{"id":92578,"date":"2025-12-18T08:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92578\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T08:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:13:09","slug":"afs-cinema-invites-you-home-for-the-holidays-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92578\/","title":{"rendered":"AFS Cinema Invites You Home for the Holidays \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The category of holiday film stretches around this time of year to fit basically any kino sufficiently comforting or wintry, if comfort\u2019s in short supply. Such is the thread running through this year\u2019s selections for AFS Cinema\u2019s Home for the Holidays<\/a> series \u2013\u00a0an annual tradition where Austin\u2019s foremost indie cinema programs screenings to get you through the yuletide. All four features \u2013 kickoff pick 8 Women (Dec. 21-27), returning champ The Thin Man (Dec. 22-25), Bowie prisoner piece Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Dec. 23-25), and all-time classic The Apartment (Dec. 26-31) \u2013 offer a little cinematic respite from the blustering and busy weeks around Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year\u2019s Eve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the opinion of lead programmer Lars Nilsen, Home for the Holidays hits right when most people are taking a break. \u201cWe\u2019re not removed from our regular obligations to family and friends,\u201d he says, \u201cbut the heat\u2019s a little off by common consensus.\u201d Here in the cinema, Nilsen explains, is a chance to reflect on what\u2019s been a pretty wild year through films ranging from humorous to heartrending. \u201cIt\u2019s a time when I\u2019m honestly probably giving myself permission to have a few more drinks than I otherwise would,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

But what sets the seasonal picks of AFS apart from, as Nilsen puts it, \u201ca mall movie theatre that might choose to show Christmas With the Kranks<\/a>,\u201d is their eye toward more eclectic viewers. These pictures are \u201creally films that are about what the holidays are like for the cosmopolitan bohemian arthouse filmgoing type of person,\u201d he says. This year\u2019s arthouse hounds will enjoy director Fran\u00e7ois Ozon\u2019s French mystery thriller 8 Women<\/a>, which fits franco film rock stars Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, and Emmanuelle B\u00e9art all in one feature. Dashiell Hammett adaptation The Thin Man<\/a> is another solid cin\u00e9aste select and has held up as an AFS favorite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see no reason not to play [The Thin Man] every year,\u201d Nilsen says, \u201cbecause people show up every year. There\u2019s just something about drinking martinis and watching a fast-paced, funny old Hollywood movie with a cute dog that people really seem to like. I think a lot of people have made it a holiday tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both The Apartment<\/a> and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence offer an ironic rebuttal to the series\u2019 home-centric title. Billy Wilder\u2019s romantic story prominently features lead Jack Lemmon repeatedly forced out of his titular abode, and Nagisa \u014cshima<\/a>\u2019s World War II tale of four men stuck in a Japanese POW camp shows a grimmer take on being away from home. \u201cThere is a kind of sick humor that we indulge every year in choosing a movie that is just absolutely not a fun Christmas classic,\u201d Nilsen says. \u201cThe absolute opposite of White Christmas<\/a>, and that\u2019s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, certainly, this year for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s programmed for the cinephile who considers the theatre their sanctuary, Nilsen says Home for the Holidays\u2019 other big clientele is folks who\u2019ve never been to AFS before. The series gives the cinema a chance to \u201clet people know through this programming what we\u2019re all about,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to create some sort of honey trap where we\u2019re playing It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, or something like that \u2013 giving an impression of the kinds of movies that we play, that we don\u2019t play,\u201d Nilsen says. \u201c[These are] the kind of movies that we play. So come and see us during the holidays. If you like what we\u2019re playing, then you are truly a sick person, and you will enjoy what we\u2019re doing the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article appears in December 19 \u2022 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The category of holiday film stretches around this time of year to fit basically any kino sufficiently comforting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,17644,134,133,28505,43475],"class_list":["post-92578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-film-society","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-home-for-the-holidays","tag-lars-nilsen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}