Rian Johnson (‘Wake Up Dead Man’) to Receive Bill Wittliff Screenwriting Award from Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival (AFF) announced today the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting will be given to celebrated writer-director Rian Johnson, during the 2025 Writers Conference happening October 23 – 26, 2025. The festival will also screen Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third installment of Johnson’s acclaimed Knives Out franchise following Knives Out and Glass Onion, for which he received two Academy Award nominations and WGA nominations for his screenplays.
With this third installment, Johnson re-teams with Daniel Craig as famed private detective Benoit Blanc in his most dangerous case yet with a colorful new cast of suspects. The all-star ensemble includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church. With Johnson at the helm, each actor finds space to shine, contributing to the film’s dynamic character interplay and tonal precision. The film will release on Netflix December 12.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rian Johnson back to Austin Film Festival as this year’s recipient of the Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting,” said AFF’s co-founder and Executive Director, Barbara Morgan. “Rian is an incredibly gifted screenwriter and visionary filmmaker whose body of work and generosity to the next generation of storytellers exemplifies this award. His latest installment in the Knives Out Mystery canon, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, solidifies his singular talent for combining intricate plotting, sharp comedic sense, and character-driven emotional impact to deliver an always unexpected, wildly entertaining story. Our audience will be delighted to experience this twisting, turning, captivating caper on the silver screen this October.”
Johnson will be recognized at AFF’s Awards Luncheon alongside producing awardee Christine Vachon and television writer awardee Yvette Lee Bowser. The Awards Luncheon takes place on Saturday, October 25 and features awardees honored for their career achievements, AFF’s script and film competition winners, and the recipients of industry-sponsored fellowships.
“I’m honored to be receiving the Bill Wittliff award from the Austin Film Festival,” said Johnson. “I love the AFF and its support of established and emerging writers, and attending will be both a pleasure and a welcomed excuse to procrastinate on my own writing.”
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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