Real Texas Reels The Austinite's Guide to the Austin Film Fest

While it may not be Sundance, at least the Austin Film Festival takes place in a city not known for frostbite, or Sundance. The eight-day circuit of cinema includes everything from FDR biopics (Hyde Park on the Hudson) to shorts whose stature has nothing to do with being in a wheelchair, plus tons of features from hometown heroes. To that end, we've sorted through the packed roster to find the films with an ATX connection.

Spring Eddy
Chronicling the crime, capture, and escape plot of an imprisoned bank robber, this feature features prominent Austin locales like the Drafthouse Ritz, Broken Spoke, and Lucky Lounge, where this guy was obviously not hanging out enough.

Boneboys
Shot in an "inner-city underbelly" (aka 6th St), this horror flick riffs on Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal via a secret society of cannibals tired of their other late-night snacking alternative, Roppolo's.

The Girl
A Texas filmmaker's take on border issues follows a desperate woman's spiral into a type of trafficking that's even worse than IH-35.

Flatland 1 & Flatland 2
Animated in Austin, these shorts expound on the classic Edwin A. Abbott novel in which two dimensional shapes learn to think outside the box square.

The Informant
As radical activist turned FBI informant Brandon Darby awaits trial in Austin, this documentary examines whether his participation in subversive actions like a terrorist attack on the RNC were for the greater good.

Pictures of Superheroes
Also political: a first-time ATX director muses on the sad state of a country where "an honest businessman can't make a living running a maid service as a front for a prostitution store, tax-free, without Uncle Sam just pissing all over it." Now that's what Austin's known for!