Still in the Game

David Simon (Photo courtesy of Douglas Sonders)

In news that will make Wire-heads explode like, um, rockets over Fort McHenry, the Austin Film Festival just announced that it will bestow its Outstanding Television Writer award on the one and only, his honor David Simon, at this year's festival.

Former Baltimore Sun reporter Simon's books were the basis of acclaimed television series Homicide: Life on the Street and miniseries The Corner before he created The Best Show on Television (see above: The Wire), as well as new HBO series Treme, on which The Jury Is Apparently Still Out.

Simon will be feted at the Festival's Awards Luncheon on Saturday, Oct. 23, and will also speak on conference panels at the Conference, which runs Oct. 21-24. (Not that he's a stranger to Austin.) Festival dates are Oct. 21-28.

Also on the festival's growing list of participating screenwriters and filmmakers are Allan Loeb (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Jon Lucas & Scott Moore (The Hangover), John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), Phil Hay (Clash of the Titans), Larry Doyle (The Simpsons), John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and Randall Wallace (Braveheart), among others.

For more AFF information, updates, and badge and pass information is at www.austinfilmfestival.com or call 1-800-310-FEST (3378). Awards Luncheon tickets are $45 each and are available for purchase by Conference and Producers Badge holders only.