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#OtherWorlds2017 Award Winners |
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Other Worlds Austin wrapped up its successful fourth season by announcing the 2017 winners for its Best Feature Audience Award, Best Short Audience Award (sponsored by Film Colossus), the Mary Shelley Award, the Dan O’Bannon Filmmaker Award, the Cthulhies awards, and the Screenplay Contest.
Nearly 300 films were submitted to the fourth-year festival. A passionate and engaged audience ultimately had to choose from 15 features and 28 shorts, all Austin premieres.
The Best Feature Audience Award winner for OtherWorlds2017 is the Texas premiere of GNAW, written by Jim Brennnan, Haylar Garcia, and Kathryn Gould, and directed by Haylar Garcia. This supernatural horror film follows Jennifer Conrad, a small-town girl starting over in the big city. Fleeing an abusive relationship, all she wants is a chance to begin again. But it is hard to start over when something is eating you while you sleep… one painful bite at a time.
The Best Short Audience Award winner for OtherWorlds2017 (sponsored by Film Colossus) is EINSTEIN-ROSEN, written and directed by Olga Osorio. In the summer of 1982, Teo claims he has found a wormhole. His brother Oscar does not believe him… at least not for now.
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SciFi Film Submissions
Features/Shorts
Now until March 31st $30/$25
April 1st to April 30th $35/$30
May 1st to June 15th $40/$35
June 16th to July 31st $50/$40
August 1st - Aug 31st $60/$50
Sept 1st - Sept 15th $70/$60
On sale at events until August
The Team
Bears Fonté
Founder and Artistic Director
Don Elfant
Director of Marketing and Development
Jordan Brown
Associate Artistic Director
Debbie Cerda
Programmer and Hospitality Director
Eric Harrelson
Programmer and Screenwriting Diector
Courtney Hazlett
Programmer and Director of Operations
Reid Lansford
Programmer and Registration Director
Mark Martinez
Programmer and Social Media Director
Tessa Morrison
Programmer and Outreach Director
Dan Repp
Senior Programmer and Events Director
Michael Thielvoldt
Programmer and Transport/Tour Director
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Bears Fonté, OWA Founder and Artistic Director, speaks for the entire Other Worlds Austin team in acknowledging these impressive films: “We’re excited that our jury, made up of our festival attendees, has for the first time selected one of our Under Worlds films — GNAW — as Best Feature, especially one that handles such difficult issues as domestic abuse with unapologetic honesty.”
Under Worlds Austin, in its third year, is the Horror sidebar to the overall Other Words festival.
“As for the audience’s selection of Best Short,” Fonté continues, “EINSTEIN-ROSEN captures the pure joy of a child’s wonderment with science as well as classic sibling rivalry.”
The Best Feature Audience Award 2017 winner received a $500 cash prize. The Best Short Audience Award 2017 winner received a $250 cash prize.
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Our first official event of the 2018 season will be our annual FREE Star Wars Fan Film Screening on May 4, 2018 (it’s on a Friday this year, heyyyy)! Last year’s venue, 4th Tap Brewing Co-op, is once again hosting us at their North Austin home!
As always, we’re putting the best of films created by Star Wars fans all over the world up on the big screen. The search for this year’s lineup is well underway! Stay tuned for more details on contests, activities, & goodies!
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By JORDAN BROWN — the OWA team was lucky enough to
catch an advance screening of ANNIHILATION, Alex Garland's latest heady
SciFi opus (fittingly at Galaxy Highland, which will always have a soft
spot in our collective heart for being our festival home for the first
two years). Being someone who has to let a film marinate for at least
a day after watching it, I'm finally putting pen to paper (no not
literally, I'm a millennial and can't imagine writing an essay by hand).
In what's already a deluge of ANNIHILATION reviews all over the
Interwebs, I toss my two cents in for good measure. ***Warning: Vague Spoilers Ahead***HOLY
HELL ALEX GARLAND'S DONE IT AGAIN, CEREBRAL MASTERPIECE OF EPIC
PROPORTIONS! Spoiler alert, that's going to be the conclusion of this
review. I say this because the film itself also starts with mild
spoilers (who lives & who dies), yet despite this - or maybe because
of it -- the ensuing story feels all the more suspenseful.
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One of the most noticeable things you'll see right away is the almost entirely female cast. To its credit, ANNIHILATION briefly acknowledges this switch-up in traditional protagonist gender without dwelling on it or being self-congratulatory. True, it’s revealed that all-male military teams have gone into the "Shimmer "(the film's alien world that has invaded and threatens to slowly take over Earth) in the past without ever returning, so the military base is trying a different tack: sending a team of all scientists in. But the fact that they're all female is not necessarily the point; the new tactic is brains over brawn (I guess you could genderize this if you want, but I find that too simplifying).
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The SciFi Timeline: Part 1 |
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By BEARS FONTE — Despite always looking to the future,
SciFi has a long and detailed past. While not comprehensive, I’ve tried
to compile a list of the most important and influential works of SciFi
since before it began. This is just phase one...
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You Just Might Be A SciFi Geek If...
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By DEBBIE CERDA — I wrote the following post on my personal blog almost nine years ago,
immediately after the second Fantastic Fest. Most of the statements hold
true today, although cell phones nowadays resemble HAL from 2001 rather
than how the Samsung x475 reminded me of one of the spaceships from
HEAVY METAL.
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It Hurts So Good: Even Bad SciFi is Sometimes Great
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By DAN REPP — I love watching a film that has something in it that I have never
seen before. Even if the idea is not executed to its full potential, I
still respect it. Sometimes, the batshit craziness of an idea can make a
bad film enjoyable. I want to share a short list of science fiction
films that I like (or respect) for their unique ideas and creative new
worlds.
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