The Austin Film Festival (AFF) takes place in Austin, Texas, in the fall of each year. Billed as “the writer’s film festival,” AFF takes place over one week right in the heart of Austin, with screening locations all over downtown, including the historic Paramount Theatre. In addition to seeing screenings and premieres of films from all over the world, attendees of AFF also have the opportunity to attend roundtables and panels featuring industry-leading filmmakers and screenwriters.
A core part of the Best Pictures coursework takes place at AFF. Every Best Pictures student receives a badge for AFF, and as a course requirement each student must submit a report about the films they felt were most important out of the festival’s many offerings. Below you will find the reporting from each Best Pictures class, organized by year.
AFF 2020
Forthcoming!
AFF 2019
Student reports organized by last name. Next to their name are the film(s) their reports cover:
- Phoebe Anderson (Bibi, Yarne, Heavenly)
- Arvind Ashok (The Witness, The Report, Just Mercy)
- Matthew Aufiero (The Kill Team, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Clemency)
- Libby Carr (The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, Brothers from the Suburbs)
- Anne Chow (Pipe Dreams, Waves, The Truth)
- Zach Epstein (Limbo)
- Skyler Goodman (Undertow, Drowning, Wade in the Water)
- Saku Gopinath (Waves, Honey Boy, The Truth)
- Madeline Hawkins (The Planters, A Hidden Life, Honey Boy)
- Amanda Hua (Not to be Unpleasant, but we need to have a serious talk)
- Edith Muleiro (Yellow Rose)
- Amarachi Ngwakwe (La Historia de Mateo, Cows with No Name, The Mortician of Manila, Dead Woman’s Pass)
- Danielle Nwosa (Last Week at Ed’s, Just Mercy, Waves)
- Prerna Pamar (Waves, Honey Boy, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson)
- Sindhu Raju (Macabre, Waves, The Truth, Honey Boy)
- Nila Selvaraj (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, A Hidden Life, Ford vs. Ferrari, Not to be Unpleasant, but we need to have a serious talk)
- Will Shute (Waves and Marriage Story)
- Ross Trivisonno (Treasure Trouble, Waves, Just Mercy)
- Shannon Weidner (A Hidden Life and Portrait of a Lady on Fire)