AUSTIN, TX (November 15, 2016) — The Austin Film Society (AFS) announces today three 2017 honorees of the Texas Film Hall of Fame. Directors Jeff Nichols and Hector Galan, and young actor Tye Sheridan, will be joining an impressive roster of Texas Film Hall of Fame members who demonstrate Texans’ contributions to film and television and the state’s extensive film legacy. The honors will be presented at the 2017 Texas Film Awards, on March 9, 2017, at Austin Studios.
Rebecca Campbell, Austin Film Society CEO, has overseen the Texas Film Hall of Fame program since it’s founding in 2001. Campbell remarked, “We have watched as the Texas film scene has grown from a small group of creative, underground filmmakers to a bonafide artist hub. These three honorees couldn’t be more representative of the Texas film scene of today, and why we are so proud of it.” Campbell continues, “Jeff Nichols has become a globally renowned auteur, making some of the most celebrated new American narrative films, while making Austin his home. Hector Galan will be the first ever documentarian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. His critical work capturing the Latino experience is of unmatched historical magnitude. Finally, our Rising Star, Tye Sheridan, is a native Texan who, despite being one of the busiest young actors in Hollywood, remains an active and frequent participant in the Texas film scene, and continues to make artistically ambitious work with home state collaborators.”
The Texas Film Awards raises funds for the Austin Film Society’s year-round, a 501(c)3 organization, for its artistic and educational programs. AFS is a nonprofit organization founded by filmmaker Richard Linklater with 501(c)(3) status, and is committed to making Austin synonymous with great film.
More about the honorees:
Jeff Nichols, an alumnus of the Austin Film Society filmmaker grant program, is the writer and director of LOVING, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was released November 4th in theaters around the country. He wrote and directed the internationally acclaimed features SHOTGUN STORIES, TAKE SHELTER, MUD, and MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. His debut feature, SHOTGUN STORIES, earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination and the International Jury Prize at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival among other honors. Following a 2011 Sundance Film Festival premiere, TAKE SHELTER took multiple honors at the Cannes International Film Festival, including the Critics Week Grand Prize; it was later nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards. Mr. Nichols has earned a second Independent Spirit Award for his direction of the 2013 release MUD, which world-premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival and became one of the highest-grossing independent films of the year. The cast of MUD shared the Spirits’ Robert Altman Award. In February 2016, MIDNIGHT SPECIAL world-premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was released widely in theaters in the US. Nichols was born and raised in Arkansas, and has resided in Texas for 12 years, during the making of all of his feature films.
Hector Galan will be the first documentary filmmaker to be inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. As one of the most prolific independent documentary filmmakers working today, Hector Galán, from the West Texas town of San Angelo, has been creating documentary films for over forty years, including eleven films for the provocative PBS series FRONTLINE and the landmark four-part series, CHICANO! HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. He has explored a diversity of topics from migrant farm workers, (NEW HARVEST, OLD SHAME, 1990) the dynamics of race relations in the military, (THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN, 1991) college athletics, (CHASING THE BASKETBALL DREAM, 1984) and issues surrounding foster care, (WHO CARES ABOUT CHILDREN?, 1992). Galán has cast his lens on the Latino experience in America, bringing the culture and history of US Latinos to the screen. He produced two award-winning documentaries for the American Experience; LOS MINEROS (1991), the story of Arizona’s copper miners in the early half of this century and their struggles for equality, (SXSW Best Documentary) and THE HUNT FOR PANCHO VILLA (Imagen Award, Cine Golden Eagle Award). Galán has received numerous honors including the Cultural Arts Award by the Hispanic Caucus of the American Association of Higher Education, the Armando Marroquin Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tejano Roots Museum, and the AT&T Spirit of Communication Award. In 1996, the Texas State Flag was flown over the Capitol in his honor by the Texas House of Representatives in recognition for his work. He was named one of the 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Magazine, and has had a retrospective of his work screened at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.
Galán is a founding board member of the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and has served as a mentor of the CPB Producers Academy and the NALIP Producers Academy.
Tye Sheridan will receive the Rising Star Award of the Texas Film Hall of Fame. In previous years, some of the most prominent emerging American artists have accepted this prestigious prize; Ethan Hawke, Owen Wilson and Robert Rodriguez among them. Tye Sheridan made his film debut at the age of 15 in Terrence Malick’s Palme D’Or winning and Academy Award nominated feature, THE TREE OF LIFE. Since then, Sheridan has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought after young talents. He was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Actors To Watch, and has worked alongside the likes of Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey, Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, and Michael Fassbender, among others. Sheridan can next be seen as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the best-selling dystopian science fiction adventure, READY PLAYER ONE, which is set to release in 2017. Most recently, Sheridan can be seen in Bryan Singer’s flashback of the superhero franchise, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, which opened to rave reviews this summer. Sheridan stars as a young Cyclops alongside Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Oscar Isaac. At the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Tye starred in in three films: THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT, Rodrigo Garcia’s LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT, and the critically-acclaimed indie drama ENTERTAINMENT, starring John C. Reilly. Prior, Sheridan won the 2013 Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival for his captivating performance in the southern drama JOE (directed by Texas Film Hall of Fame member David Gordon Green), opposite Nicolas Cage. That same year, he received a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Young Actor and was honored alongside his co-stars with the Independent Spirit Awards’ Robert Altman Prize for his performance in Jeff Nichols’ MUD.
The 2017 Texas Film Awards is chaired by Austinites Lesya Milam and Suzanne Court.
Tickets:
For more information about purchasing a table or a ticket, please contact Lauren Alexander-Labahn, Austin Film Society’s Chief Revenue Office and Head of AFS’s Division of Relationships & Revenue,, lauren@austinfilm.org.
Sponsorship:
For information about sponsorship packages, please contact Charlotte Hill, Austin Film Society Marketing, charlotte@austinfilm.org.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, the Austin Film Society’s mission is to empower our community to make, watch, and love creative media. AFS curates and screens hundreds of repertory, international, and art house films annually at the AFS Cinema; delivers financial support to Texas filmmakers through the AFS Grant; operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, and Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate. Through its award-winning after school classes, intern training, and the Ed Lowry Student Film program, AFS encourages media literacy and provides a place for youth of all backgrounds to learn the craft of filmmaking and gain access to tools for media production. By hosting premieres, special events, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community.
To learn more about the AFS Cinema or about Austin Film Society’s mission visit: www.AustinFilm.Org and follow @AustinFilm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About the Texas Film Awards
Thank you to our 2017 event chairs: Lesya Milam and Suzanne Court. Now in its 17th year, the Texas Film Awards brings together legends of cinema and television for an unforgettable evening of festivities inducting industry icons into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. The 2016 Texas Film Awards had a media reach of 274+ million and generated more than 55% of the budget for AFS’s 2016 artistic and educational programs, which identify, support and fund emerging talent throughout the state of Texas, often launching significant careers in the arts.
