SXSW Film Fest Ramping Up, Features Line-Up Announced

Austin’s uber popular SXSW Film Conference and Festival arrives March 11-19, with all the bells and whistles, eager cinemaphiles, fresh indie films and awesome par-tays you could wish for. On Wednesday, SXSW announced the line-up of feature screenings, and there is some real potential represented.

The eight Narrative Feature Competition films, all of them world premiering at SXSW, were selected from over 984 film submissions. The eight Documentary Feature competition films are also all world premieres and represent the best out of over 800 submissions, both domestic and foreign. The bigger budget “Headliners” will include Jodi Foster’s The Beaver, Source Code, and Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. The “Headliner” line-up brings celebs, gala events and red-carpet premieres to SXSW. The list of shorts and “midnight” screenings will be released later this week.

SXSW is literally a film, music and interactive festival ranging from the official start on March 11th to the final day on March 20th. With the announcement of the feature film screenings, the festival is almost done rounding out its full film schedule, which includes a midnight screening of the bigger-budget Red Riding Hood with director Catherine Hardwicke in attendance and available for Q&A.

Films that are chosen to screen at this year’s SXSW fall under numerous categories, from “Headliners” (the higher budget films that will see wider release) to “SXGlobal” (an eclectic choice of indie films from all around the world). There will be documentaries, shorts, local selections, music-oriented films and even some great “midnight” screenings and genre films (aka SXFantastic, a little homage to Austin’s Fantastic Fest).

Grand Jury awards wrap up the festival, honoring the best in indie films in the following categories: Documentary Feature, Narrative Feature, Feature Film Audience Awards and the Short Film Jury Awards. A few other related awards to include: SXSW Wholpin Award, SXSW Chicken and Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award, SXSW Film Design Awards and Excellence in Poster Design and Excellence in Title Design.

Austin will be a busy town come March, with creative energy burning through the streets. The film portion of the 18th annual SXSW festival encompasses about a week in the middle of March and will feature indie film screenings galore, as well as roundtables, workshops, and informative conferences on every film-related subject under the sun. Experts in the biz, new talents and film-savvy audiences converge in the unique social atmosphere of SXSW to create a memorable learning and networking opportunity.