After a fairly travel-free summer, I’m going to be headed to the Austin Film Festival from October 14-21, 2004, where I’ll be speaking on a few yet-to-be-determined panels.
Austin is great. I went a few years ago after Go, and really liked it. Of all the festivals, Austin is probably the most writer-centric; the list of panelists includes many of the best and busiest screenwriters working today.
A few of them I know pretty well: Les Bohem, John Lee Hancock, Anne Rapp and I all spoke at the Nashville Screenwriter’s Conference. Tom McCarthy and I sat a bunch of panels together while he was promoting The Station Agent and I was flacking Big Fish. I met Shane Black at the last Austin Film Festival, and Thomas Schlamme was attached to direct my very-first paid screenwriting job. Terry Rossio, who in addition to his screenwriting career runs the excellent WordPlayer site, will be there as well.
If you’re a screenwriter in Texas, or just looking for a good excuse to visit Austin, you should probably come. The organizers tell me that anyone who mentions this site when they register will get a 10% discount. And no, I don’t get a kickback or referral fee. But if I see you out at the bars, you’re welcome to buy me a beer.
