The complete lineup includes all the morbid Midnighters, experimental titles in the Visions category, more music movies contained within 24 Beats, competition titles, shorts, music videos, the best of the year’s TV and film titles, episodic premieres and previews. Plus, is it really SXSW without at least one Duplass brother? Mark makes an appearance as both cowriter and star of Natalie Morales’ Language Lessons, while sibling Jay joins him as producer for Sasquatch, an incredible tale of crime and cryptozoology as investigative reporter David Holthouse tries to solve a cold case triple homicide where the number one suspect is Bigfoot himself.Īnd all that is barely scraping the surface. Over in the horror-themed Midnighters, former Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest programmer Kier-la Janisse draws upon her prolific knowledge of arcane cinema to summon up Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, charting the growth of the subgenre that fuses folklore and magick. Meanwhile, a familiar name in the ATX makes her directorial debut, as hotelier and bon vivant Liz Lambert examines the Gordian knot conundrum tying together urban renewal and gentrification in her documentary Through the Plexi-Glass: The Last Days of the San José, conversing with the denizens of the once infamous, now legendary Hotel San José. Brody, Keith Maitland's follow-up to his SXSW 2015 award-sweeping Tower, makes its local premiere after debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival. That 2020 Spotlight list including Clerk (following the seemingly perpetual rise of indie filmmaking rogue Kevin Smith), and Without Getting Killed or Caught, Tamara Saviano and Paul Whitfield's recounting of the complicated relationships between three Texas music icons: Guy Clark, Susan Clark, and Townes Van Zandt.Īs always, Texas - and especially Austin - filmmakers have a hometown presence. The festival had already announced the delayed first screening of Justine Bateman's directorial debut, Violet, but now that's just one of a slate of second chances. Not that last year's titles have just been abandoned. Film Festival Director Janet Pierson said, "While we won’t have the wonderful in-person SXSW that we know and love, we can gather together to be inspired by the work.” Films will be released online (seven each day, in two-hour increments from 10am to 8pm) and will be available until the virtual theatre "fills up." One bonus of going virtual: no waiting in line, and many showings will have no capacity limits for the hottest new titles of the year.
South by 2020 was the first festival to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this virtual edition brings a slate as big as an in-person year, with 75 features (including 64 world premieres), 84 short films, 11 episodics, plus a whole raft of special events, from Q&As to dance parties.
However, in the centerpiece slot, the old guard will be thrilled at one of the most remarkable works of musical archeology in recent years: Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, assembled from a previously unknown treasure trove of 16mm footage of the late, great singer-songwriter in the studio during the recording sessions for the seminal and beloved 1994 solo album, Wildflowers.
Popstar Demi Lovato’s deeply confessional new YouTube series Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil was confirmed last month as this year’s opening night title: Now Charli XCX closes the six-day celebration of cinema with her digital quest to make a collaborative album in quarantine, captured in new documentary Alone Together. Music and the movies, the two oldest and most defining elements of South by Southwest, find harmony in the three headlining films announced for this year’s streaming festival.
Tom Petty in the recording studio with Rick Rubin, from the documentary Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free, the SXSW Film 2021 centerpiece title (Photo by Tom Petty Legacy, LLC / Warner Music Group)