South By Southwest has forged a specific niche for itself in the festival circuit, a little more rough and more energetic than the tastes of Sunday or Cannes.
That ethos outside the killer is encapsulated in the alignment of the opening night at the place of the festival's center, the Austin Paramount Theater. On World Cup Private, “Another simple favor” by Paul Feig, a sequel to the success of 2018 “to simple favor”, leads the way with the stars that Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick return. Then comes the Apple TV+ series of Seth Rogen “The Studio”, a contemporary Hollywood satire with many celebrity cameos. And finally, the premiere of Michael Shanks in Sundance “Together”, a surprising horror movie, starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, will play at midnight.
Exactly like describe What distinguishes SXSW from other festivals is another matter.
“I think the word is fun. The festival deals with fun, “said filmmaker Jay Duplass, who has been in the event many times and will be there this year to premiere the discreet drama of” The Baltimorons “characters.” The intention is like, 'Boys, everything is so difficult. Let's try to have fun a little, '' said Duplass. “Austin has changed a ton over the years, but it is still the spirit of Austin.”
Part of the South By Southwest event, which also includes music, technology and a conference that attracts in the bold names of a variety of disciplines, the film and television festival has gained a reputation of being narrow and this year “The Accounting 2”, such as “The Fall Guy” with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, last year or the “Accountant 2” “Holland”. Unicorn ”with Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega. But the festival has long been a seedbed for the discovery of emerging talent.
Sean Baker, who has just won four Oscar for “Anora”, premiered his first feature film, “Four Letter Words”, in SXSW in 2001. “Everything everywhere at the same time”, whose directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert had previously won music video awards at the festival, premiered his film in SXSW in 2022 before winning seven academic awards. Other filmmakers who have had an early premiere of works here include Barry Jenkins, Greta Gerwig, Josh and Benny Safdie, Ti West, Destin Daniel Cretton and Lena Dunham
“For us, this is the point of everything we do,” said Claudette Godfrey, a film and television vice president of the Festival. “Find people who believe they have an interesting voice or vision and [being] able to support them and be a springboard on their way. That is why I am watching hundreds and hundreds of movies. That is why we are working so hard. “
SXSW was one of the first festivals to highlight episodic work; Other notable television premieres this year include the Ramy Youssef and “Happy Family USA” shows by Pam Brady, the Paul Hunter showrunners and “Cheese Government” of Aeysha Carr and “Happy Face” by Aeysha Carr Jennifer Cacicio.
On the documentary side, “Seeing & Heard” by Giselle Bailey and Phil Bertelsen, produced by Issa Rae, analyzes the life of black creators on television. “The Python Hunt” by Xander Robin examines a Florida contest to capture Pythons in the Everglades. “The Yogurt Shop Murders” by Margaret Brown covers the unsolved murder in 1991 of four adolescents in Austin. The “era of dissemination” of Dan Farah explores what the United States government knows about the existence of non -human intelligent life.
Amanda Peet and Matthew Shear in “Fantasy Life.”
(Fantasy Life Productions LLC)
Feig previously premiered his “Ladies of Honor” and “Spy” films at the festival, while Rogen is a reliable SXSW regular as an actor and producer, after having been there with “Long Shot”, “Observe and inform”, “Knocked Up” and others. Affleck previously premiered “Air” at the festival.
“I think everyone wants the same thing,” Godfrey said about what attracts filmmakers to the festival, “which is to watch their film on a big screen with a large audience. His positive experiences here in the past is what makes them want to return. I only think that at this time that is more rare than ever. There is simply something intangible. It feels like a little magic that is difficult to describe.”
Among the titles ready to leave this year's festival are “Fantasy Life”, the debut for actor Matthew Shear as a writer and director. Star in the film as a young depressive who falls into a job like a nanny of three young people and develops in love with his mother (Amanda Peet). Amy Landecker actress also makes her debut as a writer and director in “For worse”, which stars in a recently divorced woman invited to a wedding with the much younger members of her new class of acting.
“Baltimorons” is the first film directed by Jay Duplass without his brother and his creative partner of Life, Mark Duplass. It is also the first film that Jay Duplass has directed in about 14 years, a period that has found him working on television as an actor and director. (Mark Duplass is an executive producer in the film).
Co -written by Jay Duplass and Michael Strassner, the couple met on Instagram, the film is starring Strassner as a newly sober comedian in Baltimore who breaks a tooth on the eve of Christmas and undertakes a series of spontaneous adventures with the only dentist who would see him (Liz Larsen).
Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen in “The Baltimorons” by Jay Duplass.
(SXSW)
The drama of the “Magic Hour” relationship, starring Daveed Diggs and Katie Aselton, who also directed and co -written the script with Mark Duplass, her husband, will also be released at the festival. (Jay Duplass is an executive producer in the film).
Jay Duplass, who moved to Austin in the early 1990s and lived there for 12 years, recalled what he meant to see local filmmakers such as Robert Rodríguez and Richard Linklater in the city.
“Austin is like my spiritual home,” he said. “There is really where I became a filmmaker and learned to do it and still use those methods. Although sometimes we do really great things, I still use a very personal way of making art, especially with this movie. That is the way of doing things in Austin that I learned. “
Chad Hartigan, director of “The Threesome”, has not been in SXSW in nine years, but had previously attended many times even before his 2016 film “Morris From America” interpreted the festival. He met Cherie Saulter, producer of his 2013 film “This Is Martin Bonner”, at the Festival. It was also in SXSW that Hartigan met the future winner of Oscar Adele Romanski, who produced “Morris.”
“I don't want to say that it was a network, but it was really just going and meeting related people who became his friends first,” Hartigan said. “And then, when it was time to make movies, you had more friends with whom to associate.
“There are less feeding frenzy for the press and buyers and things like that,” he added. “It focuses more on having an excellent projection, having a good time and, usually, it always ends that way. The public is very fun and, I mean, sometimes the lines to obtain food can be a bit too much, but otherwise there are no complaints. “
Ruby Cruz, on the left, Zoey Deutch and Jonah Hauer-King in “El Trio” by Chad Hartigan.
(Star Thrower Entertainment)
“The trio” stars Jonah Hauer-King as a young man who holds his elegant co-worker (Zoey Deutch) when one night they fall into a trio with a woman who just met (Ruby Cruz), launching a chain of unforeseen complications.
Making his debut as a writer and director, Annapurna Sriram also stars in 'F-Toys “, a ridiculous trip and Campy while a young woman tries to lift a curse. Sriram first wrote the script about eight years ago, prior to projects such as “Euphoria”, “Zola”, “pleasure” and “anora” that have similar gonzo vibrations and attitudes of open mind towards sex work. Citing influences such as John Waters, Harmony Korine and Gregg Araki, Sriram always felt that SxSW could be a good home for the movie, the unconventional title and everything.
“Sur-by was definitely our target festival,” said Sriram. “I think we knew that maybe we were a bit too crazy for Sunday, but we thought, Austin is the right type of rare for this type of stained art cult cinema.”
Annapurna Sriram in “F – Toys”.
(Photos of trashtown)
And while the political realities of the present moment are difficult to completely put into mind in Austin, where the Texas Capitol building is visible to only the primordial blockages, Godfrey has no doubt that a small escapism is in order when times are bleak.
“It's fun to do this, be an artist and be in community,” he said. “You have to live while you are alive, man. Things are dark and terrible and I think people are getting enough of that. To some extent, people have always felt: 'Oh, I'm going to this trip to SxSW and take a little break' of whatever they are overwhelming. And I think that we are also going to improve something, then we will have to meet and solve it. “
