Interview:
Richard Whittaker,
The Austin Chronicle's
Senior Staff Writer and Critic,
Austin 2024 Year in Film Review
Midway through a turbulent decade of unwelcomed change and disruption and Austin’s film industry and community continue to take the good with the bad as best they can. Throughout 2024, many of Austin’s established filmmakers released critically acclaimed new theatrical and streaming films, from Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders to the Zellner Brothers’ Sasquatch Sunset to Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. Transpecos director Greg Zwedar put himself on the map with his Oscars hopeful Sing Sing. Lost Soulz’ Catherine Propper and Fugitive Dreams’ Jason Neulander both made auspicious feature film directorial debuts. And actor Glen Powell, coming off last year’s sexy romcom Anything but You, not just moved back to his native Austin but soared to Matthew McConaughey-level of recognition thanks to appearing in the Twisters reboot and co-writing and starring in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. In December, two of the best-known films made in Austin in the past 50 years—Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids—were named to the National Film Registry for Preservation. And the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre highlighted how Hooper’s independently financed horror classic help lay the foundation for Austin’s film community. In contrast, after 21 years of serving as Austin’s most recognizable and wide-reaching entertainment companies, Rooster Teeth Production closed its doors in May, seemingly a victim of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s continued belt-tightening. Early in 2024, rumors became to swirl that the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema—founded in 1997 by Austinites Tim and Karrie League—was up for sale several years after emerged from COVID pandemic-related bankruptcy and bought by an investor group that included League. But it was not less of a surprise in June when Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, as well as Fantastic Fest, for a deal that Deadline.com estimates being “in the range of $200 million range.” Six months later and it is still soon to determine how, if at all, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Fantastic Fest has changed under its new corporate leadership. At the same time, East Austin did welcome two new single-screen auditoriums that embrace the repertory programming popularized locally by both the Alamo Drafthouse and the Austin Film Society: the Hyperreal Film Club’s screening space at 301 Chicon Street and the Eastside Cinema at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex, which reopened in January after sitting unused for almost 13 years. The Austin Chronicle's senior staff writer and critic Richard Whittaker discusses Austin's 2024 year in film and offers a preview of the films and headlines of 2025.
Aired: Jan. 1. 2025. Web site: https://www.austinchronicle.com |
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