As the SXSW Film, Music and Interactive festival gets closer, more and more announcements are coming out about what programming we can expect during the event. Friday, it was announced what film would cose the competition and in addition, more features and shorts were added to the program which already features over 100 films.
Here’s all the info about the new items from the official press release. As we told you previously, we’ve got a great team going to SXSW this year so be sure to check back often for more.
SXSW FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES CLOSING NIGHT FILM,
ADDITIONAL FEATURES & SHORTS FOR 2010 EVENT
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has announced Chris Morris’ pitch-black satire Four Lions as its Closing Night film, to play on Saturday, March 20 at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas. SXSW also released additional feature and short titles or the 2010 event, which will take place March 12 – March 20, 2010. The festival will open with the world premiere of Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Nicolas Cage.
SXSW will also host more than 80 Film Conference panels, which will take place Friday, March 12 – Tuesday, March 16. Previously announced participants for the 2010 SXSW Film Conference include Michel Gondry (The Thorn in the Heart, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down, Pineapple Express), Jeffery Tambor’s Acting Workshop, and Academy Award-winning Argentine composer, solo artist and producer Gustavo Santaolalla, among many others. For full panel descriptions and participants, as well as the complete film lineup and schedule, visit http://sxsw.com/film/.
Additional Feature Films in the 2010 SXSW Film Festival include:
HEADLINERS
Four Lions (United Kingdom)
Director: Chris Morris. Screenwriters: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell and Chris Morris
Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. Cast: Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak, Adeel Akhtar
SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES
American Grindhouse
Director: Elijah Drenner. Screenwriters: Calum Wadell and Elijah Drenner
This feature documentary chronicles the history of the American Exploitation Film. It digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment. (World Premiere)
Cargo (Switzerland)
Directors: Ivan Engler and Ralf Etter. Screenwriters: Johnny Hartmann, Thilo Röscheisen, Patrik Steinmann
Cargo is an intelligent science-fiction thriller that puts an electrifying, futuristic spin on present-day preoccupations like flight from reality, and destruction of the environment. Cast: Anna Katharina Schwabroth, Martin Rapold, Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Pierre Semmler (U.S. Premiere)
Haynesville: The Hunt for an Energy Future
Director and Screenwriter: Gregory Kallenberg
Haynesville documents the discovery of the largest natural gas field in the nation, its momentous impact on three people’s lives, and the affect this historic find could have on our energy future. (North American Premiere)
EMERGING VISIONS
A NY Thing
Director & Screenwriter: Olivier Lecot
A French romantic follows his object of desire to New York where over the course of 3 crazed and ardent days he must convince her of the authenticity of his love in a comic and melancholy journey where love reveals its peculiar nature. Cast: Jonathan Zaccai, Fanny Valette, Greta Gerwig, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Leo Fitzpatrick
(North American Premiere)
LONE STAR STATES
Skateland
Director: Anthony Burns. Screenwriters: Anthony Burns, Brandon Freeman, Heath Freeman
In the early 1980s, in small-town Texas, dramatic events force a 19-year-old skating rink manager to look at his life in a very new way. Cast: Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Greene, Heath Freeman, Brett Cullen, Melinda McGraw, Taylor Handley, Haley Ramm, and A.J. Buckley
24 BEATS PER SECOND
Beyond Ipanema
Director: Guto Barra. Writer: Guto Barra and Béco Dranoff
From Carmen Miranda to Bebel Gilberto, from Tropicália to Favela Funk, Brazilian music has been influencing the world for 70 years. The global love affair with Brazil is revisited by the ones who lived it.
Strummerville (United Kingdom)
Director: Don Letts
Joe Strummer’s untimely death sent shockwaves around the music world and beyond. In this documentary, Grammy winner Don Letts shows how Joe’s spirit lives on through a charity set up in his memory, Strummerville. (World Premiere)
This Movie is Broken (Canada)
Director: Bruce McDonald. Screenwriter: Don McKellar
On a hot summer’s night in Toronto, a Broken Social Scene show tops all expectations and resonates deep into the morning, into the lives of two close friends & closer than they knew (World Premiere)
When You’re Strange – a film about the Doors
Director: Tom DiCillo
Narrated by Johnny Depp, the first feature documentary about The Doors provides a previously unseen view of the legendary quartet, comprised entirely of historic archival footage shot between 1965 and 1971.
SX GLOBAL
The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy (Switzerland)
Director: Peter Liechti
A cinematic manifesto for life, challenged by the main character’s radical renunciation of life itself.
FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Waking Sleeping Beauty
Director: Don Hahn
From 1984 to 1994, a perfect storm of people and circumstances changed the face of animation forever.
TONY (UK)
Director and Screenwriter: Gerard Johnson
A week in the life of Tony, an alienated psychopath with severe social problems, an obsession for action films and a horrible moustache. Cast: Peter Ferdinando, Ricky Grover, George Russo, Francis Pope, Neil Maskell, Lorenzo Camporese, Vicky Murdock
MIDNIGHTERS
SUCK (Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: Rob Sterfaniuk
Suck is a rock and roll vampire movie that follows “The Winners” on their final doomed tour down a highway to hell. Cast: Rob Stefaniuk, Jessica Pare, Dave Foley, Moby, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Dimitri Coats, Alex Lifeson with Alice Cooper and Malcolm McDowell. (US. Premiere)
Additional Short Films in the 2010 SXSW Film Festival include:
NARRATIVE SHORTS
I’m Here
Director: Spike Jonze
Successful Alcoholics
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Drake and Lindsay are successful alcoholics who may need to rethink their definition of “success.”
Tough Crowd
Director: Anne Lewis
An over-scheduled, guilt-ridden and totally self-absorbed daughter comes to visit Mom at the retirement home and withers from the contempt that she’s certain the staff and other residents have for her. Plus, she “just knows” that they prefer her dashing, bachelor brother to her.
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Robin Hood Gardens
Director: Martin Ginestie
An investigation into the debate surrounding the fate of Robin Hood Gardens, controversial East London housing estate described as a dilapidated concrete eyesore by some and a masterpiece in Brutalist architecture by others.
Star Wars: Retold
Director: Joe Nicolosi
An animated retelling of the original Star Wars trilogy, according to a girl who’s never actually watched Star Wars. Her rendition, pieced together from pop-culture references and Kevin Smith jokes, offers a fun glance at the cultural impact Star Wars has had on those who haven’t watched the films.
