Fort Worth-filmed ‘Landman’ premiering at Lone Star Film Festival before streaming debut
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From Cowtown to Tinseltown
Fort Worth director Greg Kwedar’s film “Sing Sing” is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor in a Leading Role at this year’s Oscars. Fort Worth musician Abraham Alexander is also nominated for the film for “Like a Bird” in the Best Original Song category.
Read all about Fort Worth’s road to the Academy Awards here.
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Fort Worth’s 18th annual Lone Star Film Festival begins screening this weekend.
In 2007, local film advocate Johnny Langdon and Fort Worth actor Bill Paxton created the Lone Star Film Festival as way to celebrate the art form and to showcase the city. This year’s festival runs from Nov. 1-4.
Attendees can expect a mix of feature and short film screenings, panel discussions and social events around the Cultural District. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Crescent Hotel, Hotel Dryce and Bowie House are all hosting events across the four-day festival.
Individual tickets cost $10 a screening, or there’s a $300 all-access pass, which includes access to all screenings, discussions and parties. To purchase tickets, visit here.
The Star-Telegram spoke with festival executive director Chad Mathews to preview the film lineup and annual gala. Mathews also spoke about the move to host screenings at the Modern Art Museum after the Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theater closed.
“We’ve got a really good lineup of films and I think we’ve peppered it with some really good activities around those movies,” Mathews said. “The festival is a really immersive experience and we hope people check it out.”
Lone Star Film Festival lineup
There’s plenty to watch at the Lone Star Film Festival. Mathews recommends guests see a little bit of everything each day.
In total, attendees can check out four feature films, four documentary features and more than three dozen short films.
Mathews highlighted a few notable screenings: a documentary about a West Texas town’s water issues called “Water Wars,” along with the world premiere of the Kelsey Grammer-starring drama “Lars Shrike Walks The Night.”
To find the full four-day festival schedule, visit here.
Attendees will also get a first-look at Taylor Sheridan’s Fort Worth-filmed “Landman” before the series debuts on Paramount+ on Nov. 17.
The Billy Bob Thornton-starring series is described as a “modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs.” Thornton himself stopped by Fort Worth on Oct. 27 for a pre-festival discussion on the series, just a few hours before he and his Boxmasters band performed at Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall.
“Landman” is just one of the Texas-filmed projects screening at the festival.
In fact, Mathews said a little over half of the festival’s selections were filmed in the Lone Star State. All of the Texas-filmed projects have a “Texas Made” brand on the festival’s website.
“We’re really leaning into that,” Mathews said.
Lone Star Film Festival Gala award winners
Every year, the Lone Star Film Festival celebrates filmmakers at its annual gala.
Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group Co-chair and CEO Michael De Luca and “Sing Sing” filmmaker Greg Kwedar are among those being honored at the black tie gala on Friday, Nov. 1 at the Bowie House hotel.
De Luca has ties to Fort Worth through his wife Angelique and has been a supporter of the festival for the last several years, Mathews said. De Luca has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has produced films like “Moneyball,” “The Social Network,” “Captain Phillips” and “12 Mighty Orphans.”
The festival will honor De Luca with the Pioneer Award for his 30-plus years of work in the entertainment business.
“I mean, look at IMDb and look at some of the films he’s been a part of, it’s pretty amazing,” Mathews said. “I’m just excited to have him at the festival.”
Kwedar will be honored with the Maverick Award for his body of work, including his latest film “Sing Sing.”
“Sing Sing” follows a wrongfully-imprisoned man who finds purpose by acting in a theater group alongside other incarcerated men. The film is poised to be an Academy Awards contender at the 2025 ceremony, according to Variety.
The Lone Star Film Society, which organizes the festival, have screened a number of Kwedar’s projects over the last several years and looks to honor him as his career kicks into another gear.
“We’ve been champions of his and cheering for him for a long time,” Mathews said. “This felt like the right time to do this.”
Changing venues after Isis Theater closure
In late November 2023, the Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theater closed its doors in the Stockyards.
The venue hosted the 17th annual Lone Star Film Festival just a few weeks prior. Its closure caught many by surprise, including Mathews.
“What was so nerve-racking and startling was that it was really right on the heels of our festival closing,” Mathews said. “We ended and then it was two weeks later the theater closed down.”
The historic theater at 2401 N. Main St. reopened in 2021 after sitting dormant for nearly 30 years.
After the theater reopened, the Isis hosted Lone Star Film Festival screenings in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Mathews said he hasn’t heard anything about what’s next for the theater, but hopes to see it open again.
“I hope someone is trying to revive it,” Mathews said. “It’d be sad to see it go away, because so much money and energy went into restoring that.”
Since the Isis closed just after last year’s festival, Mathews said it gave ample time to find a new venue.
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth stepped forward and offered its single screen theater, to which the festival happily agreed. Now all festivities will be within walking distance of each other in the Cultural District.
“If you were to park at the Modern and take in a movie, you can go check out a museum or two and go over to the Crescent [Hotel] if you needed to grab a bite to eat,” Mathews said. “It’s gonna be a fun fest.”
The Lone Star Film Festival lasts from Nov. 1-4.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 11:05 AM.
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