Austin Film Festival will honor filmmakers Brad Bird, Andrew Haigh and Aleshea Harris on Oct. 31, 2026, as part of this year's festival, which runs Oct. 29-Nov. 5 in Texas.
Bird, the creator of "The Incredibles" franchise and the director behind "Ratatouille," "The Iron Giant" and "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," will receive the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award. The festival will also premiere his new animated feature, "Ray Gunn," starring Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell.
Haigh, the writer-director known for "All of Us Strangers," "Weekend," "45 Years" and HBO's "Looking," will be presented with the Writer's Writer Award. The festival will screen his latest film, "A Long Winter," featuring Fred Hechinger, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitríona Balfe, Kit Connor and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
Harris will receive the New Voice Award. She made her directorial debut with "Is God Is," followed by "What to Send Up When It Goes Down." She is also set to appear on the panel "On 'Is God Is': A Conversation with Aleshea Harris," where she will discuss adapting her work from stage to screen.
The festival additionally unveiled its first wave of programming, including world premieres of "Chopin," "Omi," "Rated," "Sheepwell," "The Stalemate" and "Tigermom Academy," along with Texas premieres of "Behemoth!," "Bleeding Hearts" and "I Play Rocky."
Austin Film Festival Co-founder and Executive Director Barbara Morgan said, “Austin Film Festival is proud to present this year's first wave of announcements, celebrating great storytellers at all stages of their careers. From debut features to highly anticipated studio releases, these programming selections reflect the Festival's deep commitment to the craft of screenwriting as the heart of the creative process. Brad Bird, Andrew Haigh, and Aleshea Harris have each built careers by cultivating a distinctive point of view, and we see that same instinct across the films and writers we're bringing to Austin this year. At this year's Writers Conference, we will bring together these programmed filmmakers, veteran producers, groundbreaking showrunners, and visionary screenwriters to inspire and be inspired by the next generation.”
The Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the art, craft and business of writers and filmmakers, working to champion aspiring and established storytellers through events, services, public awareness and community partnerships.
Photo: kelli townley from San Francisco, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
