Short films have always been part of the Museum's year-round offerings, and our audiences enjoy them very much. Since we have several shorts programs coming up, I've been thinking about short-form filmmaking lately.

Many artists, students, and novice filmmakers start out creating shorts. Martin Scorsese memorably interviewed his parents early in his career for a short film, Italianamerican.

Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater (Boyhood; Slacker) has said in interviews that seeing several very original short films made in Austin in the early 1980s prompted him to move there. Highlights from that period have been curated into a program called Jonathan Demme Presents: Made in Texas that screens at the MFAH on Saturday, September 19. We're thrilled to welcome Louis Black, co-founder of SXSW and editor of the Austin Chronicle, to introduce the screening and talk about the scene that inspired these shorts. Louis also plans to share an excerpt from the in-progress restoration of a legendary independent feature shot in Houston in the early 1980s. We can’t say any more than that!

On Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27, the Museum presents the 2015 “Manhattan Short” Film Festival, a perennial favorite. This lively compilation of international shorts comes to theaters around the world, embracing the tagline “One week—one world—one festival.” Filmgoers receive a ballot and vote for their favorite film and actor; watch for our announcement of the winners here and on social media. Quite often our audiences' taste aligns with the favorites worldwide. I wonder if that will be the case again this year?