Austin’s hugely popular SXSW film festival announces its midnighters, SXantastic and shorts line-up, thus filling out the complete list of screenings for the upcoming festival. Austin prepares itself for the March 11-19 cinema onslaught that is SXSW, and braces itself for over a week of fresh talent, indie screenings, film competitions, panels, conferences and plenty or partying.
Adding onto an already great list of feature films, documentaries, international films and special event screenings, the new list of screenings gives an idea of how this multi-level festival is going to shake out.
The Midnighters and SXFantastic screenings are my two favorite film categories. The Midnighters highlight genre films; horror, sci fi, comedies, sexy gore fests, anything disturbing or controversial. The SXFantastic are the same as Midnighters, just international. These selections are chosen by the Fantastic Fest crowd (as the Fantastic Fest deals exclusively in all things genre, and will screech into town this September). SXSW Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson said “Our midnight programs are the bloody, beating heart of SXSW. Since the beginning, Midnight films have been an essential ingredient to what makes SXSW so exciting and fun, and this year’s selections are no exception.”
The list of short films covers multiple categories, including narrative, animated, documentary, music videos and global selections. There will be 150 short films, selected from over 3,000 submissions. Festival creators said there has been a 29 percent increase in short film submissions over last year.
For a full list of SXSW screenings, check out their website.