South by Southwest, the annual film, music and technology festival held in Austin, Texas has announced the lineup of this year’s film portion. “SXSW,” as it is more commonly known, will be screening the movies in venues around the city from March 8 – 16.
As previously mentioned in this blog, SXSW announced last month that the festival’s feature film will be “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” a comedy with Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey. But this week all 109 feature films, including 69 world premieres and 5 U.S. premiers, were announced.
“We want some films that are funny, we want some films that are scary,” Janet Pierson, the film festival’s producer, told the New York Times. “We want some films that are thought-provoking, we want some films that are super-arty. But mostly, we’re looking at these thousands of films that come into us and we’re looking for what grabs us and engages us.”
Pierson explained that this year’s unintentional theme was LGBT films, including three documentaries, “Before You Know It,” “Mr. Angel” and “Continental Baths.”
Other movies that will be screened at SXSW include “I Give It a Year,” a comedy about marriage with Anna Faris, Rose Byrne and Simon Baker and “Drinking Buddies,” starring Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston.
South by Southwest will also include other events beyond movies, such as live music, tech conferences and trade shows over the course of 10 days.
With the growing popularity of film festivals around the country, many are looking for new ways to accommodate the high volume of audience members accompanying this trend. Beloit International Film Festival announced that it will be using an outdoor movie screen, not only during the festival, but throughout the year, and others that are considering new ways to remain competitive may also be considering this.