Sally Field Will Star in a Live Reading of an Unproduced Peter Craig Script at the Austin Film Festival

By The News Desk, Previously

October 15, 2026

The Austin Film Festival's October 14 announcement puts Sally Field, Odessa Young and Mac Brandt in a live Writers Conference reading of Peter Craig's unproduced screenplay 'Wild Four O'Clocks,' opens advance tickets for the October 29–November 5 festival, and adds Ben Foster, Manny Jacinto and more to its premiere lineup.

The most interesting film at this year's Austin Film Festival may be one that does not exist. The festival announced on Wednesday, October 14, that its Writers Conference will host a live reading of 'Wild Four O'Clocks,' an unproduced screenplay by Oscar-nominated writer Peter Craig — and that the reading will star Sally Field, alongside Odessa Young and Mac Brandt. The announcement, published on the festival's own site and covered by Straight From a Movie, also opened advance ticket sales for the 33rd edition of the festival, which runs October 29 through November 5 in Austin, Texas, and added a fresh wave of names to its premiere lineup.

A Movie Performed Once, Then Gone

Live script readings are the Austin Film Festival's signature flourish — the festival built its identity on writers, and the Writers Conference is its centre of gravity. The premise is simple and strangely electric: a screenplay that has never been produced is performed once, live, by actors of the first rank, in front of an audience of the writers who dream of exactly that break. No cameras roll, no distribution deal follows; the film exists for one evening and then returns to being paper.

Craig's script gives the format rich material. Set in the late 1970s, 'Wild Four O'Clocks' follows a festive, eccentric woman enjoying a late-life renaissance who is forced to set it aside when her estranged son is arrested and she must care for two feral grandchildren, according to the festival's synopsis. Field, a two-time Academy Award winner, plays the lead — the kind of casting that turns a conference session into one of the week's hottest tickets. Craig will also be woven through the wider programme, including a 'Script to Screen' session on his film 'The Town,' No Film School reported in its schedule coverage.

The Premieres Got Names, Too

The same announcement filled in the human side of the screening schedule. Ben Foster and Manny Jacinto will attend for the world premiere of Nicholas Arioli's 'The Stalemate,' described by the festival as an absurdist Western comedy. Adrianne Palicki is confirmed for Steven DeGennaro's 'Remote,' a contained horror thriller. O-Lan Jones attends for the meta comedy 'This Is the One They'll Remember Me By,' from writer-director Alex Mechanik and co-writer Samy Burch, and Charlie McDermott for the pet dramedy 'Petunia.' Geena Pietromonaco and Zach Gilford round out the world-premiere guests for the holiday romantic comedy 'Christmas Pop-Up.'

Below the marquee, the Texas premiere of 'Brother Save Us' brings Deacon Phillippe and Chandler Riggs to Austin. It is a characteristically Austin mix — an absurdist Western, a contained horror film, a pet dramedy and a holiday rom-com sharing a programme with one of the most decorated actresses alive reading an unmade script. The festival describes itself as a showcase for narrative, documentary and animated work across regional, national and world premieres, and this year's additions argue the point.

The Writers Conference Around It

The reading lands inside a conference schedule built for working and aspiring screenwriters. This year's Writers Conference programming includes inside-the-room sessions on 'Family Guy,' 'Lanterns' and 'Friday Night Lights,' a career conversation with Craig, and a retrospective strand that pairs films with the people who wrote them: a 20th-anniversary screening of 'Little Miss Sunshine' presented by its writer Michael Arndt, 'Paper Moon' presented by Frank Marshall, and David Lynch's 'The Straight Story' presented by its writer Mary Sweeney, according to No Film School's breakdown of the schedule.

The festival's honours calendar is set as well: producer Nina Jacobson and showrunner Eric Kripke will receive the festival's most prestigious awards at the awards luncheon on October 31. For a festival whose founding argument is that the writer is the author of a film, the programme is the mission statement restated annually — premieres for the audience, craft for the writers, and one night where a script with no budget, no set and no camera gets the biggest star on the bill.

The week's wider talent list runs deeper than the premiere guests. The festival's full lineup announcement earlier this month named Patton Oswalt, Edward Burns and Margo Martindale among the talent attending, HorrorFuel reported, alongside screenwriter Michael Arndt — who returns both as a guest and as the presenter of the 'Little Miss Sunshine' anniversary screening. It is the kind of bench that makes Austin's late-October slot work: working writers and performers mixing with premiere talent, in a city that has built a genuine film culture around the festival's eight days.

Tickets: What Is Actually on Sale

The practical news from Wednesday's announcement is the ticketing. Limited advance general-admission tickets for select Marquee Features are on sale now at $20 per ticket, the festival said. Film Passes, covering all screenings across the eight days, are $85, and a new Student Film Pass is $43. The festival is candid about the fine print: advance GA tickets do not guarantee admission ahead of badge and pass holders, who are seated first — the tickets buy a place in the general-admission line, not a reserved seat.

That caveat matters most for exactly the events this announcement headlines. A Sally Field live reading in a conference venue has a hard capacity, and pass holders will fill much of it; anyone travelling to Austin specifically for the reading should treat the festival's own advice — arrive early, hold a badge or pass where possible — as part of the ticket price. The festival runs October 29 to November 5. More of the week's screen-culture news is in our coverage of the Beekeeper 2 trailer announcement, and the full programme is on the festival's site.