The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival unveiled its lineup of 109 features including 69 world premieres Thursday. The festival, which overlaps with SXSW's music and interactive programs, also includes 14 North American and five U.S. premieres. SXSW will screen eight films each in its Narrative Feature and Documentary Competitions.
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The world premiere of comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone will open the 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival. The festival, which launches its 20th anniversary event March 8th, also unveiled a number of other films and highlights Tuesday.
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Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson star in this SXSW Film Festival special jury prize winner set to hit theaters November 9th. Hemingway (great-granddaughter of Ernest and daughter of Mariel) plays a young aspiring actress who befriends an elderly widow set against the backdrop of Southern California's San Fernando Valley. The trailer opens with a Yard Sale where Hemingway buys a thermos. She takes the purchase home and discovers a wad of cash inside… Now what does she do?
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Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs, Paramount Pictures signs a deal with Chinese platform to sent titles for VOD; the SXSW Film Festival is accepting submissions and registration; Selena Gomez to star in a new indie; and Josh Gad boards The Internship.
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SXSW 2012 marked the starring screen debut of model-turned-actress Dree Hemingway – daughter of Mariel, great-granddaughter of Ernest, and at 24, a veteran of the fashion world -- as an airy Los Angeleno named Jane who befriends a cranky senior citizen (85-year-old newcomer Besedka Johnson) in Sean Baker’s Starlet, a surprisingly sweet tale comprised of a series of moving, naturalistic episodes … and one infamous hardcore sex scene. But as much as Starlet is a fantastically observed introduction to Hemingway, who possesses Evan Rachel Wood’s preternatural poise and Daryl Hannah’s leggy looks, sitting down with her in Austin – and indulging in a post-interview round of karaoke together -- offered greater insights into one of the more talked-about but hard-to-talk-about films of the fest.
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There was no shortage of stars coming through SXSW 2012, debuting films and projects as diverse as Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods to Lena Dunham's HBO series GIRLS. Take a look and see who else dropped in on Austin, Texas for the annual film festival, including: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and their 21 Jump Street crew, Willem Dafoe, Al Gore, Johnny Knoxville, Melissa Leo, Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black, Aubrey Plaza, Gabrielle Union, Bobcat Goldthwait, new director (!) Matthew Lillard, two Broken Lizards, model-turned-actress Dree Hemingway, and more.
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This week at SXSW Movieline caught up with director Gareth Evans, whose Indonesian martial arts actioner The Raid: Redemption is set to knock your socks off later this month courtesy of Sony Classics. (Haven’t heard of the martial arts form silat? You will, come March 23.) With his film steadily collecting kudos left and right, Evans is already thinking ahead to his Raid sequel (working title: Berandal), and an insane, dangerous-sounding four-on-one car fight he plans on working into the mix.
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Tuesday night the 2012 SXSW Film Festival jury awards went to Adam Leon's NYC-set drama Gimme the Loot and the rock doc-biopic Beware of Mr. Baker, about Cream/Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker. Meanwhile, Audience Awards honored Megan Griffiths' Eden, whose star Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch) earned a Special Jury Award for her central performance as a human trafficking victim, and to documentary Bay of All Saints, about three single mothers living in an impoverished Brazilian bayside town. Full list of winners after the jump.
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Despite nabbing an Academy Award last year with her self-financed and controversial “Consider” campaign, Melissa Leo says that neither life, nor the frequency of juicy Hollywood offers coming her way, is much different now that she's an Oscar-winner. “The projects you think have been offered to me have not, I guarantee you,” she told Movieline this week at SXSW in Austin, where she and directors Melanie Shatzky and Brian M. Cassidy screened their minimalist character study Francine to critical applause. Still, Leo perseveres. And as the intimate acting showcase demonstrates, there’s plenty of reward to be had in smaller and more daring projects.
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Richard Linklater's latest film, Bernie, makes its SXSW debut on Wednesday, but Movieline will save you a trip to Austin by showcasing one of its finer highlights here. Take it away, Kay McCabe!
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It wasn't tough to spot Channing Tatum or Jonah Hill at the after party following the SXSW premiere of 21 Jump Street; they were the ones, beaming unselfconsciously in the middle of the crowd, wearing bicycle-cop uniforms. More specifically, wearing their costumes from the movie, in which they play a pair of bumbling rookie policemen sent undercover to high school -- a set-up that so delivers beyond its premise that the '80s Johnny Depp TV series adaptation is actually one of the best new films of 2012, comedy or otherwise.
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Those NMA TV wizards have done it again: Watch as the Taiwanese animators offer their take on the in-progress South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive festival ("If you're watching this animation, that likely means you're not at SXSW. You're probably not even cool enough to go"). Tears, hippie DJs, 21 Jump Street, bands the rest of the world will hear about months from now... it's all here!
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SXSWers will get a peek at Will Ferrell's Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre this week in Austin, but here's a quick taste of what you're in for: Ferrell as a Mexican ranchero singing the moonlit ditty "Yo No Se" in a scene from the film, which is best described as something of a Spanish telenovela satire grindhouse comedy.
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Avengers director Joss Whedon spent much of his weekend in Austin at SXSW pounding the pavement for The Cabin in the Woods (that is, when he wasn't busy dancing into the wee hours of the night) but he also managed to mostly deflect the laser geek gaze of the bloggerati when it came to divulging information about his upcoming Marvel superhero pick. That said, he did offer up one huge clarification on a matter Avengers fans have been trying to root out via various clues and tea leaves: Who are the villains under Loki's command?
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What could go wrong? Also: Ugh: "South By Southwest 2012 can be summarized thusly: An impossibly named marketing company called Bartle Bogle Hegarty is doing a little human science experiment called Homeless Hotspots. It gives out 4G hotspots to homeless people along with a promotional t-shirt. The shirt doesn't say, 'I have a 4G hotspot.' It says, 'I am a 4G hotspot.' You can guess what happens next. You pay these homeless, human hotspots whatever you like, and then I guess you sit next to them and check your e-mail and whatnot. The digital divide has never hit us over the head with a more blunt display of unselfconscious gall." [ReadWriteWeb]
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