Every film festival celebrates movies; Austin’s celebrates the people who write them. The Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference (founded 1993) is the world’s preeminent screenwriting gathering — eight October days when the writers behind Hollywood’s biggest films teach craft in panels, roundtables and the legendary late-night conversations at the Driskill Hotel bar.
The competition side launches careers: its screenplay competition is among the industry’s most respected, and festival premieres fill the Paramount and State theatres with first looks. The year-round program — story department readings, filmmaker chats, the On Story TV and radio series — keeps Austin’s writing community in permanent session.
Hollywood has the deals; Austin has the writers. Every October, the writers come home.
