The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced the complete Film Conference sessions and programming for the new Digital Domain this past week, as well as additional features and shorts for the 2012 festival. SXSW Film will open on Friday, March 9, 2012 with the world premiere of Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods, and run through Saturday, March 17 in Austin, Texas. The schedule, complete with both screening and conference dates and times, is now available at www.sxsw.com/film.
An additional 15 features and 4 shorts have been announced, and descriptions follow below. With these additions, the 2012 SXSW Film Festival will host a total of 132 features, consisting of 74 World Premieres, 17 North American Premieres and 11 U.S. Premieres, with 58 films from first-time directors. 138 shorts will screen as part of 12 overall shorts programs. The nearly 275 films were selected from a record number of overall submissions, over 5,300, comprised of approximately 2,000 features and 3,300 shorts. This was a 7% increase over 2011 despite moving submission deadlines a month earlier than in previous years.
The SXSW Film Conference features over 120 sessions and runs Friday, March 9 – Tuesday, March 13, 2012. A sampling of panels follows below, as well as the complete panel breakdown, by date and title. New for 2012, SXSW Film launched The Digital Domain, an additional programming track in the Film Conference that examines how web-based media and platforms are used to share content by creatives from a range of fields, particularly dealing with new approaches to storytelling. The Digital Domain sessions will be open to all Film, Interactive, Gold and Platinum badges, and will take place in the Austin Suite of the Austin Convention Center from Saturday, March 10 – Tuesday, March 13, 2012. For more information on The Digital Domain, visit http://sxsw.com/film/talks/digital_domain.
Key panels announced for the 2012 SXSW Film Conference include:
A Conversation with Seth MacFarlane
As the creator of Family Guy and one of the co-creators of American Dad!, Seth MacFarlane has brought his boundary-pushing brand of humor to millions each week. Join Seth for a no-holds-barred discussion about his groundbreaking work in TV, his recent foray into the music world with his debut album and his transition to Hollywood with his upcoming directorial debut Ted, a live-action/CG-animated comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis.
(Sunday, March 11, 11:00am, Vimeo Theater, Austin Convention Center)
Funny or Die: Future of Comedy & Everything Else
An intimate look into the corruption, lies and deceit that transformed a website into the most powerful media company in the world! How FOD transformed into a new model media company and how comedy pretty much rules the world…and everything else.
(Sunday, March 11, 3:30pm – Room 18ABCD, Austin Convention Center)
Meat is Might: Epic Meal Time Rules the Web
Join the Epic Meal Time team in a discussion of the key factors to their initial success and continued expansion throughout the digital and entertainment sphere.
(Saturday, March 10, 3:30pm – Room 18ABCD, Austin Convention Center)
Restoring History: 100 Years of Universal Films
Experience the process of restoring, archiving and curating a centennial of movie magic with Universal’s Centennial titles. (Monday, March 12, 11:00am – Paramount Theatre)
We Are Legion: Digital (R)Evolution
Armed with colleagues from the filmmaking and digital communities, writer/director Brian Knappenberger weighs in on the challenges of making the film WE ARE LEGION: The Story of the Hacktivists (official selection SXSW 2012), the roots of the “hactivist” collective Anonymous, and their current battles with Hollywood.
(Tuesday, March 13, 11:00am – Room 18ABCD, Austin Convention Center)
The panels released today join over 40 previously announced sessions for the 2012 SXSW Film Conference, including A Conversation with Joss Whedon, the return of Jeffrey Tambor’s Acting Workshop, a dialogue with Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow and more on the HBO series Girls, A Conversation with Cliff Martinez, and The Business of Kevin Smith among others. For full panel descriptions and participants, browse the schedule at http://schedule.sxsw.com.
Other film showings include: (obviously not an exhaustive list).
- Don’t Forget About Me! Remember Everything at SXSW (Mark Channon, Memory School)
- Future of Entertainment: Viewer Becomes User
- Man Vs. Algorithm: Online Video Curation Face-Off
- The Opening Act: Making of the SXSW Film Bumpers
- Speed Tweaks: How Fast Can Audiences Drive Edits?
- Beyond The 1 Sheet – Pen to Paper Returns (Charlie Loft, AllCity Media)
- Brothers Gonna Talk it Out (Christy Lemire, AP/Ebert Presents At The Movies)
- Casting on a Budget: Get the Best & the Rightest (Josh Pais)
- Collaborations in Film: Writers & Producers
- Coppola vs Kittens: Pro Filmmaking’s Online Future (Adam Glickman, The IdeaLists)
- Creating the Code: A BBC Transmedia Documentary
- DSLR Gear: Film Production in a Carry-On (Or Two). (Lan Bui, The Bui Brothers)
- Entertainment After Transmedia (Zak Kadison, Blacklight Transmedia)
- Everything is a Remix; So Steal Like An Artist
- Hollywood Lessons: What I Learned The Hard Way (John Lang, Rough & Tumble Films)
- Iron Sky: Forging the Future of Film
- Meat is Might: Epic Meal Time Rules the Web
- The Evolution of the Douchebag in Modern Cinema (Robyn Sklaren)
- Tough Love: Why You’re Still Not Festival Ready (Amy Dotson, IFP)
- Warp’ed Filmmaking – More Execution, Less Budget (Barry Ryan, Warp Films/Warp X)
- Your Film’s Unique Digital Distribution Strategy (Richard Lorber, Kino Lorber)
- Does HTML5 Offer a Montage Moment for Web Cinema? (Ingrid Kopp, Shooting People)
- Empowering Filmmakers: Marketing/Distribution Keys (Marc Schiller, BOND Strategy And Influence)
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Grants (Dianne Debicella, Fractured Atlas)
- Filmmaker’s Guide to Capitol Hill Politics (Jody Arlington, Impact Arts + Film Fund)
- The Great Cinematography Shootout (David Lowery, Sailor Bear Films)
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
