Austin Film Festival Honors Shogun Writers: UT Alum Rachel Kondo and Her Husband Justin Marks Honored for FX Hit – Images

Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga Shogun. Series creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks will be honored for their work on the series and their careers at this year’s Austin Film Festival (Copyrighted FX Networks)

The writing and producing duo behind the critically acclaimed FX hit on Hulu Shogun, Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, are the newest winners of the Austin Film Festival. However, they will not share the prize.

During the 31st edition of the Writers’ Festival and Conference (taking place October 24-31), UT Austin alumnus Michener Center for Writers Kondo will receive the New Voice Award.

Rachel Kondo (Copyright Katarzyna Szloser)

He joins the ranks of previous winners including Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny), Channing Godfrey Peoples (Mrs. Juneteenth), Katarzyna Reitman (Working moms) and So Young Shelly Yo (Smoking Tigers) in receiving this honor, which celebrates emerging talent.

Justyna Marks (Copyright Katie Yu)

However, the husband-and-wife duo will have to clear two spots in their showcase as Marks will receive the 2024 Writer’s Writer Award, a new award introduced at the festival last year. The first recipient was Cord Jefferson, whose career spanned from journalist and essayist to writer/director of the Oscar-winning film American fiction represents the intent of the award: to honor those writers who have already been recognized by their peers as exceptional talents and who have fulfilled the promise that their fellow writers saw in them in their latest project.

This says a lot about success Shogunbecause Marx is already an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for his work on the film Top Gun: Maverick. The series is an adaptation of James Clavell’s best-selling 1975 novel of the same name, which was previously adapted as a 1980 hit miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain. The original story told the story of John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis), a fictional version of the English pilot William Adams, who traveled to Japan in 1600 and became embroiled in the politics and wars plaguing the country. However, this new adaptation was praised for shifting the focus away from Blackthorne and giving equal importance and life to the main Japanese characters (Hiroyuki Sanada as warlord Yoshi Toranaga and Anna Sawai as translator Toda Mariko).

The addition of Kondo and Marks makes the AFF 2024 winners’ list one of the most noteworthy in a long time, as they will join previously announced winners star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy, who accepts the Polly Platt Award for production, and the man behind the revival Battlestar GalacticaRonald D. Moore, winner of this year’s award for Outstanding Television Writer.

The 31st annual Austin Film Festival will take place October 24-31. Tickets and passes at austinfilmfestival.com.

Follow all of our coverage at austinchronicle.com/austin-film-festival.