Austin Film Festival Announces First Round of Film Jurors and Partnership with POV for Documentary Feature Competition

Austin Film Festival (AFF), also known as “The Writers Festival,” is pleased to announce their first round of confirmed jurors and newly established partnerships for the 2015 film competition, further supporting independent filmmakers by providing more opportunities for valuable industry exposure.

POV, PBS’s award-winning documentary series, has joined on as an official sponsor of AFF’s Documentary Feature Competition. Created in 1988, POV’s programming features groundbreaking documentary storytelling, spotlighting works from established and up-and-coming filmmakers such as Jonathan Demme, Michael Apted, D.A. Pennebaker, Laura Poitras, and many others. POV shares Austin Film Festival’s passion for storytelling and celebrating diverse perspectives and compelling voices.

As the official sponsor for AFF’s POV Documentary Feature Competition, POV will help select the competition’s winning film and, schedules permitting, hold a meeting with each finalist during the Festival.

“Austin is a great film city, and AFF is the beating heart at the center of it,” said POV Executive Producer Simon Kilmurry. “AFF is an intoxicating confluence of filmmakers—aspiring and established—along with passionate audiences celebrating some of the best fiction and documentary films being made today.”

Along with the POV Documentary Feature Competition, AFF has released its first round of jury announcements for the 2015 Film and Scripted Digital Series Competitions:

• FilmBuff Head of Content, Samantha Scupp, will serve on AFF’s Comedy Vanguard jury.
• Senior Manager of Curation at Vimeo, Jason Sondhi, will contribute to the Narrative Short jury.
• Josh Poole, Director of Development at Above Average, is the first announced juror for AFF’s inaugural Scripted Digital Series Competition.

Past AFF Film Competition jurors have included America Ferrera, Tom Skerritt, Leigh Whannell, and representatives from The Weinstein Company, Sundance Institute, and Gravitas Ventures.

AFF’s Film Competition is currently accepting entries for the 2015 Festival, which takes place October 29-November 5. Filmmakers can submit their projects online at www.austinfilmfestival.com. The first deadline for AFF’s Film, Screenplay, and Scripted Digital Series Competitions is April 20th.

About Austin Film Festival

Austin Film Festival is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Austin Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division.

For more information on submitting a film or screenplay, please visit www.austinfilmfestival.com.