Diversity Programming At The Austin Film Festival
Coverage from the Austin Film Festival, highlighting some panels and films that emphasized the importance of diverse and inclusive storytelling.

Rhythmic gymnastics competitions are a huge favorite among sports enthusiasts. The discipline originated in Russia, and this country continues setting the bar for excellence and creativity. Russian rhythmic gymnasts have gained quite an amount of fame worldwide because of the famous legendary coach Irina Viner Usmanova. She is said to have had a revolutionary impact on the lives of the many famous athletes she has trained. She is well known for creating routines for them that have wowed international judges.
Coverage from the Austin Film Festival, highlighting some panels and films that emphasized the importance of diverse and inclusive storytelling.
This coming-of-age musical features a strong representation of LGBTQ+ individuals coming-of-age.
I first saw Dear Evan Hansen on the Broadway stage. Apparently, I was so blown away by the magic of theater that I didn’t pick up on the questionable dynamics. The story's clumsy handling in the movie brought those issues to light.
Netflix's new thriller Apex, starring Charlize Theron, puts a twist on survival horror. Despite its setting in the beautiful- yet-dangerous Australian wilderness, Apex is not a movie about man vs. nature. Instead, it’s woman vs. man. While checking out the title card and its unpretentious Netflix release might lead viewers to believe Apex is just another celebrity project churned out of the streaming machine, Apex - whether by luck or by intention - is a consistently harrowing film about the reality of being a woman in a public space.
Its predictability shouldn’t distract from the enjoyment that the pure cinematic imagination behind the camera elicits. It is a movie of crises both moral and mortal, oozing with CGI, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is the most human movie of the year. It is based on the 2010 short of the same name that follows a big-hearted, little shell named Marcel as he navigates through life in a human-sized world.