In 1985 a young Austin filmmaker named Richard Linklater started a film society in a city with more musicians than movie cameras. Forty years later, the Austin Film Society is the beating heart of Texas cinema, and its founder’s little idea has premiered at Cannes.
AFS runs the city’s beloved arthouse, the AFS Cinema, where restorations, world cinema and filmmaker visits fill two screens seven nights a week. Its grants have seeded hundreds of Texas films, its Texas Film Awards honor the state’s storytellers, and its stages and studios help working crews shoot right here at home.
The society’s magic is its welcome: film clubs, member screenings and community programs make cinephiles of ordinary Austinites. This is the institution that turned “weird Austin” into a film industry.
Happy City News takes the aisle seat. When the lights go down at the AFS Cinema, Texas dreams in 24 frames per second.
