Central Texas Sci-Fi Fans Need To Get With This Festival
Austin’s own sci-fi film festival, Other Worlds Austin, has been making a name for themselves over the past several years. Featuring an annual festival and year-round screenings at the Flix Brewhouse, a town filled with film festivals still has plenty of room for the passionate programming this festival brings.
Having attended the very first festival prior to the birth of my first child, I’ve been itching to get back. For one thing, I had a really good time at the first festival. For another, the folks who run Other Worlds Austin are great people I’m happy to support. I’d also never yet been to North Austin’s Flix Brewhouse.
But in all honesty, the element which made this year an absolute must for me was simple: the programming. By its nature, Other Worlds Austin is shining a spotlight on underseen and underappreciated science fiction films. They’re curating for us, as all festivals do. In turn, it’s highly likely we won’t have heard of many of the films they are screening. And that’s totally okay. This year, however, OWA put together a killer track of beloved films that fit right into their wheelhouse. Repertory screenings of Event Horizon (20th Anniversary Screening) and Disney’s The Black Hole were exciting titles that I couldn’t ignore when they released their lineup.
It was the opening night film, however, which made OWA 2017 a must-attend event for me: Beyond Skyline. On name and franchise alone, I honestly couldn’t have cared less about this movie. Barely remember Skyline. Had no latent desire to see a sequel. But then the cast was announced. Frank Grillo headlining? The Raid’s Iko Uwais also starring? Welp, guess this just became one of my most highly anticipated films of the year! I’ll write up my thoughts on that film in a separate piece, but regardless this was a very fun and high profile selection for Other Worlds Austin to program as its opening night title. OWA simply lined up a program in 2017 that I could not miss.
My time at the festival will be limited thanks to real life and working over the weekend. But having attended a number of smaller film festivals over the years, I can confidently say that Other Worlds Austin is the real deal. Flix Brewhouse is a solid home for a festival of their size, offering lots of the amenities you’d find at an Alamo Drafthouse such as in theater food and beer service. It’s pretty far north, but not so far as to deter Austin-based sci-fi fans from taking part. Organized and efficient, I picked up my badge without a hitch, mingled at the opening party with ease, and had a great experience revisiting Event Horizon and enjoying a post-film Q&A with scribe Philip Eisner. The presentation of the film was top notch and everything ran with the smoothness one would expect of a professional film festival.
I’m legitimately bummed that I can’t take part in the full festival all weekend long, and am glad some friends and other press will be there experiencing/covering the festival in more detail than I’ll be able to. In four short years Other Worlds Austin have established a brand new film festival in a town packed with fests (no small feat), grown into a new and improved venue, and assembled a can’t miss slate of programming. Are you a central Texas sci-fi fan? Then what are you doing?! You’ve got to check out Other Worlds Austin.
And I’m Out.