Houston native Trey Edward Shults has already earned strong reviews from the Los Angeles Times, Toronto Star, the Onion's AV Club and other media outlets for his third film “Waves.” The Hollywood Reporter called the 30-year-old filmmaker "one of the most versatile and gifted young filmmakers working today."

Shults' hometown will also join the celebration of his work when he screens "Waves" here November 14 as the opening night film for the 11th annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival which runs through Nov. 18. The schedule was announced Monday.

The Cinema Arts Fest will turn that opening night into an event: In addition to showing the film, which is a drama about a middle-class African-American family in Florida, the festival will host a Q&A session with Shults and rapper/Rice University professor Bun B, followed by an after party featuring a DJ set by ethno-musicologist Flash Gordon Parks.

The event will be the second Shults has had his work shown at Cinema Arts. He screened his breakout debut film "Krisha," a drama about a stormy family Thanksgiving dinner that was shot in Spring, during the festival four years ago.

“It's all about Houston to me,” said artistic director Jessica Green. “This is where global meets local.”

True to that declaration, the festival offers an array of programming with local and regional connections, as well as various live performance events to accompany some of the films.

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Besides “Waves,” some of the major titles to be shown include: Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” about an Austrian conscientious objector who refuses to fight for Germany in WWII; the collapsing-marriage drama “Marriage Story,” starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Laura Dern and directed by Noah Baumbach (“Frances Ha,” “Greenberg”); the French film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which picked up two awards at Cannes; and the Texas premiere of “Varda by Agnes,” a documentary about the pioneering French director Agnes Varda

But this year's festival has laid out its schedule with three primary themes. It always focuses on arts-themed cinema, and this year will be no different. Arts programming includes "Yuli," co-presented with the Houston Ballet, a documentary about Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta; and “Ben DeSoto: For Art’s Sake,” about Houston photographer Ben DeSoto, who worked for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post often covering the city’s underground punk and hip-hop scenes.

The other two themes includes programming tied to what has been recently been tagged the Yeehaw Agenda -- a modern look at western/rodeo-centric culture -- and also films tied to the moon landing, which occurred 50 years ago this year.

As for the Yeehaw Agenda, Bri Malandro -- the Dallas-based internet archivist who coined the phrase -- will be on hand for a panel discussion tied to a screening of the 1972 documentary “Black Rodeo.”

Also screening: Diane Paragas' "Yellow Rose," a story about a young Filipino woman trying to make her way as a country music singer. Paragas' family feld the Philippines when she was four and landed in Lubbock. Her film is story about a dreamer and a Dreamer, which makes it particularly resonant right now. The film features Eva Noblezada, a Broadway star who recently drew strong notices for her work in "Hadestown."

Michael D. Robinson will present “Brokeback: A Shorts Film,” about queer Yeehaw culture. "When I Get Home," a film companion piece to the album of the same name by Houston singer Solange, will be shown twice. Green called the project "a futurist rodeo."

Another notable film is "Bacaru," a western-horror film set in Brazil.

The moon landing anniversary will include a screening of "For All Mankind," a beautiful Apollo program documentary by former Chronicle writer and filmmaker Al Reinert, who died earlier this year. "Space Dogs,” making its North American premiere, tells the story of Laika, the stray dog turned cosmonaut, when Russia launched her into space.

Also of note is a restored version of "Sugar Cane Alley," Euzhan Palcy's award-winning film about struggling sugar cane workers in Martinique. Palcy -- who wrote, directed and produced the film -- will be on hand for the screening. She was the first black filmmaker to receive France’s prestigious Cesar Award.

This year marks Green’s first year as programmer, replacing Richard Herskowitz who stepped down after last year’s festival to concentrate on the Ashland Independent Film Festival in Oregon where he is now executive and artistic director. Green was the cinema director at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, a non-profit founded by noted non-fiction film director Albert Maysles (“Gimme Shelter,” “Grey Gardens”) devoted to the documentary form.

Screenings will be in several venues including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Rice Cinema, the Asia Society Texas, and the DeLuxe Theater.

Tickets go on sale today at 7:30 p.m. when the full schedule will also be released. For more information, go to cinemahtx.org.

Cary Darling contributed to this report.

andrewdansby@chron.com

Twitter.com/andrewdansby

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