Our short Killing Thyme has headed across the pond for it's US Premiere at the Austin Film Festival! Natalie Malla, the film's talented writer and producer is out there representing the film and taking in the fabulous city of Austin (where we were lucky enough to visit earlier in the year). With a couple of days at the festival before the premiere Natalie made the most of what Austin and the Austin Film Festival has to offer.
Killing Thyme in the Austin Film Festival program
With an excellent program of films, talks and events Natalie has certainly been spoilt for choice, on Friday she joined the ques of filmmakers and cinephiles for 'A Conversation with Marta Kauffman', the Emmy and Golden Globe winning television writer, producer and showrunner known for hits such as Friends and Will and Grace. Awarded the 2016 Outstanding Television Writer award and a hero of Natalie's this was not to be missed! And as if an inspiring talk from one of your professional heroes wasn't enough for a day, later that afternoon Ghostbusters (2016) writer Katie Dippold and Paul Feig, director or Bridesmaids and writer/director of Ghostbusters (2016) dissected the journey of the rebooted blockbuster from script-to-screen. Both talks were extremely insightful and most definitely worth waiting for.
Killing Thyme screened it's US Premier on Saturday 15th of October as part of the shorts program A Stranger Comes to Town. True to form the audience in Austin were a delight to screen to and we were thrilled our friends from the Austin Film Society were able to make it. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Killing Thyme received such a brilliant response we couldn't be happier!
Writer producer Natalie Malla on stage with the filmmakers from the Stranger Comes to Town program
Writer/producer Natalie Malla
Festival highlights include the screening of Monogamish at the Hideout along with the shorts program Who's Afraid of the Shorts at the Alamo Drafthouse. The Seed and Spark talk on crowd funding given by Emily Kelleher Best was another awesome event, as was Chicks with Bics (a discussion with devoted female writers who are changing the landscape of film and TV) and Paul Feig's second talk. When not attending talks or film screenings there were a number of networking events to swing by and a multitude of restaurants and bars across Austin to try out (because where else in the world are you going to get a Bloody Mary garnished with a slider and beef jerky?!) with the lovely groups of filmmakers Natalie's met stateside.
Check out some photos of Natalie's time in Austin below:
Writer producer Natalie Malla with filmmakers
