Austin Film Organizations Panel

We're excited to announce Women in Cinema's April Panel on Austin Film Organizations. This is a great panel for those who are looking for summer internships and organizations to volunteer for and get involved with. These panelists will share with us their knowledge about working the film scene in Austin and working for these amazing groups!

Join us April 24th at 7PM at the CMB Studio 4D. See you there! 

Kim LeBlanc, Texas Film Commission

 Since 2009, Kim LeBlanc has been on staff at the Texas Film Commission helping to spread the good word about all of the wonderful resources available for creative industries in Texas. As a Production Consultant, she works closely with Writers, Directors, Producers, Production Designers, Studio Executives and Community Representatives, promoting Texas as a destination for filmmaking, television production, commercials, music videos, video games and still photography. Her travels have taken her to the far corners of the state and her efforts have been put forth on projects such as TRUE GRIT, TOP CHEF TEXAS and BERNIE among many others.

Prior to working for the Texas Film Commission, she had the incredibly good fortune to work for the Austin Film Society, the Austin Film Festival and Troublemaker Studios, where she was on board as an Executive Office Assistant and Assistant to Director, Robert Rodriguez. She has also served as a volunteer for SXSW Film Festival since 2009. Kim is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, where she double majored in Urban Studies and History and co-founded the university’s Film Studies minor program. 

Holly Herrick, Artistic Director, Austin Film Society

Holly Herrick joined the Austin Film Society in 2012 as Associate Artistic Director, overseeing the organization’s celebrated artist services and film programming departments.  Prior to joining AFS, she served as Deputy Programs Director at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York, and Director of Programming at the Sarasota Film Festival in Florida.  Herrick also programmed an edition of the Newport International Film Festival in Rhode Island.  In 2011, she established a partnership between the Sarasota Film Festival and Women Make Movies. Together, the organizations created Side By Side, a symposium for the mentorship and promotion of women filmmakers, which continues to take place at the festival.  Holly associate produced Michael Tully’s narrative feature SEPTIEN (Sundance 2011), and co-produced his upcoming narrative feature, PING PONG SUMMER (Sundance 2014). Her writing has appeared on the Resources Blog of the Independent Feature Project, the editorial film website Hammer To Nail, and on IndieWire.

Elizabeth Mims, Senior Programmer, Austin Film Festival

Elizabeth Mims grew up in Austin, Texas and graduated with a BFA from CalArts. Her 2012 film Only The Young was theatrically released by Oscilloscope and won numerous awards including the Silverdoc’s Sterling Silver Award for best US documentary, American Film Institute Audience Award, and was nominated for a Spirit Award. She is currently the Senior Programmer for Austin Film Festival. 

Claudette Godfrey, Short Film Programmer and Operations Manager, South by Southwest

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Claudette began her career at SXSW in 2006 as an enthusiastic volunteer. Currently she is responsible for the curation of the 10 short film programs the festival screens each year, overseeing film submissions to the festival, and managing the organizational big picture for the event. A University of Texas Film graduate, Claudette previously worked as a Corporate Relations Coordinator at the CineVegas Film Festival and served as a Shorts Programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse's Fantastic Fest from 2010-2012. Notably, and perhaps most importantly, she does a mean karaoke version of Notorious B.I.G.'s ‘Hypnotize.’ @claudasaur