A Night at the Movies With Evan Smith

Evan Smith (Photo by Stephen Spillman for The Texas Tribune)

Looking back over its 20 years, the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards ceremony has given Evan Smith so many memorable moments. Watching from the wings with Gov. Ann Richards as Sissy Spacek inducted the notoriously praise-resisting Terrence Malick. Meeting Adam Yauch (aka MCA of the Beastie Boys), Farrah Fawcett, Ann-Margret, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper. Yet one moment sticks out. In 2011, veteran character actor Bruce McGill was being inducted. For Smith and a generation of movie fans, he'll always be D-Day, the chaotic-cool biker from National Lampoon's Animal House. Smith recalled, "I was embarrassed to do this, but I asked Bruce McGill, 'Can you do that thing with your throat from Animal House when you get on stage?' And he did it."

So that's how one of the dozens of luminaries who have been honored by AFS ended up flicking his throat to the tune of the William Tell Overture in front of a cheering crowd.

Without Smith, none of this would have happened. Nor would Austin Film Society have had the millions of dollars raised since 2001's inaugural Hall of Fame fundraiser – the unofficial kickoff to South by Southwest – that have supported independent filmmakers via the AFS Production Grants. It was Smith and Chronicle co-founder Louis Black who came up with the idea for a star-studded ceremony to celebrate the cinema of the Lone Star State. Now, after taking a year off due to the pandemic, the event is back this year as an intimate Toast to Texas Film, with a single honoree: Smith. Thinking back to the earliest ceremonies, Smith said, "One of the things that was chatter at that time was, 'You're going to run out of people to honor,' and I've laughed a few times in the last couple of weeks that this is proof that this finally happened."

That's misplaced humility. Putting aside his impactful runs as editor of Texas Monthly, Smith would probably deserve the honor solely for over a decade of hosting PBS interview show Overheard With Evan Smith. Instead, this is about his behind-the-scenes role in advocacy for film. He noted that he believed that AFS "is about two things: viewing and doing. Some of us don't do film, and some of us are very happy to view film." He placed himself as firmly a viewer – but even if he doesn't do film, he's done a lot for film. Not just the Hall of Fame, but as a former board member and president and an energetic fundraiser. Even then, Smith deflects praise. "AFS does unbelievable work. It's so well run, it's had such an impact on the community, and I've been honored to help them."

The 20-year history of the Hall of Fame has proved those dour predictors of a thin bench of Texas talent very wrong. For starters, Smith said, "How'd I get honored before F. Murray Abraham?" The reality, however, is that "the film industry is expanding every year" with new moviemaking talents who may not even have been born when the first inductees took to the stage.

The ceremony has become a night of relaxed spectacle, where rising stars and Hollywood legends can rub shoulders in an informal setting. Yet Smith admitted that it's what's on screen that makes him happiest: more particularly, the clip reels shown before each induction. He reminisced about that night in 2002, as the reel ran before Malick's induction, and there was a shot from Days of Heaven of a train crossing a bridge. He was behind the screen with Richards, who was that night's emcee, "jaws dropped, transfixed. And I look at her, and she looks at me, and Ann Richards says to me in this drawl, just the most natural thing – 'I love the movies.' And I remember thinking, 'Goddamn right. I love the movies too.'"