Celebrity visits and cinema shakeups: The year in Austin movie news

Once upon a time, we called Austin "the Third Coast," a promised land of film culture and production burgeoning under the air space between New York and Los Angeles. Personally, I have not heard anyone use that nickname in years, or in conversation, ever.

As Austin continues to boom (for good, for ill), it might not need the comparison anymore. The capital of Texas has become, to paraphrase Beyoncé, the place that causes all that conversation. It's been more visible on the big and small screens than perhaps ever. Major industry events like South by Southwest rebounded after the darkest days of the pandemic. And, frankly, famous people keep moving here to keep Matthew McConaughey company.

As we turn the calendar to January, let's revisit the biggest Austin film news of 2022.

Alamo Drafthouse turns 25

You can’t say “Austin” and “movies” in the same sentence without thinking of Alamo Drafthouse, the nationally popular cinema chain still based in the Texas capital. This year, the home of Weird Wednesday, Buffalo cauliflower and “don’t talk or text” PSAs turned 25 years old.

For subscribers:Alamo Drafthouse at 25 years: A history of cult classics and queso

Co-founders Tim and Karrie League in 1997 turned a former parking garage on Colorado Street into a single-screen home for midnight movies and repertory favorites. In a shockingly short amount of time, their company helped reshape the movie-going experience in America, popularizing the dinner-and-a-show model, championing genre filmmaking and often going viral for its sometimes star-studded “don’t talk” PSAs that play before every show.

Drafthouse officially marked the milestone with a series of Rolling Roadshow screenings. The company continued to evolve, too. In February, workers at the South Lamar location announced they had unionized under the name Drafthouse United. In June, Drafthouse sold Mondo, its art and collectibles arm, to Washington-based company Funko. In September, its annual Fantastic Fest fully returned after two years of pandemic pivots.

There are currently five Austin locations, on South Lamar Boulevard, West Anderson Lane, Slaughter Lane, Aldrich Street in the Mueller district and U.S. 183 in the Lakeline area.

Big premieres and Austin sneak peaks

You get to see things early, Austin, because you’re special. South by Southwest in March saw the opening night world premiere of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” an indie scif-fi heartwarmer that went on to runaway theatrical success and plenty of Oscar buzz for 2023. Also making their world premieres at SXSW: “The Lost City,” “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood,” “X,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” the final season premiere of FX series “Atlanta” and more.

In September, Fantastic Fest scored the world premiere of “Smile” and the U.S. premieres of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “The Menu,” “Decision to Leave” and “Triangle of Sadness,” as well as a sneak peak of “Bones and All.”

Austin Film Festival attendees in October got early looks at buzzy movies like “The Whale,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Aftersun,” “The Inspection” and “Women Talking.”

Celebrities come to town

C’mon, we don’t need Musk and Rogan to claim starry status. This year, the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center honored Robert De Niro with a new endowment in his name. De Niro and pal Meryl Streep lit up a gala on campus to mark the moment in September.

The red carpets, though, had the best celeb sightings this year. Earlier in the year, SXSW welcomed names like Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliffe, Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Donald Glover, Anne Hathaway, Jared Leto, Kid Cudi and Lee Pace to the red carpets.

Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek swung through in October for the world premiere of their movie “Sam & Kate” at the Paramount Theatre during Austin Film Festival, and director Darren Aronofsky appeared in support of “The Whale.”

Heck, if you want to get technical, pop star Lizzo is a TV star now, thanks to her reality series “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls”; she talked about the Emmy-winning show in her SXSW keynote. And her pal Harry Styles was part of Hollywood’s biggest drama as the star of “Don’t Worry Darling” — he also starred in a historic six-night residency at the Moody Center in the fall.

Austinites on screen

Richard Linklater is back, baby. The man who put Austin on the cinematic map released his latest film, the animated “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood,” on Netflix.

From March:SXSW is back, and so is Richard Linklater. Next stop: the moon, in 'Apollo 10 1/2'

One of Austin’s other heavyweight directors, Robert Rodriguez, lent his directing and producing talents to the “Star Wars” spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett.” He also revealed plans for a return to the “Spy Kids” franchise.

Beloved local celeb Sandra Bullock produced and starred in “The Lost City,” and she also had a memorable cameo in (spoilers) “Bullet Train.”

This was Austin native Glen Powell’s breakout year. He was perhaps the most memorable part of mega-hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” as the cocky pilot Hangman. He also starred in the film “Devotion” and lent his voice to Linklater’s “Apollo 10 1/2.”

More:Glen Powell is one of the best parts of 'Top Gun: Maverick.' First, Austin helped him soar

Sometimes-Austinite Ethan Hawke had a big year on screen, starring in “The Black Phone” (written by Austinite C. Robert Cargill), “The Northman,” “Raymond & Ray” and the Disney+ series “Moon Knight.” (He also had a bit part in “Glass Onion.”) And that’s not all! Hawke also directed the HBO Max documentary “The Last Movie Stars,” which debuted at SXSW.

More:Ethan Hawke on SXSW, why he loves Austin and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's heroic love

Austin native Mehcad Brooks joined the cast of NBC’s “Law & Order” as Detective Jalen Shaw.

Guitar god Gary Clark Jr. had a small but memorable part as real-life bluesman Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup in the biopic “Elvis.”

UT alum Renee Zellweger starred in NBC true-crime miniseries “The Thing About Pam.”

Austin-born Dakota Johnson starred in “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” “Persuasion” and “Am I OK?”

“Friday Night Lights” alum Taylor Kitsch (whom Texas Monthly says has flown the Austin coop) co-starred in the Amazon Prime Video series “The Terminal List.”

Austin resident James Marsden starred in “Disenchanted” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” on the big screen and the latest seasons of “Dead to Me” and “Westworld” on the small screen.

This happened in late December 2021, but we want to squeeze it in: Austin artist Deborah Roberts’ art was featured in an episode of “And Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” sequel on HBO Max.

Look, ma, we're onscreen

According to the Austin Film Commission, several projects filmed in town came out in 2022. Filmed in 2019 and 2020: "Apollo 10 1/2," "Evinced" and "Lover, Beloved." And filmed here in 2021: "Blood Relatives," Season 7 of "Fear the Walking Dead" on AMC, "Look Both Ways," "The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On" and Season 2 of "Walker" on the CW.

Keep your eyes peeled for future releases filmed in Austin in 2022, according to the film commission. A few notables: "The Last Thing He Told Me," "Love and Death," "Spy Kids: Armageddon," "Somebody Feed Phil," "Pawn Stars" and Season 3 of "Walker."

Hometown Oscar noms

In February, partners Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons scored nominations for best supporting actress and best supporting actor for their roles in Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog." Dunst and Plemons have long kept ties to the Austin area. In January, Dunst talked to CBS News about living in Austin with Plemons and their two children during the pandemic.

They ultimately lost those awards to Ariana DeBose for “West Side Story” and Troy Kotsur for “CODA,” respectively.

Hyperreal Film Club blows up

Since 2016, Hyperreal Film Club founders David McMichael, Jenni Kaye and Tanner Hadfield have built up a DIY community for cinema lovers, starting with a screening of “The Holy Mountain” in a downtown basement. But in 2022, they really took off, taking up residency at East Austin rock club Hotel Vegas, where they now present cult classics weekly-ish.

On top of that, they presented dozens of shows at venues across town, including the Paramount Theatre (notably, they booked Robert Rodriguez there to introduce his cult classic “The Faculty” in October), Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In, Austin Film Festival and more.

“We want to show art house, esoteric, out-there movies, but we also want to show ‘Fast and Furious.’ We want to make everything feel like it's on an even playing field, and accessible, and make movies fun again,“ Kaye told us in November.

More:Hyperreal Film Club runs the coolest, weirdest movie night in Austin

The local video store might come back

Rewind! In the fall of 2020, I Luv Video, the last major video rental store still operating in Austin, shut down for good. Since its nearest competitor, Vulcan Video, had closed that spring, I Luv Video took with it an entire brand of classic Austin weird.

But in October, local Macy Cotton and a group of collaborators officially kicked off a campaign to relaunch the store as a nonprofit. They named their dream We Luv Video. 

More:This Austinite wants to rewind time and bring back I Luv Video's film archive

“The collection is insane. We just want that to be able to remain in circulation. It was such a cool part of Austin, and we were just so sad to see it go,” Cotton told the Statesman.

The group exceeded their crowdfunding goal, raising $112,494 as of early December. They’re now looking for volunteers to start the next chapter of We Luv Video.

Changing of the guard

In October, SXSW announced that Janet Pierson, the longtime director of the SXSW Film & TV Festival, would step away from her role and become director emeritus. Pierson had led the film fest since 2008. Taking her place at the helm of the festival: Claudette Godfrey, a native Austinite who was Pierson’s deputy as film festival programming director.

Fitness fanatic makes a movie

Erica Nix, the beloved local fitness personality whose body-positive, queer-inclusive exercise experiences have kept the city moving for years, made a movie. And oh, what a movie. "Erica's First Holy Sh!t" is a hallucinatory hero’s journey inspired by Nix’s own experiences. (Loosely.)

"A lot of it is about being an artist in Austin and feeling like it's not sustainable, or you're not able to actually be here as an artist," she says.

The film screened this year at Distribution Hall and at aGLIFF, Austin’s annual LGBTQ film fest. On Jan. 9, it will open up Hyperreal Film Club’s 2023 season at Hotel Vegas.

More:Austin has to find a way to keep its weirdos, says fitness and film star Erica Nix

Cinema shakeups

After almost two decades of screening movies that you couldn't find anywhere else in town, North Austin’s Regal Arbor 8 closed its doors for good, because of financial woes for its parent company. The arthouse theater first turned on its projectors in October 2003.

The ever-evolving Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In in August set out for the open sea — er, lake. A weekly screening series put movie-goers on a waterfront platform with a 20-foot movie screen, with options to paddle in on your own craft. And in April, owner Josh Frank held a vigil via projector for the people of war-torn Ukraine at the cinema’s flagship East Austin location.

More:You could own Doc's Drive-In movie theater for almost $4M

The McConaughey of it all

If you can believe it, Austin’s most notable actor didn’t have a single movie or TV role this year, according to IMDB. Matthew McConaughey did, however, narrate the Texas nature documentary “Deep In the Heart.”

McConaughey still stayed busy in the public eye, of course. In April, he helped open the new Moody Center arena in Austin. He was recruited for the project as part of his “minister of culture” role with UT.

In the summer, the tragedy of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting spurred Uvalde native McConaughey to come forward and advocate for bipartisan gun reform. He gave a stirring speech at the White House on June 17.

This month, UT announced that he will co-teach a new class next semester called Script to Screen: Commercials.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 2022 in Austin movie news includes SXSW premieres, celebrity visits