Other Worlds Goes Into The Black Hole

1979. Every film studio wanted its Star Wars. Disney dropped jaws and stretched minds with The Black Hole, one of the most unlikely family films ever. Now, Other Worlds Austin is holding a special screening as part of its 2017 film festival, and that's just the start of today's lineup additions.

Having already announced a special retrospective screening of horror/sci-fi favorite Event Horizon, Austin's fast-growing science fiction film festival (Dec. 8-10) has scored a major coup by announcing one of the most deranged and atypical creations from the House of Mouse. Festival founder Bears Fonté said, "I remember demanding my parents take me to see it – I was four, I think – and being utterly terrified. I can’t believe Disney made this film."

Not only will the night involve a rare public screening of the beloved oddity, but director Gary Nelson will become the second ever recipient of OWA's Defender of the Galaxy award for his work on arguably Disney's craziest film. Praising Nelson's long career as a TV director on classics like Have Gun – Will Travel and Gilligan's Island, Fonté said that "as he moved into film, his finely-tuned skills turned what could have been genre-knock-offs into classic adventure stories in their own right.”

That's just the beginning of today's announcement: After the big news last month that the schedule will open with the international action/sci-fi hybrid Beyond Skyline, today the rest of the lineup fills out with a slate of Texas premieres, including Japanese feature CoColors, closing night time-travel thriller Curvature (starring Linda Hamilton: yes, The Terminator's Sarah Connor herself), and Canadian period piece Flora. "I love Flora’s 1929 setting, and botanical backdrop," said associate artistic director Jordan Brown, adding it and Hostile "are both crossover horror/sci-fi films that will please fans of both genres."

Additionally, there are two North American premieres. First, From Finland comes the brooding Tuftland. It's the latest from writer/director Rooper Olenius: Fonté met him when he programmed his previous madness Bunny the Killer Thing at SF Indiefest, and he called the director's latest creation "sort of a Rosemary's Baby meets Martha Marcy Mae Marlene."

Meanwhile there's some serious time-zone hopping with Australia's techno-headscratcher Restoration, which Brown said "plays like an Aussie episode of Black Mirror."

But wildest of all could be the mysterious Purple Fury. Fonté explained, “I can neither confirm nor deny that it features the talents of George Miller, Deep Purple, Prince, and Stone Temple Pilots. Roger Waters claimed they never actively tried to sync Dark Side of the Moon with Wizard of Oz, and I’m pretty sure no one ever intended this pairing either.”

Other Worlds Austin Sci-Fi Film Festival runs Dec. 7-10, at Flix Brewhouse, 2200 S. I-35 Ste. B-1, Round Rock. Visit www.otherworldsaustin.com for more info. Now, here are those final additions in full (click here to see the previously announced titles):

The Black Hole

D: Gary Nelson, USA, 98min
Defender of the Universe Screening
A research vessel finds a missing ship, commanded by a mysterious scientist, on the edge of a black hole. Starring Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Ernest Borgnine.

CoColors

D: Toshihisa Yokoshima, Japan, 45min
Texas Premiere
There is a world in which an endless rain of dark ash fills the sky, and covers the earth. The people have fled deep within the underground. This is the story of the children growing up in this fearful world, this is Cocolors.

Curvature

D: Diego Hallivis, USA, 90min
Closing night film, Texas Premiere
A time travel sci-fi drama about an engineer who travels back in time to stop herself from committing a murder. Starring: Linda Hamilton, Lyndsey Fonseca, Glenn Morshower

Everything Beautiful Is Far Away

D: Pete Ohs, Andrea Sisson, USA, 91 min
Texas Premiere
A guy, a girl, and a robot head hike across a desert planet in search of a mythical lake. Starring Julia Garner, Joseph Cross, C.S. Lee.

Flora

D: Sasha Louis Vukovic, Canada, 104 min
Texas Premiere
In 1929, an expedition of university botanists enter an uncharted forest where they discover, and must escape, an ancient organism. Starring Teresa Marie Doran, Sari Mercer, Miles G. Jackson

Fractured

D: Jamie Patterson, UK, 80 min
Texas Premiere
When Rebecca and Michael decide to take a weekend getaway and drive into the isolated countryside, they arrive at their cottage unscathed, but Rebecca can’t help but feel like someone is watching. Starring April Pearson, Karl Davies, Louisa Lytton.

Hostile

D: Mathieu Turi, USA, 83min
Texas Premiere
Juliette, a lone survivor of an apocalyptic era, fights to survive against hunger, thirst, a broken leg and strange disturbing creatures that only come out at nighttime. Starring Brittany Ashworth, Gregory Fitoussi, Javier Botet

Painless

D: Jordan Horowitz, USA, 80min
Texas Premiere
Henry Long desperately seeks a cure for the condition that leaves him unable to feel physical pain. Starring Joey Klein, Evalena Marie, Kip Gilman

Purple Fury

D: ???????, USA, 120 min
World Premiere
This road warrior gets captured, but it’s not really about him, it’s about this badass woman who liberates all these other women and drives them across the desert in cinema’s longest car chase. Badges only, no individual tickets will be sold.

Restoration

D: Stuart Willis, Australia, 51 min
North American Premiere
In a near-future world, where individuals have their memories downloaded for backup, a man awakes in a body that is not his own. Starring Craig McLachlan, Grant Cartwright, Stephen Carracher

Tuftland

D: Roope Olenius, Finland, 89 min
North American Premiere
A headstrong textile student tries to overcome her problems by accepting a summer job offer from an isolated and offbeat village of Kyrsyä. Starring Veera W. Vilo, Saara Elina, Neea Viitamäki

Shorts

"A Crimson Man" D: Mike Pappa
"Appellation" D: Tracy Mathewson
"Cold Storage" D: Thomas Freundlich
"Couples Night" D: The Summers Brothers
"Einstein-Rosen" D: Olga Osorio
"Followed Back" D: Scott Baker
"Holiday Fear" D: Nicholas Payne Santos
"Immersion" D: Mikhael Bassilli
"La Sirena" D: Rosita Lama Muvdi
"Mary & Marsha in the Manor of Madness" D: Kris Theorin
"Meeting MacGuffin" D: Catya Plate
"Nicole's Cage" D: Josef Brandl
"The Ningyo" D: Miguel Ortega
"Paleonaut" D: Eric McEver
"Paul's Bad Day" D: Phil Bucci
"Prenatal" D: Bears Fonté
"The Quantified Self" D: Gleb Osatinski
"Scanners" D: Natalie Jenison
"Seam" D: Elan Dasani
"Skinjacker" D: Dan Horrigan
"Solved" D: Michael Bartolomeo
"Spell Claire" D: Greg Emetaz
"Studded Nightmare" D: Jean-Claude Leblanc
"Super Science Friends - Episode 1: The Phantom Premise" D: Brett Jubinville
"Synchronous" D: Ricardo Fernández Jiménez
"Taste" D: Adrian Selkowitz
"They Charge For The Sun" D: Terence Nance
"Three Skeleton Key" D: Andrew Hamer
"The Tinwife" D: Travis Neufeld