Additionally, this year\u2019s individual honorees represent the panoply of Texas film creatives. Leading the local contingent is Lone Star State indie icon Sonny Carl Davis. Cutting his performance teeth as a member of legendary Austin musical weirdos the Uranium Savages, Davis became part of indie cinema history as Frank in Eagle Pennell\u2019s groundbreaking 1978 flick The Whole Shootin\u2019 Match<\/a>, a film that changed the definition of regional cinema and influenced Robert Redford to found the Sundance Film Festival. That led to a career as one of the great supporting and character actors, a perpetual \u201cI recognize that guy\u201d figure in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Lonesome Dove, Thelma & Louise, Bernie, and the Evil Bong films. He finally got another lead role with 2020\u2019s Buck Alamo<\/a>. And, yes, he was the definitive Texan at the diner for the famous 2018 anti-Ted Cruz ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joining Davis is an artist whose formative and college years were spent in Texas. Filmmaker Julian Schnabel was born in New York but moved as a child to Brownsville before getting his BFA at the University of Houston. His career has been balanced between the art gallery and the art house cinema; it\u2019s for the latter that he\u2019s being honored, for films such as Basquiat<\/a>, Before Night Falls<\/a>, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly<\/a> (for which he received a Best Director Oscar nomination), and his most recent film, In the Hand of Dante, which premiered at last year\u2019s Venice International Film Festival. AFS will also be hosting two screenings of that film, on March 2 and March 4, with Schnabel in conversation after the second screening.<\/p>\n And last but far from least is actress Sydney Chandler, who will follow in the footsteps of talents like Kaityln Dever and Jesse Plemons in receiving the Rising Star Award. The Austin native and St. Ed\u2019s alum started her career locally, in Austin comedy The Golden Rut<\/a>and as part of the online series SKAM<\/a>, and while she\u2019s on the national stage for her performances in Don\u2019t Worry Darling and Pistol, she\u2019s joined both elements of her career together with her Independent Spirit-award-nominated performance in FX\u2019s Alien: Earth, created by last year\u2019s Texas Film Award winner and Austin transplant, Noah Hawley<\/a>.<\/p>\n AFS also announced that composer and musician JaRon Marshall (keyboardist for Grammy-nominated Black Pumas, Vieux Farka Tour\u00e9 and others) will serve as music director, with a band of Austin all-stars joining him for the gala awards show.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sydney-Chandler.png\")
Sydney Chandler<\/p>\n