Biographical Note
The Austin Film Festival, a non-profit organization founded in 1994 and based in Austin, Texas, hosts an annual Austin Film Festival & Conference, a gathering of professional and amateur screenwriters and filmmakers to participate in panel presentations, parties, Screenplay and Teleplay Competitions, and screenings. It was the first event of its kind to focus on screenwriters and filmmakers, and refers to itself as “the writers’ conference.”
The Austin Film Festival mission states that, “Austin Film Festival furthers the art and craft of filmmaking by inspiring and championing the work of screenwriters, filmmakers, and all artists who use the language of film and television to tell a story.”
Best known for its annual Festival, the Austin Film Festival also offers year-round events, a young filmmakers program, as well as the television show, radio show, and podcast known as On Story.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of audio and video media and digital files of recordings of Austin Film Festival & Conference panel presentations from 1994-2008. The recordings document the proceedings of the Conference. Panel topics include On Writing, Up Close and Personal, The Art of the Pitch, and many others. Notable panelists include Michael Ian Black, Sydney Pollack, Shane Black, Larry Wilmore, Jim Dauterive, Mike Judge, Oliver Stone, Harold Ramos, Judd Apatow, Bill Broyles, Bill Wittliff, John Lee Hancock, Barry Levinson, Neil Young, and Sam Elliot.