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On Oct. 26, I moderated a fun panel at the Austin Film Festival with five industry-insiders who the festival had just honored with awards: Oscar-winning writer/director/documentarian Jonathan Demme (Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award), Emmy-winning writer/director/showrunner Vince Gilligan (Outstanding Television Writer Award), producer/studio exec/festival patron Barry Josephson (Heart of Film Award), Oscar-winning writer/director/showrunner Callie Khouri (Distinguished Screenwriter Award) and Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon (Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award).
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We spent a fun 90 minutes discussing their early influences, big breaks, career highlights, setbacks and thoughts about the future. Here — above and below the text — are two particularly memorable excerpts of our conversation. In one, Khouri — seated beside Sarandon, the star of the first film ever made from one of Khouri’s screenplays, Thelma and Louise (1991), for which she won a best original screenplay Oscar — discusses the origins and evolution of that film. In the other, Demme leaves Breaking Bad creator Gilligan and former Columbia Pictures president of production Josephson awestruck at the remarkable string of coincidences and luck that led to him becoming a filmmaker.
Twitter: @ScottFeinberg
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