Austin Film Society Announces Three Texas Filmmakers Chosen for its 2026 Artist Intensive
October 22, 2026, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces the fellows and mentors selected for its annual Artist Intensive, which took place October 13–17. The Artist Intensive is a multi-day invitational retreat that pairs outstanding Texas filmmakers with mentors from the industry to guide their work on their feature-length narrative film projects in the development phase. Participants are selected from the applicant pool for the AFS Grant.
This year’s selected projects and artist intensive fellows include writer/directors Tania Cattebeke Laconich, Sara Nimeh, and Drew Saplin.
AFS’s programs for filmmakers aim to support the conditions where filmmakers can make Texas their career-long home. Through the Artist Intensive, AFS supports the careers of Texas-based narrative filmmakers through networking, creative development and helping with their project advancement while also building a creative community from within the region.
The Artist Intensive includes mentorship sessions, screenplay readings and rehearsals with guest actors. The program is instrumental in providing participants with creative feedback, resources and momentum for their projects. Over the course of the retreat, each writer/director is matched with a writer/director creative advisor and a producing mentor. Each script is read in full with a cast of professional actors and workshopped.
The mentors who worked with this year’s filmmakers throughout the weekend included Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love, Beach Rats, Never Rarely Sometimes Always), an award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer who studied film and video at California Institute of the Arts and who is currently an associate professor at Pratt Institute; Amy Seimetz,(She Dies Tomorrow, Sun Don’t Shine, The Girlfriend Experience) a writer, director actor and producer with an extensive career in film and television both behind and in front of the camera, and Yen Tan, (Pit Stop, 1985, All That We Love) a writer, director and graphic designer who also works as an award-winning key art designer for independent films and documentaries;
Producing mentors included Toby Halbrooks (Mother Mary, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, A Ghost Story), a writer/producer from Texas; Lynette Coll (In the Summers), an award-winning producer and development executive with experience across creative development, physical production, acquisitions, financing and distribution; and Elizabeth Avellán (Spy Kids franchise, Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn), a producer and co-owner and vice president of Troublemaker Studios who has played a primary role in developing Austin as a thriving film community.
Past project alumni include Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth (Sundance, Independent Spirit Award-nominated), Annie Silverstein’s Bull (Deauville winner and Cannes Un Certain Regard competition), Augustine Frizzell’s Never Goin’ Back (Sundance, Independent Spirit Award-nominated, distributed by A24) and Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country (Independent Spirit Award-nominated, Gotham Award-winner) among others. Past mentors have included Noah Hawley, Jonathan Demme, Catherine Hardwicke, Charles Burnett, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Craig Zobel, So Yong Kim, Jeremy Saulnier, Azazel Jacobs, Jamie Babbit and James Ponsoldt, among others.
More about the 2026 selected filmmakers:
Tania Cattebeke Laconich is a Paraguayan filmmaker who earned a Master’s degree in Film Direction from The University of Texas at Austin through a Fulbright scholarship. She has directed, produced, and written fiction and documentary short films, and her work has been exhibited at festivals such as the Locarno Film Festival, the Havana Film Festival, and the Huelva Film Festival, among others. She also participated in Berlinale Talents BA. Her feature documentary, Yren, took part in the Work in Progress sections of the Málaga Film Festival (Spain), Ventana Sur (Uruguay), and the Guadalajara Film Festival (United States). It also received the New Texas Voices Award from the Austin Film Society to support its post-production completion. She is currently developing Falopia, a narrative feature film that received a production award from the Austin Film Society, won the ASUFIC LAB 2024 Award, and participated in TorinoFilmLab Next. The project was also selected for the Locarno Consultancy and EAVE Puentes programs.
Sara Nimeh is a Lebanese writer and director based in Dallas, Texas. Her short film Jedo’s Dead screened at more than twenty festivals and won the best in its category at SXSW 2024, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Houston Film Festival, Minnesota Film Festival, and Palm Springs International ShortFest. Passionate about exploring the generational impact of war, the evolution of faith, and the construction of the self as a product of multiple cultures.
Drew Saplin is a director shaped by American cinema, blending grounded human stories with touches of surrealism. His work draws inspiration from the spirit of the New Hollywood movement. After working under Terrence Malick, Drew spent nearly a decade as a writer/director at Rooster Teeth, creating content that reached millions. A two-time Austin Film Society Grant recipient, Drew co-founded The Direct Line, a production company dedicated to bold, unconventional storytelling. They are a UT Austin graduate and serve as Safety Coordinator for UT’s film department.
ABOUT AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first-run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More at austinfilm.org.
Maury Sullivan
Maury@austinfilm.org
