Calling All Film Buffs!

The seventh annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival hits Houston next week, and this year it has an otherworldly feeling.

The festival kicks off on November 12 with a screening of Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Amy Berg‘s Janis: Little Girl Blue. More than 60 films will premiere at the HCA, and Houston-born director Trey Edward Shults will receive the inaugural Levantine Emerging Artist Award.

This year, the HCAF, which closes on November 19, is focusing on its partnership with NASA by holding the CineSpace short film competition, which will take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on November 13, CineSpace Day; astronaut Don Pettit will host the proceedings, and the top 16 of the 194 entries to the competition will be shown. Five films — selected by Houston-born director Richard Linklater (Boyhood) and NASA — will share $26,000 in cash prizes.

In addition, Texas natives Andrew and Luke Wilson present their NASA-related short film Satellite Beach, and a screening of Apollo 13 with Academy Award-nominated screenwriters William Broyles Jr., and Al Reinert and author Jeffrey Kluger will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the popular film. Time magazine’s A Year in Space documentary series, which follows astronaut Scott Kelly‘s experiences on the International Space Station, will also screen.

“The Cinema Arts Festival brings together so many different types of artists and mediums — from film to music to dance — making it emblematic of a vibrant and diverse Houston” said Dawn Ullrich, president and CEO of Houston First Corporation.

Visit hcaf15.org to view the schedule, purchase passes and tickets and receive more information on the festival.