On March 5, inside a converted airplane hangar at Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, the Austin Film Society held its 2026 Texas Film Awards. If you weren't there, here's what happened — and why it matters if you make films in this state.
The Honorees
Julian Schnabel — Texas Film Hall of Fame
Julian Schnabel was born in Brooklyn, but Texas built him. He grew up in Brownsville and earned his BFA at the University of Houston before splitting his career between the art world and the art house. His directorial work — Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, Best Director Oscar nomination) — represents the kind of ambitious, uncompromising filmmaking that Texas has always needed more of.
His most recent film, In the Hand of Dante, premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. AFS hosted two screenings of the film on March 2 and 4, with Schnabel in conversation after the second. His induction into the Texas Film Hall of Fame is an overdue recognition that Texas produces visual artists who become filmmakers — not just the other way around.
Sydney Chandler — Rising Star Award
The Austin native and St. Edward's University alum started her career locally in the comedy The Golden Rut and the online series SKAM Austin. She's since gone national with Don't Worry Darling, Pistol, and most notably her Independent Spirit Award-nominated performance in FX's Alien: Earth, created by Noah Hawley — himself a 2025 Texas Film Award honoree and Austin transplant.
Chandler follows Kaitlyn Dever and Jesse Plemons as Rising Star recipients. The through-line: Texas-trained talent that goes national without losing its roots.
Sonny Carl Davis — Texas Film Hall of Fame
If you've watched Texas indie film, you know Sonny Carl Davis's face. Maybe you don't know his name. That's the career of a character actor.
Davis was a member of Austin's legendary Uranium Savages before landing the lead in Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match (1978) — the film Robert Redford has credited with inspiring him to found the Sundance Film Festival. That's not a footnote. That's a foundational piece of American independent cinema, and it happened in Texas.
Since then: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Lonesome Dove, Thelma & Louise, Bernie, and dozens of other credits where Davis showed up, did the work, and made the scene better. He got another lead role in 2020's Buck Alamo. He was the definitive Texan in those viral 2018 anti-Ted Cruz ads.
His induction is the Texas Film Awards at their best — honoring the working people who made this industry, not just the famous ones.
Spy Kids — Star of Texas Award (25th Anniversary)
The 2026 ceremony celebrated the 25th anniversary of Spy Kids (2001), the film that changed how audiences thought about Robert Rodriguez. Before Spy Kids, he was the El Mariachi/Desperado/From Dusk Till Dawn guy — gritty, adult, genre. Spy Kids proved he could make a family blockbuster with the same guerrilla inventiveness.
More importantly for Texas: Spy Kids was made in Austin. It was produced at what became Troublemaker Studios. It demonstrated that a major studio release could be produced entirely in Texas — no LA required. Rodriguez, producer Elizabeth Avellán, and cast members were in attendance.
The Bigger Picture
The Texas Film Awards are AFS's primary fundraising event. The money raised supports grants to Texas filmmakers — the same grant program that has funded David Lowery, the Zellner brothers, Channing Godfrey Peoples, Kat Candler, Annie Silverstein, and Benjamin Flaherty, among others.
When you buy a ticket to this event, you're directly funding the next generation of Texas filmmakers. That's not a pitch. That's what the money does.
Music Direction
JaRon Marshall — keyboardist for the Grammy-nominated Black Pumas and Vieux Farka Touré — served as musical director for the evening. Austin's music-and-film overlap remains one of the things that makes this city's creative ecosystem unique.
What It Signals
The 2026 honoree class tells a story: a Brownsville kid who became an Oscar-nominated director (Schnabel), an Austin kid who's becoming a national star (Chandler), a character actor who's been holding Texas cinema together for 50 years (Davis), and a franchise that proved Texas can go mainstream (Spy Kids).
That's the full spectrum. Texas film isn't one thing.
The 2027 Texas Film Awards haven't been announced yet, but if AFS follows the usual timeline, expect honorees in late 2026 with the ceremony in early March 2027.
Sources: Austin Chronicle, CultureMap Austin, Austin Film Society (austinfilm.org), No Film School, Austin Monthly