Returning for a fifth exciting year, Other Worlds Austin, one of the premier SciFi Film Festivals in the US, features some of the best and unheralded genre films. Beginning on Thursday December 6 at Flix Brewhouse, the four day event includes 20 full length films, a slew of shorts, and a screenwriting workshop. Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’ll be at there.

Here’s what to expect at Other Worlds Austin 2018.

Thursday, December 6

7:42PM ALIEN NATION (30TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
LAUNCH FILM

Graham Baker | USA | 91min | 1988

Writer: Rockne S. O’Bannon
Cast: James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp

Three years after 300,000 “newcomers” crash landed in the Mojave Desert, the aliens are adjusting to life as second-class citizens in Los Angeles. After a police homicide forces a hardened detective to work with a newly promoted newcomer, he finds a complex immigrant culture has developed in the shadows of society. There couldn’t be a timelier opportunity to screen a film that looks at how Americans treat otherness when it shows up on our doorstep. Science Fiction can force us to face ourselves in the mirror, even if the view isn’t pretty.

Rockne S. O’Bannon broke into television writing for AMAZING STORIES and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. After writing ALIEN NATION, he went on to create the SciFi cult classics seaQuest and FARSCAPE, as well as serve as Developer and/or Executive Producer on DEFIANCE and REVOLUTION and write for V and CONSTANTINE.

 

Hugo Félix Mercado | Mexico | 87 min

Writer: Carlos Alvahuante Contreras
Cast: Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Jorge Luis Moreno

An astronomer discovers a strange signal emanating from Cygnus. Things begin to get strange at the observatory, and he has to find out just what exactly it is that he has found.

4:40PM SPACE DOCS (72 MIN)

A New View of The Moon
Alex Gorosh & Wylie Overstreet | USA | 3 min
On the streets of Los Angeles, strangers get an up-close view of something familiar.

Adrift
Cath Le Couteur | UK | 11 min
The hidden world of space junk.

Sputnik 2 or: Laika, Our Hero
Tom McNamara | USA | 4 min
In 1957, a Soviet street dog named Laika launched into space aboard Sputnik-2 and became the first animal to orbit the Earth. And truth of that trip has remained a state secret until now.

Stranger Aliens
Adam D’Arpino | UK | 5 min
When we look for aliens, why do we always find ourselves staring back?Earthrise
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee | USA | 31 min
50 years after capturing the first image of the Earth from space, the Apollo 8 astronauts look back on that fateful voyage and the impact it’s had on the world since.

To Scale: The Solar System
Alex Gorosh & Wylie Overstreet | USA | 7 min
On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends illustrate our place in the universe.

The Search for Earth Proxima
Brett Marty & Josh Izenberg | USA | 10 min
Where do we go? Where do we go now? How about Alpha Centauri…

 

7:00PM BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (40TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE AWARD

Richard A. Colla & Alan J. Levi | USA | 125 min | 1978

Writer: Glen A. Larson
Cast: Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene

After the destruction of the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, the last major fighter carrier leads a makeshift fugitive fleet in a desperate search for the legendary planet Earth. More than just a television pilot, “Saga of a Star World” was shot in widescreen, re-edited and released theatrically in Canada, Australia and some countries in Europe and Latin America before the Battlestar Galactica aired in the United States. Although he never received on-screen credit, Alan J. Levi took over direction of “Saga of a Star World” after Richard Colla was dropped several weeks into shooting.

Defender of the Universe, Alan J. Levi
The Defender of the Universe Award honors a cinematic star or mentor whose heroic actions help mold us into the future humans we aspire to be. In stories that examine what it means to be human, often in the face of rapidly developing technology, alternate histories or multi-galaxial space sagas where we are just one of the many players in a political landscape, SciFi heroes teach us who we are and what we value.

Alan J. Levi has directed of 350 hours of prime-time network television, including such SciFi staples THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1978), THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (1974), THE BIONIC WOMAN (1976), QUANTUM LEAP (1989), MISFITS OF SCIENCE (1985), THE INVISIBLE MAN (1975), PROBE (1988), VOYAGERS! (1982), LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (1994), and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1996). Alan also helmed other notable series, such as MAGNUM, P.I. (1980), DR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN (1993), NCIS (2003), ER (2002), JAG (1997), COLUMBO (1971), and countless others.

 

7:30PM THE AXIOM (NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE)

Nicholas Woods | USA | 98 min

Writer: Nicholas Woods
Cast: Hattie Smith, Zac Titus, Nicole Dambro

A young woman and her friends travel into a National Forest in search of her missing sister. As the search progresses, they realize the trees may serve as a doorway to another dimension, and what has come through is not friendly.

 

10:00PM DIMINUENDO (TEXAS PREMIERE)

Adrian Stewart | USA | 106 min

Writers: Sarah Goldberger & Bryn Pryor
Cast: Richard Hatch, Chloe Dykstra, John Champion

A director’s life crumbled after his Hollywood starlet girlfriend Cello killed herself. He becomes obsessed with a robot designed to replicate his lost love after he’s offered an opportunity to direct the film of Cello’s life.

 

10:15PM I’LL TAKE YOUR DEAD (TEXAS PREMIERE)

Chad Archibald | Canada | 83 min

Writers: Chad Archibald & Jayme LaForest
Cast: Aidan Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro

A father provides for himself and his young daughter by disposing of dead bodies for criminals from the city. Just as he nearly has enough money to get his daughter away from this morbid lifestyle, one of the recently delivered bodies wakes up.