film Society’s mission visit www.austinfilm.org and follow @AustinFilm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Texas Film Awards

Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Awards is the year’s biggest event for Texans in film. Now in its 18th year, the Texas Film Awards brings together legends of cinema and television for an unforgettable evening of festivities inducting industry icons into the Texas Film Hall of Fame, all benefiting the artistic and educational programs of the Austin Film Society. The 2018 Texas Film Awards is chaired by Kathy Blackwell.

 

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