The Austin Film Festival will bestow the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting to writer/director Rian Johnson, as part of this year’s Writers Conference, happening Oct. 23 – 26. The festival will also screen Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” the third installment in the filmmaker’s whodunnit series after “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion.” Both screenplays were nominated for Academy Awards.
“Wake Up Dead Man” sees Daniel Craig return as private detective Benoit Blanc, investigating a new murder and interrogating a new set of quirky suspects. The typically star-studded cast includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church. The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before being released on Netflix on Dec. 12.
The award is named after Bill Wittliff, the Austin-born screenwriter of “Lonesome Dove,” “Legends of the Fall” and “The Perfect Storm” (among many others). He died in 2019 at the age of 79.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rian Johnson back to Austin Film Festival as this year’s recipient of the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting,” Barbara Morgan, AFF’s co-founder and executive director, said in a statement. “Rian is an incredibly gifted screenwriter and visionary filmmaker whose body of work and generosity to the next generation of storytellers exemplifies this award. His latest installment in the Knives Out Mystery canon, ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,’ solidifies his singular talent for combining intricate plotting, sharp comedic sense and character-driven emotional impact to deliver an always unexpected, wildly entertaining story. Our audience will be delighted to experience this twisting, turning, captivating caper on the silver screen this October.”
Johnson will be recognized at AFF’s Awards Luncheon alongside producing awardee Christine Vachon and television writer awardee Yvette Lee Bowser. The Awards Luncheon takes place on Saturday, Oct. 25 and features awardees honored for their career achievements, AFF’s script and film competition winners and the recipients of industry-sponsored fellowships.
“I’m honored to be receiving the Bill Wittliff award from the Austin Film Festival,” Johnson said in a statement. “I love the AFF and its support of established and emerging writers, and attending will be both a pleasure and a welcomed excuse to procrastinate on my own writing.”
Austin Film Festival’s Writers Conference will again present over 150 panels on the art, craft and business of storytelling, featuring a slate of prominent industry professionals working in film, television, and new media. Badges and Passes are available now.
