What to know about Austin Film Festival 2022, from films to celebrities

For a few weeks every fall, Austin becomes a real calendar buster. AGLIFF and Fantastic Fest kick off the season’s film festivals. Austin City Limits Music Festival, of course, takes up two weekends in October. The Formula One U.S. Grand Prix speeds into Circuit of the Americas the weekend after. In early November, literary giants descend upon the Capitol for Texas Book Festival.

But this week, there’s Austin Film Festival, a fall counterpart of sorts to March’s South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, in terms of the caliber of films that you might see. Austin Film Festival also touts itself as the film festival for writers, and its conference arm celebrates the fine art of penning works for the screen.

Here’s what you should know about this year’s Austin Film Festival, running Oct. 27 through Nov. 3.

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Where does Austin Film Festival take place?

The film fest takes place at several theaters around town, including the Paramount, State and Hideout theaters on Congress Avenue, the Long Center on West Riverside Drive and the Galaxy Highland on Middle Fiskville Road. The conference events take place over many different downtown venues.

What movies are showing at Austin Film Festival 2022?

A few of the highest-profile flicks are:

“The Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”) and starring Brendan Fraser (of all your favorite ’90s movies), will be the fest’s opening night film. It screens at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 at the Paramount Theatre. The film premiered at this year’s Venice International Film Festival to acclaim, and it’s gained steam as a big comeback vehicle for Fraser, who plays a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his daughter (Sadie Sink of "Stranger Things").

Director-writer Nikyatu Jusu’s “Nanny” is a psychological horror film about a Senagalese nanny (Anna Diop of HBO Max’s “Titans”) living in New York City apart from her child. The film won the dramatic grand jury prize at Sundance Film Festival. It screens at 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the State Theatre.

“Sam & Kate,” an intergenerational story of love and family, will play at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the Paramount. Directed by Darren Le Gallo, the movie stars Dustin Hoffman and native Texan Sissy Spacek, acting alongside Jake Hoffman (Dustin's son) and Schuyler Fisk (Spacek's daughter).

“Women Talking," directed and written by Sarah Polley, is about women in a religious colony grappling with sexual assault. It features a cast of major names: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Frances McDormand. The film screens at 6:15 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the Paramount.

The very funny Adam Pally (“Happy Endings”) stars as a troublemaking interloper in the pandemic comedy “Who Invited Charlie?” It’s the festival’s centerpiece film, showing at 5 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the Paramount.

Arguably the biggest film on the fest’s slate will help close things out. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig, will hit the Paramount at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3. The murder-mystery sequel to 2019’s “Knives Out” also stars Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn and Leslie Odom Jr.

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And here are few other films that caught this critic’s eye:

“Causeway”: Jennifer Lawrence and Bryan Tyree Henry star in a drama about a soldier returning home to New Orleans. (9:45 p.m. Nov. 1 at State)

“1-800-HOT-NITE": Writer/director Nick Richey tells the story of an orphaned teen who turns to a phone sex operator and his friend for help as he tries to escape foster care. (8 p.m. Nov. 3 at State)

“Aftersun”: “Normal People’s” Paul Mescal stars in a father-daughter drama that spans two eras. (9:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at State)

“Armageddon Time”: Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins star in a coming-of-age movie about a Jewish boy growing up in 1980s Queens? Sign us up, “Ad Astra” director James Gray. (9:45 p.m. Oct. 28 at Stateside)

“The Inspection”: A young man who’s Black and gay joins the Marines in writer/director Elegance Bratton’s semi-autobiographical drama. Jeremy Pope (“Hollywood”) and always-welcome former Austinite Raúl Castillo (“Looking”) star. (8:45 p.m. Oct. 29 at Stateside)

“Goodnight Oppy”: Real-life Wall-E? This documentary is about Opportunity, a Mars rover sent to the red planet for 90 days … except it stayed, and survived, for 15 years. You are already crying about a machine. (2:45 p.m. Oct. 29 at Galaxy Highland)

“Golden Delicious”: I’d rent this at home if I saw it, which is as high a praise as I can give a movie. A Canadian teen of Asian descent joins the school basketball team to be closer to the new boy across the street. (5 p.m. Oct. 28 and 5:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Galaxy Highland)

“Daniel’s Gotta Die”: This inheritance comedy is billed as the late Bob Saget’s final film role. (10 p.m. Oct. 28 at Long Center and 9 p.m. Oct. 31 at Galaxy Highland)

“Song of the Cicada”: Robert Weiss and Austin-based Aaron Weiss directed this documentary about a mortician who lives in Galveston and dreams of renovating a historic house in Beaumont. It will make its world premiere at the fest. (3 p.m. Oct. 30 at State and 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at Galaxy Highland)

Find the full festival schedule at austinfilmfestival.com.

What celebrities are expected to be in Austin?

The stars of “Sam & Kate,” including Spacek and the elder Hoffman, will be here, and so will “The Whale” director Aronofsky, “Women Talking” director Polley and actors Pally and Reid Scott of “Who Invited Charlie?”

Honorees at this year’s Austin Film Festival are Stephen Merchant (BBC’s “The Office”) for outstanding television writer, Dede Gardner of “Women Talking” for the Polly Platt Award for Producing, Aronofsky for extraordinary contribution to filmmaking, Gray of “Armageddon Time” for the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting and Jusu of “Nanny” for the New Voice Award.

Panelists for the writers’ conference include Shane Black (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”), Austin-based comic book and video game writer Evan Narcisse and many, many more.

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How can I go to Austin Film Festival?

Film passes and badges, $80-$725, are available for purchase at austinfilmfestival.com. Limited advance individual tickets are available for “The Whale,” “Sam & Kate,” “Women Talking” and “Glass Onion,” at $23 per ticket.

More fall film festivals in Austin

Also mark your calendar for:

• Austin Jewish Film Festival: Nov. 3-13 (austinjff.org/2022-festival)

• Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival: Nov. 3-6 (soundunseen.com)

• Other Worlds Film Festival: Dec. 1-4 (otherworldsfilmfest.com)

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Film Festival 2022 lineup, schedule, tickets, celebrities, more