Beginning Friday, March 11, all eyes will be on Austin, Texas as the 2016 edition of SXSW (South by Southwest) kicks off celebrating the best and brightest in film, interactive and music. Fandango will be on the scene once again bringing you highlights, celebrity interviews and more -- and to kick things off we're here with a little film-centric preview so you're up to date on the biggest movies and events premiering at this year's festival.
Let's do this!
The Biggest Event
What: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will both be making their first ever appearances at SXSW this year, delivering keynote speeches for the interactive (President Obama) and music sections (the first lady).
When: The president will give his speech on Friday, March 11 at 2:30 p.m. The first lady will deliver her keynote speech at the start of the music portion of the festival a few days later.
Topic: The president will engage in an interview with Evan Smith, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune. Their talk is said to cover global warming and ways to improve politics.
Two Keynote Talks Movie Fans Should Pay Attention To
1. Gale Anne Hurd
Who: For those who don't know who Gale Ann Hurd is, she's a very well-known producer behind movies like the Terminator trilogy and Aliens and the ridiculously popular TV show The Walking Dead.
What: She'll be discussing her career and what it's like producing some of these huge franchise movies, but one thing we really like is that she'll also be offering advice for aspiring filmmakers.
When: Tuesday, March 15, 11 a.m. at the Vimeo Theater.
2. Ellen Page and Ian Daniel
Who: Ellen Page is a well-known actress who's starred in the films like Juno, Inception and the more recent Freeheld. She'll be joined by writer-producer Ian Daniel.
What: The two collaborated on a documentary series called Gaycation (see above), which follows the duo as they set off to explore LGBT cultures around the world. Expect them to discuss the making of that series, and more.
When: Saturday March 12, 11 a.m. at the Vimeo Theater
Are there more?
Yup, filmmaker Joe Swanberg and author Nelson George will also be in conversation at the festival on Monday, March 14 and Sunday, March 13, respectively.
A Sneak Preview of What to See and Do
Who: Moderated by Fandango's Erik Davis, the panel will feature Alicia Malone (Fandango), Jen Yamato (The Daily Beast) and Amy Nicholson (MTV News).
What: The four will provide helpful insider tips for SXSW newbies looking to enhance their festival experience.
When: Friday, March 11 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 16AB at the Convention Center
15 SXSW Movies Fans Are Talking About
For the Celeb Lover:
Keanu
The minds behind the hit Comedy Central series Key & Peele got together for this big-screen comedy about two ordinary guys who infiltrate an underground drug ring in order to get back a kitten that was stolen from them.
Bonus: This is a work-in-progress screening, so the SXSW audience will be seeing a version that the rest of the world may never even get to see.
Sausage Party
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (This Is the End) cowrote this animated comedy about food that comes to life when people aren't around. It may look family friendly, but it is a very safe bet that it'll be rated R when it hits theaters on August 12, 2016.
Bonus: This is a work-in-progress screening, so the SXSW audience will be seeing a version that the rest of the world may never even get to see.
War on Everyone
Michael Peña, Alexander Skarsgård, Theo James and Tessa Thompson star in this dark comedy about two corrupt cops who make a side living blackmailing criminals only to uncover one of their targets has a disturbing secret.
Everybody Wants Some
Richard Linklater considers this movie about a college baseball team in the 1980s to be his spiritual successor to Dazed and Confused. That says everything you need to know.
Comedian Mike Birbigilia won a lot of new fans with 2012's Sleepwalk with Me and now he's back in the director's chair for this movie about a group of comedians who are thrown off kilter when one of them makes it big by landing a TV show.
A depressed man (Johnny Galecki) gets more than he bargains for after he goes on a spiritual retreat that expels a lot more from his body than just negative emotions.
For the Genre Movie Lover:
Midnight Special
The director of Take Shelter goes full-on sci-fi for this movie about a father (Michael Shannon) who takes his son, who happens to have special powers, on a road trip to keep him out of the hands of a secret government project.
Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez reteamed with producer Sam Raimi for this horror movie about teens who break into what they think is a blind man's house only to wind up having picked the wrong man to steal from.
Bonus: Evil Dead lead Jane Levy reunited with Alvarez for this project, which was originally called A Man in the Dark but is now without a title.
Ti West (The House of the Devil) takes a step out of the horror genre for this Western starring Ethan Hawke as drifter who wanders into the wrong town in the middle of nowhere.
Bonus: John Travolta stars as the small town's sheriff.
For the Indie Lover:
Slash
A coming-of-age story about a teenager who, with the help of a classmate, discovers the decadent world of writing slash fiction (fan fiction) for popular sci-fi characters.
Addison Timlin (The Town That Dreaded Sundown) stars as a woman on the verge of becoming a nun who is drawn back to her home town and a former life wildly different from the one she now leads.
We'll just quote the plot synopsis on this one: "A girl fakes her own alien abduction and disappears, leaving her father to search for her in a strange teenage world of unicorns and black holes."
For the Documentary Lover:
Beware the Slenderman
What's the deal: This is an attempt to unravel the harrowing true story of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed a friend as an offering to the Slenderman, one of the Internet's most pervasive urban legends.
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger (of the Paradise Lost series) promises a cold, hard, unflinching look behind the scenes at the real life of Tony Robbins, a man whose entire career is based on inspiring others.
This tells the story of $350 million work of medieval art treasures taken from Nazis during World War II that wound up in a small Texas town and the German art detective who will stop at nothing to find them.
