Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 10 > Entry
SXSW Film: Day One
A veteran SXSW film employee called Friday’s opening night premiere of “21” at the Paramount the “smoothest” opening night she’s ever seen at the festival. The 1,200-seat theater was packed to capacity, and SXSWers only had to turn away three people, she said.
Yes, the festival kicked off nicely Friday night. Despite being formulaic to a fault and far too slick for the grungy DIY image of SXSW, “21” looked and sounded magnificent, thanks to the Paramount’s unsurpassed presentation quality. It stars Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and toothsome up-and-comer Jim Sturgess, who, to the shrieking delight of female fans, was in attendance. As was director Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”), who chatted on the red carpet pre-show:
Director Luketic
Showing up before the “21” folks were fleeting local celebs from the in-progress film “Will.” I don’t know who these young actors are, but people ooo’d and aaah’d, and we took the bait and snapped a picture. Shame flooded our every molecule.
The trying-very-hard children of the Austin-shooting movie “Will”
We bailed half-way through the movie (oopsie!) and headed to the opening night film party at Buffalo Billiards, a place, we’d have you know, we’d never step into if not for film festival soirees. For the first time we can remember, the bash was granted both floors of the capacious venue, which only made the party seem bigger and better.
Who was there? Glad you asked.
Austin filmmakers David Zellner and PJ Raval, both fresh from Sundance. Zellner co-wrote, co-directed and stars in the SXSW movie “Goliath,” screening again at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Austin Convention Center and 4 p.m. March 15 at the Paramount.
Filmmaker Margaret Brown and SXSW honcho Louis Black. Brown, also fresh from Sundance, screens her doc “The Order of Myths,” which Black associate produced, at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Alamo Ritz.
We also saw a guy who looked exactly like Sen. John McCain. False alarm, that.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.