2013 Austin Film Award Finalists
Our Austin Film Award finalists include films from Richard Linklater, Jeff Nicholas, and David Gordon Green.
Austin, Texas — The Austin Film Critics Association is pleased to announce its selection of seven finalists for the 2013 Austin Film Award: Before Midnight, Before You Know It, Mud, Prince Avalanche, The Retrieval, Somebody Up There Likes Me, and Zero Charisma.
The finalists were selected by a committee of AFCA members from 28 eligible contenders that were released theatrically or screened at an Austin film festival in 2013. The AFCA defines an eligible film as one that is made in Austin, or has a credited director and/or screenwriter whose primary residence is Austin during the time of filming.
The AFCA’s full membership will vote for the Austin Film Award along with its other annual awards, and will announce all winners on December 17.
BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Director: Richard Linklater Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Web site: http://www.sonyclassics.com/beforemidnight/
Official Synopsis: An American father, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is seeing off his son Hank (Seamus Davey–Fitzpatrick) at the Kalamata Airport in Greece. Hank’s returning to his mother and life in the U.S. after spending the “best summer ever” with Jesse and his family. The middle–schooler is more composed than his fortyish father, who hovers anxiously as their separation draws near. Geography weighs heavily on Jesse. Outside the airport, he rejoins his family: Celine (Julie Delpy) and their young twin daughters Ella and Nina (Jennifer and Charlotte Prior). As they drive through the austerely beautiful rocky hillsides of Messinia, Jesse and Celine talk — about living so far from Hank, about her career as an environmentalist and hopes for a new job, about the swirl of ancient and modern Greece around them. Jesse hints at wanting to move back to America from their home in Paris, but Celine has done her U.S. time — they lived in New York for a spell — and has no wish to return. Their long history together bubbles between them. Jesse and Celine first met in their twenties in Before Sunrise (1995), reunited in their thirties in Before Sunset (2004), and now, in Before Midnight, they face the past, present and future; family, romance, and love. Before the clock strikes midnight, their story again unfolds.
BEFORE YOU KNOW IT
Director: PJ Raval Genre: Documentary Distributor: N/A
Web site: http://beforeyouknowitfilm.com/
Official Synopsis: The subjects of Before You Know It are no ordinary senior citizens. They are go-go booted bar-hoppers, love struck activists, troublemaking baton twirlers, late night Internet cruisers, seasoned renegades and bold adventurers. They are also among the estimated 2.4 million lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans over the age of 55 in the United States, many of whom face heightened levels of discrimination, neglect and exclusion. But Before is not a film about cold statistics and gloomy realities, it’s a film about generational trailblazers who have surmounted prejudice and defied expectation to form communities of strength, renewal and camaraderie — whether these communities be affable senior living facilities, lively activist enclaves or wacky queer bars brimming with glittered trinkets and colorful drag queens.
MUD
Director: Jeff Nichols Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Web site: http://mud-themovie.com/
Official Synopsis: Mud is an adventure about two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and his friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland), who find a man named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Mud describes fantastic scenarios — he killed a man in Texas and vengeful bounty hunters are coming to get him. He says he is planning to meet and escape with the love of his life, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), who is waiting for him in town. Skeptical but intrigued, Ellis and Neckbone agree to help him. It isn’t long until Mud’s visions come true and their small town is besieged by a beautiful girl with a line of bounty hunters in tow.
PRINCE AVALANCHE
Director: David Gordon Green Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Web site: http://www.magpictures.com/princeavalanche/
Official Synopsis: An odd couple of sorts, introspective and stern Alvin (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend’s brother, Lance (Emile Hirsch), dopey and insecure, leave the city behind to spend the summer of 1988 repainting the traffic lines on a desolate country highway where the surrounding areas have been ravaged by wildfire. In this solitary backdrop, the two bicker and joke with each other as they reflect on their relationships with women, resulting in a clumsy fall headfirst into an unlikely friendship.
THE RETRIEVAL
Director: Chris Eska Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: N/A
Web site: http://www.theretrieval.com/
Official Synopsis: Set during the Civil War, The Retrieval follows a fatherless 13-year-old boy (Ashton Sanders) sent north by his bounty hunter gang on a dangerous mission to retrieve a wanted man (Tishaun Scott) under false pretense. During their journey towards the unwitting wanted man’s reckoning, the initially distant pair develops unexpected emotional bonds, forming a surrogate father-son relationship. As his feelings grow, the boy is consumed by conflicting emotions and a gut-wrenching ultimate decision: betray the father figure he’s finally found or risk being killed by his gang for insubordination.
SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME
Director: Bob Byington Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: Tribeca Film
Web site: http://www.somebodythemovie.com/
Official Synopsis: Bob Byington’s smart, subversive comedy skips through 35 years in the life of Max Youngman (Keith Poulson), his best (and only) friend Sal (Nick Offerman) and the woman they both adore (Jess Weixler). As they stumble in and out of hilariously misguided relationships — strung together with animated vignettes by Bob Sabiston (A Scanner Darkly) and an original score by Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio — Max never ages, holding on to a mysterious briefcase that may or may not contain the secret to life.
ZERO CHARISMA
Directors: Katie Graham, Andrew Matthews Genre: Narrative feature Distributor: Tribeca Film
Web site: http://tribecafilm.com/tribecafilm/filmguide/zerocharisma
Official Synopsis: As the strict Game Master of a fantasy role-playing game, Scott (Sam Eidson) leads his friends in a weekly quest through mysterious lands from the safety of his grandmother’s kitchen. But his mastery of his own domain starts to slip — along with everything else in his life — when neo-nerd hipster Miles (Garrett Graham) joins the game, winning over the group with his confident charm and dethroning Scott with an unexpected coup. Caught in delusions of grandeur, Scott must roll the dice and risk everything to expose Miles as the fraud he believes him to be. A darkly comedic fable of epic proportions, Zero Charisma is an ode to nerds from every realm.
ABOUT THE AUSTIN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2005 by Cole Dabney and Bobby McCurdy, the AFCA has seen its membership grow to over two dozen members with a diverse roster of professional film critics who regularly review movies for national television stations, daily newspapers, weekly alternatives, local radio, monthly magazines, and websites with international prominence. Each December, AFCA members vote on the year’s best in film, celebrating excellence on both sides of the camera.
The outlets AFCA members represent include Ain’t It Cool News, the Austin American-Statesman, the Austin Chronicle, Badass Digest, The Daily Texan, DVDActive, Fandango, Film.com, Film School Rejects, Hill Country News, Horror’s Not Dead, KOOP Radio, Movies.com, Paste, ScreenCrush, Slackerwood, Smells Like Screen Spirit, Spill.com, Twitch, and YNN Austin.
More information about the AFCA may be found at http://austinfilmcritics.org/ and on Twitter at @ATXFilmCritics.
