Designed by tattoo & graphics artist David Poe
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.
Jennifer Walden | Canada | 80 min
Writer: Jennifer Walden
Cast: Allie Dunbar, Jesse Wheeler, Cam Zimmer
A young boy gets lost on a camping trip, but befriends an extraordinary creature from the stars who tries to help Elijah find his way home.
*Open to the public, FREE for anyone under 15.
Elijah & the Rock Creature screens with:
DOCTOR OF MONSTER
Gustavo Teixeira | Brazil | 11 min
Writers: Gustavo Teixeira & Rodrigo Estravini
Dudu knows exactly what he wants to be when he grows up. The problem is, he’s still a little afraid of his future patients…
12:00PM BORN IN FLAMES (35TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
Lizzie Borden | USA | 80 min
Writer: Lizzie Borden
Cast: Honey, Adele Bertei, Jean Satterfield
Ten years after the most peaceful revolution in United States history, a progressive dystopia exists where minorities, gay rights organizations, and feminists should be further along than they are. Governmental preference and violence has forced these groups to take the revolution farther than they ever imagined. An indispensable, radical, and strangely timely manifesto on racism, sexism, and heteronormative culture in an alternative United States socialist democracy.
2:10PM SCIFI SHORTS 1 – REACHING FOR BEYOND
Louis Yin | China | 18 minWriters: Aditya Rawal & Louis Yin
Sam and his Chinese immigrant grandfather Bo meet in an odd space-time meld between present day and 1943. Things get messy, and soon they need to save each other’s lives; in fact, Sam’s existence depends on it.
Colin West | USA | 18 min
Writers: Colin West & Corey Aumiller
Mac has been having a tough go of it after his wife (and co-host of their children’s science show) dies. With the help of his lonely teenage neighbor, he considers building a time machine to reunite with his lost love.
Alumni: WE WERE NOT MADE FOR THIS WORLD (2016).
Gabriel de Urioste | USA | 8 min
If she could just change the course of their last interaction, she could save their relationship.
Mark Kerins & Elliot Mayen | USA | 12 min
Writer: Elliot Mayen
A young woman can’t escape a recurring nightmare of losing her children. Why is it happening, and when will it stop?
Charlie Ainsworth | USA | 18 min
An examination of time travel from a vantage point rarely explored: those who will cease to exist because of changes made to the past by others.
Luis Tinoco Pineda | Spain | 15 min
The timelines of a space fighter pilot and the teenage sole survivor of a car crash converge in this meditation on grief and loss
2:35PM PULSE (TEXAS PREMIERE)
Stevie Cruz-Martin | Australia | 85 min
Writer: Daniel Monks
Cast: Caroline Brazier, Daniel Monks, Scott Lee
A gay disabled teenage boy changes into the body of a beautiful woman, so that he can be loved.
4:50PM ASCENSION (TEXAS PREMIERE)
Ross Wachsman | USA | 86 min
Writers: Gregg Meller, Steven A. Mourning, & Ross Wachsman
Cast: Ana Mulvoy Ten, Christie Burke, Farrah Mackenzie
A troubled teenage girl’s life begins to unravel as she discovers the dark power that drove her mother to suicide has infected her older sister, driving her to do horrible and terrifying things.
7:00PM THE DEAD CENTER (TEXAS PREMIERE)
CENTERPIECE FILM
Billy Senese | USA | 93 min
Writer: Billy Senese
Cast: Shane Carruth, Poorna Jagannathan, Jeremy Childs
A good-hearted hospital psychiatrist risks his job by treating an amnesiac patient who just wandered into the psych ward after waking up in the morgue. The doctor must decide if the evil that lives inside the man’s head is a threat to himself or other people. A suspenseful, eerily vague, and terrifyingly original twist on the psychological trauma trope, the film stars producer/Texas son/indie SciFi auteur Shane Carruth.
7:30PM THE WRONG TODD (TEXAS PREMIERE)
Rob Schulbaum | USA | 90 min
Writer: Rob Schulbaum
Cast: Jesse Rosen, Anna Rizzo, Sean Carmichael
Todd is having some issues with his girlfriend. After a thorny disagreement, he finds himself in a parallel universe, replaced in his own by his other self. Now Todd has to stop Todd from stealing his own girlfriend. Can he
The Wrong Todd screens with:
HINDSIGHT
Kelli Horan | Texas | 8 min
A young woman just wants everyone to have the perfect New Year’s kiss at midnight, with some help from time manipulation. But who’s looking out for her?
9:45PM 2050 (TEXAS PREMIERE)
Writer: Brian Ackley
Cast: Dean Cain, David Vaughn, Irina Abraham
In the near future, a married father of two stuck in a rut is shown a warehouse that makes custom androids for “human companionship.” It isn’t weird at all.
10:15PM SOUL TO KEEP (TEXAS PREMIERE)
David Allensworth & Moniere | USA | 94 min
Writers: David Allensworth & Eric Bram
Cast: Aurora Heimbach, Sandra Mae Frank, Conor McKenna
A group of friends travel to an old country house to party. After exploring the old house they find a room in the basement and decide to host a séance. Enter Beelzebub and his hunger for human souls.