Chris Farina’s World Peace…and Other 4th Grade Achievements is one of the more fascinating documentaries you will ever see. Over the course of eight weeks, students in 4th-grade teacher John Hunter’s Charlottesville, Virginia class take on the roles of nation leaders, UN representatives, the World Bank, tribal chieftans who negotiate the trade rights to their resource-rich lands, arms dealers, and even a weather goddess in a comprehensive game designed to promote discussion, foster negotiation skills, and, of course, ultimately achieve world peace.

With each child’s duty defined, Hunter then introduces a number of crises ranging from economic hardships to global warming to mercenary attacks to even a saboteur whom the students must unmask, put on trial, and prove guilty.

It may sound like too much to cover in the span of a one-hour running time, but Hunter explains the game with concision and clarity, and Farina maintains pace by breaking up the game’s progress into eight installments—one for each week it’s played. The structure is similar to that of a television series: Hunter summarizes his goals for each step and provides a narrative arc for the whole, while Farina follows the children around as they deal with each week’s crisis.

It’s startling how quick the children are to adopt their roles and the seriousness with which they play them. Perhaps less surprisingly, this often leads to violent arguments, such as the dispute between a tribal chieftan who grants land rights to one of the world leaders and is furious upon discovering that his friend has farmed the rights out to others.

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The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced last night at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas. Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories.

Films in these categories, as well as the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second categories were also eligible for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards. Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight.

Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Monday, March 22.

SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking, and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards, including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award.

Click through for the complete list of the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Award Winners:

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While most of the eyes in film are on either SXSW or ShoWest out on the West Coast, folks out on the East Coast are gearing up for Tribeca Film Festival coming up next month. Last week, the fest announced the first group of films, which included the World Narrative films, the Documentaries, as well as Showcases and Special Events.

Now, the festival is getting a bit more star-heavy, as films starring such actors as Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Casey Affleck, and even Jessica Alba have joined the list of those titles appearing at the fest. All of these films are now coming to the festival this year, as well as the world premiere of Shrek Forever After.

The fest runs from April 21st to May 2nd. Check out the full list of new films after the jump, and be sure to keep it here, as the full list of film shorts will be announced on March 18th.

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I’ve never heard of Bill Hicks before this movie. In fact, when I first heard about the film, I thought it was a fan mockumentary about Kevin Smith’s character Gil Hicks, the sorry sap from Mallrats whose idea of showing a girl a nice time opened with letting her shop at the places she wanted to shop. But it wasn’t about Gil, it was about Bill.

Bill Hicks was an American comedian in the vein of Sam Kinison or more recently Lewis Black—the angry, shrieking outragers who savage the spirit of their times and stomp around the stage menacingly, careful not to slip on their own froth. And he was also very funny, too.

However, it takes An American: Bill Hicks a while to get to them—the first half hour or so focuses on his early life, his entrance into the world of stand-up at a precocious 15, his heavy reliance on drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, and his early rise to fame. This is done through a few interviews with his mother (who was in attendance), his brother (in attendance as well), and some fellow stand-up friends (check and check). Their words play over photographs of the young Hicks that turn static, 2D photos into 3D animations with fore and backgrounds, movement, and charm.

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While most eyes are on Austin, Texas this week for SXSW, many people on the East Coast eagerly await a closer show as this year’s Tribeca Film Festival kicks off on April 21st. The festival is mainly for indie pictures, rather than the larger, blockbuster films, but is also a great place for up-and-coming directors and writers to showcase their work.

With the festival coming up in just over a month, they are already rolling out this year’s schedule and have announced the first 34 films out of a total of 85 feature length and 47 shorts screening at this year’s fest. Among the titles were those submitted to the World Narrative and Documentary competition, as well as the Showcase and Special Events.

Some of the titles look to be quite intriguing, and could include some of the bigger names of the next decade. Be sure to check out the first 34 films to be announced after the jump, and keep it here, as we bring you extensive coverage of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

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Late yesterday the SXSW Fim Festival, which runs from March 12-20 in Austin, TX, announced the full lineup of films that will be screening at this year’s event. And baby, it’s quite a list. Mixing big name films with intimate indie gems, the sheer number of films and the vast array of talented filmmakers is sure to be a hit with attendees and critics alike.

This lineup includes premieres of studio films such as Universal’s MacGruber, Lionsgate’s teen superhero actioneer Kick-Ass and smaller films like Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine. With so many films to watch, it will be very difficult to find time to seem them all during the events nine days. But hell, we’re going to try.

For more on the SXSW lineup and these films and everything related to the event, be sure to visit the official SXSW site. The complete press release announcing the lineup follows:

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the complete features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 12 – 20, 2010 in Austin, Texas. Over the course of nine days, 119 features will screen at the festival, with 55 of those having their world premieres at SXSW 2010. These films were selected from a record 1,572 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,206 U.S. and 366 international feature-length films.

Among the major films added to the lineup are: Rogue’s MacGruber, from director Jorma Taccone, Jay & Mark Duplass’ Cyrus, Bernard Rose’s Mr. Nice, Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart, Alexandre O. Philippe’s The People vs. George Lucas, Shane Meadows’ Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine, Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas’ American: The Bill Hicks Story, Mike Woolf’s Man on A Mission, Jacob Hatley’s Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, Mark Landsman’s Thunder Soul, Daniel Stamm’s Cotton, Chris D’Arienzo’s BARRY MUNDAY, and Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways.

They join previously announced films such as Opening Night film Kick-Ass, as well as narrative features Cold Weather and Elektra Luxx, and documentaries Hubble 3D, Lemmy, SATURDAY NIGHT and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights.

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