It’s that amazing time of year again, SXSW is almost upon us, March 10–19, 2017. The program for the 2017 festival and conference is stellar. Every year I tell myself, “this is the best SXSW lineup” and every year the SXSW programming team one-ups the previous year’s curation.
The nine-day festival will include 128 films, including 51 films from first-time filmmakers and 85 world premieres. Films were selected from 2,432 feature-length film submissions, with a total of 7,651 films submitted this year.
SXSW Film Awards 2016 at the Paramount. Photo by Mike Windle, Getty Images for SXSW.
There are many high profile feature films debuting at this year’s SXSW, like Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver,” James Franco’s “The Disaster Artist,” Ben Wheatley’s “Free Fire” and Terrence Malick’s “Song to Song.” The most exciting selections in the lineup to us though, are the feature films, television series, documentaries, short films and music videos filmed in Austin or made by Austin filmmakers. This year's selections include:
- Beach Day (dir. Matt Stryker & Dalton Allen)
- Chasing Grace (dir. Julia Barnett)
- Dealt (dir. Luke Korem)
- Disgraced (dir. Pat Kondelis)
- Infinity Baby (dir. Bob Byington)
- La Barracuda (dir. Julia Halperin & Jason Cortlund)
- Makeup (dir. Hannah Whisenant)
- Mr. Roosevelt (dir. Noel Wells)
- Robert Ellis: "California" (dir. Erica Alexandria Silverman)
- Song To Song (dir. Terrence Malick)
- The Honor Farm (dir. Karen Skloss)
- The Secret Life of Lance Letscher (dir. Sandra Adair)
- The Son (TV Series - AMC Network)
- The Suplex Duplex Complex (dir. Todd Rohal)
- The Wait (dir. Juan Pablo Gonzalez)
- This Is Your Death (dir. Giancarlo Esposito)
- Through The Repellent Fence (dir. Sam Wainwright Douglas)
- Walking Out (dir. Andrew & Alex Smith)
The SXSW Conference offers attendees a crash course film school with educational sessions and production oriented round tables. There are also speakers of note from the film and television industry, including:
- Julia-Louis Dreyfus (with the cast & showrunner of Veep)
- Bob Odenkirk (in conversation with Fred Armisen)
- Lee Daniels
- Nick Offerman
- Gareth Edwards
- Jill Soloway
- Cheryl Boone Isaacs
- Frank Oz & Leonard Maltin
- David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Sophie Turner & Maisie Williams
- Melanie Lynskey
- Noah Hawley
- Jenny Slate, Gabourey Sidibe, Danielle Macdonald, Cindi Leive, & Janicza Bravo
- Phil Matarese & Mike Luciano
- Seth Rogen
Most of this year's panel discussions will be taking place at the Austin Convention Center, while the film screenings will be held at a number of easily accessible downtown theaters.
No badge? No worries. Enjoy the SXSW Film Community Screenings, which are free and open to the public. Screenings include:
- Austin Film Society ShortCase
- Austin Community College Sneak Peeks
- Austin School of Film Community Screening
- Faces of Austin
- Rainforest Partnership’s Films for the Forest
- UT Radio-Television-Film Student Showcase
- Youth Animation M.A.F.I.A Screening / Competition
To purchase a SXSW badge/wristband or find more info on screenings and the conference, head to: sxsw.com/film.
For up-to-date info on the Austin film scene, follow us on twitter: @FilmATX
