Oscar Party!

February/March 2006 Want to party like a movie star? The 4th Annual Oscar® Party

Come Celebrate the Oscar's® in style Celebrity Guests! Fabulous Silent Auction! Join our mailing list! On Sunday, March 5, the Austin Film Festival’s 4th Annual Oscar® Party will be held at Ranch 616. A delicous meal from Ranch 616! Beer, wine and top shelf margaritas! Celebrities! Fabulous Silent Auction! All for under 100 dollars! Celebrity Guests! March 2006 We're excited to be hosting representatives from nominated films such as Brokeback Mountain and Murderball. We're not mentioning any names, but you could be sitting next to someone winning a BIG award! Plus, Amy Henry Deane, from Season one of "The Apprentice" will be joining us again for "the best place outside of LA to celebrate the Oscars"! View the nominees... Fabulous Silent Auction! Our Silent Auction will have items from: The Driskill Hotel, Daya Day Spa, The Stephen F Austin Hotel, Yoga Yoga, Barking Hound Village, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Uchi, Zachary Scott, The Crossings, Jeffreys Restaurant, Castle Hill Fitness, Four Hands Home, Bradz Salons and Spas, The Paramount and many more! Call now for more information or to reserve your tickets. 512-478-4795. Single tickets - $90 non-members ($75 for AFF members) Booths and reserved seating are available. Please call for more information. BUY NOW! Austin Film Festival email: info@austinfilmfestival.com phone: 512-478-4795 fax: 512-478-6205 web: http://www.austinfilmfestival.com

AFF Photo of the Week: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana

2005 Oscar nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana attened the Austin Film Festival in 1997 as screenplay judges. Seen in this photo at the Governor's Mansion Bar-B-Que with writer Bud Shrake (left).

(photo credit: Jack Plunkett)

The Onion AV Club

The Onion AV Club does not always get the respect it deserves despite bringing us some of the best reviews and interviews through the years - including interviews with past AFF guests and panelists Shane Black, Harold Ramis, Neil Gaiman, David Cross, Judd Apatow, Mike Judge, The Weitz Brothers, Robert Duval, Jason Swartzman and Robert Altman to name a few.

Recently, they introduced a new feature called "Random Rules" where the AV Club interviews someone by having them put their iPods on shuffle and discuss the first few songs that play. It make for an interesting interview, check out the first Random Rules with Silver Jews frontman David Berman.

Big docs of 2005 show up on cable

Two of the more celebrated documentary films from last year have made their festival and theatrical rounds, so it's time for them to start popping up on DVD and TV. Grizzly Man, the Werner Herzog documentary (edited by Herzog from the "found" footage of its subject) follows self-appointed grizzly bear advocate Timothy Treadwell as he lives among the bears in Alaska during the last summers of his life. Treadwell and his girlfriend famously fell victim to one of the bears (footage is thankfully not included) and the knowledge of his demise provides a good bit of the film's tension. A fascinating look at a the life of a controversial and eccentric man. It's on the Discovery Channel this month. (The Austin Film Festival hosted an advance screening of Grizzly Man last year.)

Also airing this month on cable (this time on A&E), Murderball profiles members of paraplegic rugby teams in the U.S. and Canada. The BBC said: "If you're after honest, unpatronising insights and brutal match action then lock down your wheels for one of 2005's very best documentaries." Check your local listings for showtimes on both films.