SXSW lineup focuses on new talent

The 18th annual South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival will continue its tradition of introducing new talent to Austin audiences when it kicks off March 11.

The lineup, which was announced Wednesday, includes 60 world premieres, 12 North American premieres and 16 U.S. premieres.

Among the highlights are Morgan Spurlock's documentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold," Andrew Rossi's "Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times," Tom McCarthy's "Win Win" with Paul Giamatti; "Tabloid" from legendary documentarian Errol Morris; and "Silver Bullets," the new feature from mumblecore king Joe Swanberg.

But many of this year's films will be from first-time feature filmmakers rather than from established auteurs. They include "Ceremony," directed by Max Winkler, son of Henry "the Fonz" Winkler; "American Animal," a dark comedy from Matt D'Elia; and "Fly Away," a drama from Janet Grillo.

The festival also has tapped the latest from teenage Austin director Emily Hagins, whose first zombie movie, "Pathogen," was shot in the summers of 2005 and 2006 and led to the 2008 documentary about her experiences, "Zombie Girl: The Movie." Her latest is "My Sucky Teen Romance."

"We are forever dedicated to emerging talent and risk-takers, voices that we haven't heard before, telling stories in ways we haven't seen before," says Janet Pierson, the producer of the film conference and festival.

While Pierson says she's very pleased with all of this year's selections, she says one of her favorites is the new documentary "How to Die in Oregon," directed by Peter D. Richardson. "It celebrates life and dignity," she says, and focuses on families and doctors as they decide whether to end the lives of terminally ill loved ones via lethal overdose in Oregon.

Pierson says the number of submissions for this year's event broke yet another record. Festival programmers had 1,792 feature film submissions and selected 130 to screen over the nine-day fest. In total, a record number of nearly 4,900 films were submitted, up 23 percent over last year.

Pierson says that the festival will attempt to ease crowding this year by using several new venues, including the State Theatre, which is just north of the Paramount Theatre, as well as the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, and increasing the number of seats at the Austin Convention Center theater to 650.

She also says the festival plans to screen some SXSW selections at satellite theaters such as the Arbor and Westgate.

The festival previously announced the selections of such buzzy movies as the opening-night film "Source Code," a thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal; "The Beaver," starring Mel Gibson; "Paul," starring Simon Pegg; "The Innkeepers," directed by Ti West; "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop," a behind-the-scenes documentary; and two other documentaries, "It's About You" and "Square Grouper."

Here are some of the highlights from the latest SXSW announcement:

• 'Silver Bullets': The latest feature from director Joe Swanberg focuses on a romantic triangle. A young woman (Kate Lyn Sheil) is starring in a werewolf movie and is falling for the director, much to her boyfriend's dismay. Ti West, Amy Seimetz, Jane Adams and Swanberg star. Swanberg has become a regular at SXSW, and Pierson says she thinks Sheil is "an incredibly interesting actress." The movie will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February before screening at SXSW. Swanberg's "Uncle Kent" premiered in January at Sundance. And Pierson says that "Bullets" is one of five recent Swanberg films, so she had plenty to choose from.

• 'Ceremony': Henry Winkler's son Max makes his feature film debut as a director with this tale of a young man (Michael Angarano) who crashes the wedding of an older woman (Uma Thurman) in order to win back her affections.

• 'Tabloid': Pierson rightly considers documentarian Errol Morris to be "one of America's greatest film directors," so she says she's pleased that his latest, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is making its way to Austin. It deals with the so-called "manacled Mormon" case and its coverage by the British press. In case you don't remember the story, it deals with a young Mormon who said he was kidnapped and manacled by a woman who forced him to have sex.