Austin Film Society Announces Three Film Projects Chosen For Its 2024 Artist Intensive
October 14, 2024, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces the three projects and five mentors chosen for its annual Artist Intensive, which will take place between October 15–19. The Artist Intensive is a multi-day invitational retreat for Texas filmmakers to be paired with experienced mentors from the industry to guide their work on their feature-length narrative film projects in the development phase. Participants are selected from the applicant pool for the AFS Grant.
AFS’s programs for filmmakers aim to support the conditions where filmmakers can make Texas their career-long home. Through the Artist Intensive, AFS supports the careers of emerging Texas-based narrative filmmakers through networking and creative development, helping with their project advancement while also building a creative community from within the region.
This year’s selected Artist Intensive Fellows include:
- Liz Cardenas (director) and Scott Rodgers (writer) — Jill Takes A Break
- Alex Ramirez (writer/director) — Flowergiver
- Parker Smith and Spencer Cook (co-writers and co-directors) — Lame
The Artist Intensive includes mentorship sessions, screenplay readings and rehearsals with guest actors. The program is instrumental in providing participants with creative feedback, resources and momentum for their projects. Over the course of the long weekend, each writer/director team is matched with a writer/director creative advisor and a producing mentor. Each script is read in full with a cast of professional actors and workshopped.
The mentors who will work with this year’s filmmakers throughout the weekend include creative advisors Noah Hawley, award-winning creator of the shows Legion and Fargo; Amy Seimetz, creator of Starz’s The Girlfriend Experience and director of the films She Dies Tomorrow and Sun Don’t Shine and shows including Atlanta and Mr. and Mrs. Smith; and Lindsey Villarreal, producer and writer on shows such as Resident Evil, George & Tammy and Vida. Serving as producing advisors will be Ryan Zacarias, producer of Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s Cannes Camera d’Or-winning War Pony and Jonas Carpignano’s Directors’ Fortnight-winning A Chiara; and Toby Halbrooks, whose producing credits include A Ghost Story, The Green Knight, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Peter Pan & Wendy, which he co-wrote. Also attending the Artist Intensive as guest speakers are AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater (Hit Man, Boyhood), Jeff Nichols (Mud, Loving, The Bikeriders), AFS Grant-supported filmmaker Yen Tan (All That We Love, 1985, Pit Stop) and producer Kelly Williams (Sorry To Bother You, Hellion).
Past project alumni include Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth (Sundance, Independent Spirit Award-nominated), Annie Silverstein’s Bull (Deauville winner and Cannes Un Certain Regard competition), Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back (Sundance, Independent Spirit Award-nominated) and Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country (Independent Spirit Award-nominated, Gotham Award-winner) among others. Past mentors have included Jonathan Demme, Catherine Hardwicke, Charles Burnett, Athina Rachel Tsangari, So Yong Kim, Jeremy Saulnier, Azazel Jacobs, Jamie Babbit and James Ponsoldt, among others.
More about the 2024 selected projects and filmmakers:
Headshots available here.
JILL TAKES A BREAK
Directed by Liz Cardenas and written by Scott Rodgers
Jill Takes A Break is a dark comedic drama about a wild and carefree woman, 39, who’s decided to finally take control of her future by buying the dive bar in Long Beach, CA, she’s worked at for years. But when she’s unexpectedly hit with a health crisis, she’s forced to examine what she truly wants that future to be. Liz Cardenas is a 2022 Film Independent Spirit Award winner for Best First Feature for Roshan Sethi’s 7 Days (Tribeca | Cinedigm), which she produced for Duplass Brothers Productions, and a 2019 Nominee for the John Cassavetes Award for Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back (Sundance | A24), which she produced with Sailor Bear. She was also nominated for the Producer Award at the 2023 Indie Spirits. She was chosen to be a fellow for the Gotham Cannes Producers Network, Rotterdam Lab and Film Independent; was one of four producers to receive the inaugural 2022 Dear Producer Award + Grant; and was included in the 2019 LATINXT, a curated list of emerging Latinx creators from an initiative by Zoe Saldana, Robert Rodriguez and Lin-Manuel Miranda. She’s currently developing a series inspired by her award-winning short film, Imago, about a Latino trans teen in Texas with her collaborator Lío Mehiel (Mutt, In The Summers). Scott Rodgers is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter, director, producer and actor. His acting credits include Key & Peele, Reno 911!, Married (FX), Desperados (Netflix), Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks and Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. Scott co-wrote, co-starred and directed the indie feature The Dramatics (A Comedy), which was acquired and distributed by The Orchard. He has produced and creatively consulted multiple shorts and feature films including, American Folk, Accommodations and Provo. As a teacher with his “Scott Rodgers Screenwriting” classes, he has helped hundreds of students develop their work and has had multiple projects go on to be produced and released.
FLOWERGIVER
Written and directed by Alex Ramirez
Following a deadly car accident, a self-destructive teen skater falls for a Latina muralist from school hiding a dark secret in Flowergiver. Alex Ramirez is a Mexican-American filmmaker, media artist and educator based in San Antonio, Texas. His work examines the nature of memory, mental health, Latinx culture and obsolete media formats. His films and screenplays have been honored by the Nashville Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, South Texas International Film Festival, Cine Las Americas and Film Shortage. He has been featured in Texas Monthly, ShortsTV, Texas Public Radio, KLRN’s “The Beat,” and, in 2021, was named Best Local Filmmaker by San Antonio Current Magazine. He teaches media and film as the current Media Arts Director of SAY Sí, a creative youth development program.
LAME
Written and directed by Spencer Cook and Parker Smith
Lame is a buddy-comedy/crime-genre film about interdependence and what we owe to the people who make our lives possible. It follows a disabled man and his recently paroled caregiver as circumstances force them to figure out what they’re willing to do for one another and for themselves. Spencer Cook is a writer, director, artist and lifelong wheelchair user whose practice is deeply informed by his experience as a person with a disability. Trained as an architect, Spencer began pursuing film thanks to the influence of his caregivers such as Parker Smith, who moved to Austin because of the AFS internship program. After watching them develop their own feature projects, Spencer began collaborating with Parker on their first short, Act of God, which won numerous accolades during its festival run including Best US Short at Palm Springs ShortFest and a 2022 SXSW Audience Award. Parker Smith is an Austin-based filmmaker and editor. His first feature, Ramblin’ Freak, documented a road trip he took in search of a bodybuilder discovered by chance on an old videotape years after this same man intersected with the death of Parker’s two sisters. It premiered at SXSW 2017 and was bought by Gravitas Ventures. Shortly after, he began working as Spencer’s primary caregiver, a relationship which led to their first narrative short, Act of God. Most recently, Parker served as an associate editor on the upcoming A24/HBO docuseries The Yogurt Shop Murders, directed by Margaret Brown.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS is committed to racial equity and inclusion, with an objective to deliver programs that actively dismantle the structural racism, sexism and other bias in the screen industries. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Will Stefanski
Will@austinfilm.org
