03/09/2026
We thank all those who joined us in honoring the Boomtown Film & Music Festival 2026 special Lifetime Achievement Award presented to educator and filmmaker O’Brien Stanley, during BoomFest's awards ceremony Saturday, February 21 in the historic Jefferson Theatre. We are truly grateful for his extraordinary contributions to filmmaking in Southeast Texas.
O'Brien Stanley, MFA, started the film program at Lamar University's College of Fine Arts & Communication in 1998 and taught courses in film and video production, film history, popular culture, film appreciation, and film theory/film genre studies. In 2000, working together with Gordon S. Williams, Chris Castillo, and Robert Fong, Stanley helped start the Spindletop/Lamar University Film Festival, the precursor of the Boomtown Film & Music Festival.
Though now retired from full-time teaching, Stanley recently co-authored a book, “Martian Pictures: Analyzing the Cinema of the Red Planet” (2018, McFarland), and currently contributes to weekly podcasts on subjects ranging from (but not limited to) coffee, Criterion Collection films, and science fiction movies.
Photo captured by BFMF Crew Member: Edgar Rodriguez, Creative Alchemy Photography
