Monday, January 21, 2008

AFF @ 15


Join us as we celebrate our 15th anniversary by retelling the greatest moments and success stories from AFF history with new blog posts every Monday! Whether you’ve been year or have yet to come, you’ll get the behind-the-scenes info on the encounters and events still being talked about today. Then come out and make history of your own at the 15th Annual Austin Film Festival, October 16-23, 2008.


Since I moved to Austin in 1997 I have never missed an AFF (admittedly, it was easier not to miss once as full time staff) and one of my favorite highlights year after year are always the retrospectives. From Robert Altman presenting Nashville to Buck Henry screening The Graduate to James L. Brooks with Terms of Endearment. But I have to say one of my favorite moments was when the late Joseph Stefano hosted a late night screening of Psycho at the Paramount Theatre in 1999. The Q&A went over time, but Mr. Stefano was not about to end the discussion, he took the Q&A out into the lobby of the theatre and kept taking questions about writing the film and being a young guy working with Hitchcock until late into the night. We missed out on a party, but it did not matter, Joseph Stefano was a great storyteller.

(I was happy to find myself in this photo, wearing a brown shirt, in the top middle of the frame.)

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