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In Austin, you can set your watch by the fall film festivals. We don't just have SXSW in the spring. Starting around Labor Day, it feels like we have a film festival practically every week, from Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) to the Austin Polish Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival and of course Fantastic Fest. One of the oldest and biggest of these local autumn fests is Austin Film Festival (AFF), which spans eight days and seven screening venues, and includes a screenwriters' conference. In 2009, AFF celebrated its 16th year.

AFF focuses on screenwriters even in its film programming selections, as was evident with the opening-night film. Serious Moonlight is best known as the last script written by the late actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly. I admit I wasn't fond of the movie, but director Cheryl Hines was a trip -- mock-vampy on the red carpet (as shown above), and full of excitement about her film. Her screening was up against heavy competition: Matthew Weiner brought an episode of Mad Men to the festival and didn't reveal which one until just before it screened. (It turned out to be this season's "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" episode.) Weiner also was featured in panels during the conference portion of AFF.

On Friday night, I headed over to the Paramount Theatre in Austin for the Fantastic Fest premiere of the horror/comedy (mostly comedy) film Zombieland. I arrived on the scene to wonder if I wasn't in a zombieland myself -- the area around the front of the theater was swarmed with the undead. A trailer was set up near the theater where anyone could get made up to look like a zombie, and lots of people volunteered. I saw a zombie bridal couple, a zombie nun and fittingly for this movie, a zombie clown. Some of the more professionally made-up zombies even lurched onto the red carpet briefly.
Before the zombies could be shooed away entirely, Zombieland co-star Woody Harrelson showed up. You can see his reaction to his red carpet-mates in the above photo. The zombies headed elsewhere and Harrelson was joined by other stars from the film, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone, as well as director Ruben Fleischer. The 1200-seat theater was packed with a lively audience, who applauded nearly every reference to Texas and seemed to enjoy the film very much.

Check out our Zombieland photo gallery from the evening for more photos of the red-carpet celebrities as well as the undead.

Last night, Fantastic Fest got underway in Austin with the world premiere screening of Gentlemen Broncos, the latest comedy from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite). Although most of the movies at this genre film festival screen at the Alamo Drafthouse, the festival has expanded to bring premieres to the larger Paramount Theatre downtown, which could hold all the fest attendees plus just about anyone who wanted to buy a ticket. Judging from the crowds outside and in the theater, it was a fairly full house.

Cast and crew from Gentlemen Broncos arrived in Austin for a red carpet event before the film, and a Q&A afterwards. Not only that, but Jemaine Clement (The Flight of the Conchords) appeared onstage before the film started, in character as renowned science-fiction author Dr. Ronald Chevalier, to read some science-fiction haikus.

I was lucky enough to take the above photo on the red carpet when the Gentlemen Broncos actors and filmmakers were all in one spot. From left to right: Sam Rockwell, co-writer Jerusha Hess, director/co-writer Jared Hess, Mike White, Jemaine Clement and Michael Angarano. Check out Peter Hall's review of the film..

You have to feel a bit sorry for Jason Bateman, Mike Judge, and anyone else who walked the red carpet -- or worked it, for that matter -- before the Extract world premiere in Austin on Tuesday night. It was triple-digit weather, the red carpet was outdoors, and even in the shade at 7:30 pm it was impossible not to be sweaty. Or glowing, as polite people say. Still, Bateman, who stars in the comedy, and Judge, who wrote and directed it, smiled and posed for photos and granted short interviews to any number of TV stations and news outlets.

I had interviewed Judge earlier in the day, which was a lot of fun and which I'll share with you when Extract opens in theaters on September 4. Therefore I spent my red-carpet time taking photos. I was pleased that we were able to get Bateman and Judge to pose together. Peter Martin, who attended the Dallas premiere the next night, has some great quotes from Judge's Q&A that evening, if you can't wait to hear more about the film.

I feel like Danny Glover in the later Lethal Weapon movies, grumbling that I'm getting too old for this s***. I spent my Saturday night and Sunday morning at a 14-hour (or so) movie marathon in Austin called Cinemapocalypse, perpetrated by the programmers at Alamo Drafthouse with some help from Quentin Tarantino. Apart from the first film, none of us (except the programmers) knew what we'd be watching.

The event kicked off with Tarantino's latest film, Inglourious Basterds, introduced by Tarantino and Eli Roth, who has a role in the film. The Alamo offered Nazi Scal(lo)ps on the menu as an accompaniment to the film. And during a key sequence set in a movie theater, we all heard a loud thump and realized that Nazi flags had been unfurled in the aisles of the Alamo Ritz, to match the onscreen theater. The flags stayed up all evening and felt a bit creepy after awhile, but apparently they were difficult to remove.

If you're one of the people who reads reports coming out of film festivals like Sundance and Berlin and thinks "Gee, those movies all sound like a bunch of high-falutin' talking head pieces that'll bore me to tears," then you really need to get your self to Austin, Texas this September for Fantastic Fest. If you're a film lover who enjoys the weird, the esoteric, and the bizarre, then this festival was made for you. They've just announced the first wave of features that will be screening and if you're not a believer yet, just check out this description of Robo Geisha:

"This geisha army can transform into tanks, their nipples can squirt acid or propel rapid-fire bullets, their mouths can contain chainsaws or frog-tongue samurai swords and they are aided by a giant shinto temple robot. The war of the Geishas is beginning, and I'm getting a front row seat!"

Need more proof? Director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) is opening the festival with his film Gentlemen Broncos, starring Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame. Still need more? Head beyond the jump for the full list, and check out even more on their website. Badges are still available for you brave ones out there.

So you wanna rake in the indie cred in Austin at next year's South by Southwest Festival? You have a skootch more than a week left to submit proposals for panels and/or rate the ones that have already been submitted for SXSW. But lucky for you, the SXSW Panel Picker is at your fingertips any time of the day or night. This cool new tool allows for everyone to have a say in what panels get okay'd for the festival.

According to the official site, "SXSW thrives on the creative intersection that takes place when great minds get together, and we feel the Panel Picker truly celebrates that. We believe that the real experts at SXSW are the people who bring the event to life - you, the thousands of people who attend every year. You know what you want to see, so this is your chance to help make that happen."

Previous panels include "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession," which featured Cinematical's very own Scott Weinberg, "From Script to Screen," a Stanley Kubrick discussion, and much more. Get on your horse and head over 'cause the Panel Picker closes its doors on July 10th.

You can also stay up to date on all the latest SXSW-related film news and reviews over at the official blog. They gave Erik Davis' earlier post on the real girl behind SXSW's indie hit 500 Days of Summer a nice shout out, too. Even if you don't get your very own panel, you should do yourself a favor and hit up the festival since it's filled to the gills with enough media to burn your retinas and pop your eardrums. Plus, you can eat some BBQ with the peeps you Tweet at. Hey, just sayin'.

While many SXSW Film Festival attendees were at the Paramount last night watching The Hurt Locker, I decided to try a more Austin-ish event at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Tobe Hooper's first feature was screening -- no, not The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but earlier than that. Eggshells was shot in Austin in 1968 and had a limited release the following year. And that's pretty much the last anyone saw of it on a big screen until now -- even Hooper, who was at last night's screening. Hooper says he had a DVD made from a VHS copy, but for the rest of us, Eggshells has been a "lost" film.

The film focuses on a big rambling house full of college-age people who hang out, throw parties, get married ... and discuss the "ghost" in the house, an odd energy field that lives in the basement. But as Hooper told us before the film started, this isn't a horror film. It's very much a film of the late 1960s, with some eye-popping psychedelic sequences -- the sex scene is especially groovy -- and characters acting symbolically rather than realistically. I especially liked seeing the shots of Austin, mostly The University of Texas, at the beginning and end of the film, and would love to watch this movie on DVD with freeze-frame to get a closer look at my town 40 years ago.

Waiting between movies on Sunday, I wanted to do something for a few minutes besides stand in line. I noticed an exhibit at the State Theatre, next to the Paramount, which was apparently related to the Trimpin documentary. I didn't know much about the movie, nor about the artist-composer Trimpin, but I wandered in. And I'm so glad I did.

The Trimpin Exhibit included some posters and sketches on the walls, but the crowning glory were Trimpin's "sonic sculptures." They were not only fascinating to look at, but did marvelous things with music. A hanging tree of Dutch wooden shoes turned out to be a type of instrument -- each shoe had a device in it, and was tuned to a certain note, and several compositions were preset into the tree. A collection of children's toy instruments, mostly guitars, all worked together to play some charming tunes. I didn't get to see what the machine with the two turntables did, but I'm planning to sneak back in there to see (and hear).

If you are living in Austin, you don't have to have a SXSW badge or pass or anything to see this exhibit -- it's free for anyone, and will be open at the State (719 Congress) from noon until 8 pm through Friday. It's a fun way to spend a little time. SXSW festgoers also have one more chance to catch the documentary Trimpin, on Friday night at the Paramount. I'm told the sonic sculptures in the movie are even more impressive, and hope to have the chance to find out.

Austin was celebrating film this week before the SXSW crowds even arrived. On Thursday night, Austin Film Society held its ninth annual Texas Film Hall of Fame awards gala at Austin Studios, honoring Texans and "honorary Texans" in the film industry. It's a fundraising event for filmmaker grants and educational programs, and attire ranges from the glitziest cocktail dresses to blue jeans and cowboy boots. Thomas Haden Church emceed the ceremony, revealing surprising depths of bizarre-yet-enjoyable humor. Really, I think someone should consider him to host the Oscars next year, although I don't know what his singing and dancing talents might be.

Thirteen and Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, shown above, received the Ann Richards award for someone in film who "who breaks barriers and forges new creative paths." Her award was presented by Brendan Fraser. The Star of Texas award for an exceptional film made in Texas went to Rushmore, which was filmed in Houst -- Luke Wilson accepted the award. Linda Gray, who nearly goosed Thomas Haden Church onstage, inducted her Dallas co-star Larry Hagman into the Hall of Fame. Keith Carradine inducted Powers Boothe. Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater shared a tribute to Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote, a Hall of Famer who died earlier this year. And Dennis Quaid presented the Tom Mix Honorary Texan award to his The Alamo co-star Billy Bob Thornton, who explained to us how he was more of a real Texan than an honorary one, anyway.

We've got photos of the event's honorees in the gallery below (as well as a few other familiar-looking attendees); check 'em out.