The 19th Austin Film Festival and Conference starts today, and the schedule is packed with eight days of films, lectures and parties that you won’t want to miss. Anyone who’s been to a film festival knows it can be a bit overwhelming to navigate. As a festival connoisseur in the making, I thought I’d share a few of my own tactics with you to help you prepare.
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1. Make a Schedule
The Austin Film Festival website has created this wonderful, printable calendar of all the events including time and venue, so they’ve
made it really easy for you to stay organized. Start by printing this out, so you won’t have to flip back and forth between screens to look up film titles or events that you’d like to read more about.
2. Be Flexible
Once you’ve educated yourself on the films and events that stood out to you, highlight the ones you’d like to attend
and use that as your guide throughout the festival. This way, if you aren’t able to get into one of the screenings or events you originally highlighted, you still have the rest of the festival schedule, so you can see what else is happening that you may be interested in attending.
3. Get to Know Your Venues
On top of having a schedule, it’s important to have a map with all the venue locations marked, especially if you’re not familiar with the city. Don’t assume all the theaters are within walking distance or even a short drive from one another. You don’t want to miss something because you didn’t include travel time into your plan.
4. Get There EARLY!!
If there’s an event or screening you really want to attend, mark it with a star or highlight it in a different color, so you will remember to get to the venue in plenty of time to get a ticket and a seat.
Good luck, have fun and if you’re new to the Fest, look out for our “What to Watch Post” coming later today.
