2017 Austin Film Festival

The writers conference starts today and I’ll be there!

I’m pleased to have been invited back to the Austin Film Festival this year. There are some fantastic speakers and panelists this year including Walter Hill (2017 Extraordinary Contribution to Film Award Recipient), Kenneth Lonergan (2017 Distinguished Screenwriter Award Recipient), Keenen Ivory Wayans (2017 Extraordinary Contribution to Television Award Recipient), as well as Scott Alexander, Michael Arndt, John August, Shane Black, Scott Frank, Michael Green, Misha Green, Noah Hawley, Eric Heisserer, Craig Mazin, Tess Morris, Chris Sparling, Tatiana Suarez-Pico, Vanessa Taylor, Guinevere Turner, and dozens more.

My schedule of events is as follows:

Panelist Sessions
Friday, October 27
1:30pm
Roundtable: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film

Friday, October 27
3:15pm
Deconstructing: Blade Runner
With Jon Hoeber, Doug Jung, and Anne Cofell Saunders

Saturday, October 28
10:45am
Combating Common Challenges
With Dana Fox, Eric Heisserer, John Hoberg, and Scott Rosenberg

Presentation
Sunday, October 29
3:00pm
Writing a Worthy Nemesis: Your Protagonist’s Shadow

The Blade Runner and Combatting Common Challenges panels promise to be excellent sessions, but let me draw particular attention to Writing a Worthy Nemesis: Your Protagonist’s Shadow. I have done variations of this presentation this year at both the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, Oregon and the London Screenwriters Festival, and those sessions drew raves. In fact, I have received from attendees nearly 200 requests for the PowerPoint PDF for that session. The starting point for this 75 minute presentation is this: The best way to develop a worthy Nemesis is to begin with your story’s Protagonist.

I’ll be at the Festival Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so if you’re coming this year, be sure to look me up.

For the entire 2017 Austin Film Festival writers conference schedule, go here.

For those of you attending AFF for the first time, check out this Script Magazine article by Asmara Bhattacharya. Some good advice!

Hope to see you there!