SXSW 2021 Announces Film Line-Up Including ‘Demi Lovato: Dancing With The Devil’ As Opening Night Headliner

After being cancelled from last year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021 will be the comeback for famous film festival South By Southwest. This time they will be holding their services virtually for the 28th annual SXSW festival. The festival will occur from March 16th to the 20th with 75 features being included in the line up.

The 75 films lined up include world premieres for 57 of the films. Some of the films include Tom Petty’s Somewhere You Feel Free, Alone Together, and the Demi Lovato film, Dancing with The Devil. Lovato’s film will be set as the opening night headliner for the festival, while Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free will be the centerpiece and Alone Together will be closing night feature. The festival will be available to access on numerous platforms including Apple TV, Roku and Samsung TV to name a few. Seven movies will premiere every two hours from 10-8pm during the festival with most films not having a capacity limit. A film will remain on demand until the event ends or hits capacity if it is for a film that has one.

Certainly will be a different year for the event but Janet Pierson, the director of film for SXSW,  expressed a lot of optimism for the new format. “We feel privileged to have been able to pivot to SXSW Online and present a fantastic treasure trove of programming, including a pared down and wonderful selection of films that we know will delight, entertain, and move our attendees,” she stated regarding the new event. Despite the changes, it sounds like the changes for the events will be worthwhile and help others to be able to witness more of these great films soon enough.

Full List of Films Featured Below:

Headliners

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil- Michael D. Ratner
Alone Together- Bradley Bell, Pablo Jones-Soler,
Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free- Mary Wharton,

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Here Before (United Kingdom)- Stacey Gregg
I’m Fine (Thanks For Asking)- Kelley Kali, Angelique Molina,
Islands (Canada)- Martin Edralin,
Our Father-Bradley Grant Smith
Potato Dreams of America- Wes Hurley
The End Of Us- Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter
The Fallout- Megan Park
Women is Losers- Lissette Feliciano

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Introducing, Selma Blair- Rachel Fleit,
Kid Candidate- Jasmine Stodel,
Lily Topples The World- Jeremy Workman
Not Going Quietly- Nicholas Bruckman
The Oxy Kingpins- Brendan FitzGerald,
The Return: Life After ISIS (Spain, United Kingdom)- Alba Sotorra Clua
Subjects of Desire (Canada)- Jennifer Holness,
United States vs. Reality Winner- Sonia Kennebeck

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
The Drover’s Wife: the Legend of Molly Johnson (Australia)- Leah Purcell
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers (Philippines, United States)- Dante Basco,
Language Lessons- Natalie Morales
Ludi- Edson Jean
Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break (United Kingdom)- Nick Gillespie
Recovery- Mallory Everton, Stephen Meek
See You Then- Mari Walker
Swan Song- Todd Stephens

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
Alien On Stage (United Kingdom)-Danielle Kummer, Lucy Harvey
Fruits of Labor- Emily Cohen Ibañez
The Hunt for Planet B- Nathaniel Kahn,
Hysterical-Andrea Nevins
The Lost Sons- Ursula Macfarlane
Mau (Austria, United States)- Benji Bergmann, Jono Bergmann
Spring Valley- Garrett Zevgetis
WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn- Jed Rothstein
When Claude Got Shot- Brad Lichtenstein
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America- Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler
MIDNIGHTERS
Broadcast Signal Intrusion- Jacob Gentry
The Feast (United Kingdom)- Lee-Haven Jones
Gaia (South Africa)- Jaco Bouwer
Jakob’s Wife- Travis Stevens
Offseason- Mickey Keating
Sound Of Violence (Finland, United States)-Alex Noyer
The Spine of Night- Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror- Kier-La Janisse

FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Dear Mr. Brody- Keith Maitland
How It Ends- Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones
In the Same Breath- Nanfu Wang
Ma Belle, My Beauty- Marion Hill
R#J- Carey Williams
Violation (Canada)- Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

VISIONS
Ayar– Floyd Russ
Delia Derbyshirethe Myths and the Legendary Tapes (United Kingdom)- Caroline Catz
Inbetween Girl- Mei Makino
Through the Plexi-Glass: The Last Days of the San Jose- Liz Lambert
Twyla Moves- Steven Cantor

24 BEATS PER SECOND
Disintegration Loops- David Wexler
I Went To The Dance/J’ai Été Au Bal- Les Blank, Chris Strachwitz
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (United Kingdom)-Paul Sng, Celeste Bell
Soy Cubana- Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov
Under the Volcano (Australia)- Gracie Otto

GLOBAL
Bantú Mama (Dominican Republic)- Ivan Herrera
Fucking with Nobody (Finland)- Hannaleena Hauru
Luchadoras (Germany/Mexico)- Paola Calvo, Patrick Jasim
Ninjababy (Norway)- Yngvild Sve Flikkeiere)
Trapped (Egypt)- Manal Khaled

2020 SPOTLIGHT
Best Summer Ever- Michael Parks Randa, Lauren Smitelli
Chad- Nasim Pedrad, Rhys Thomas
Clerk (Canada, U.S.A.)- Malcolm Ingram
Executive Order (Brazil)- Lázaro Ramos
Violet- Justine Bateman
We Are As Gods- Jason Sussberg, David Alvarado
We Are The Thousand (Italy)- Anita Rivaroli
Witch Hunt-Elle Callahan
Without Getting Killed or Caught- Tamara Saviano, Paul Whitfield

EPISODIC PROGRAM

EPISODIC PREMIERES

Confronting A Serial Killer- Po Kutchins, Joe Berlinger

Cruel Summer- Tia Napolitano, Max Winkler

The Girlfriend Experience- Anja Marquardt, Producer: Chris Thompson
Made for Love- Christina Lee Stephanie Laing

Sasquatch- Joshua Rofé

Them- Little Marvin

EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION

4 Feet High (Argentina, France)- Maria Belen Poncio, Rosario Perazolo Masjoan

Dale’s House- Julie Lake, Kat Whalen

For the Record (Canada)- Julian De Zotti, Lisa Baylin, Julian De Zotti

Parked in America- Kayla Yumi Lewis, Luke Salin

The Position- Matthew Lessner

Pretend Partners- Kristin Erickson, Ron Najor, Director: Ron Najor

SPECIAL EVENTS

Opening Night Special Event: YouTube Originals Docuseries Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil Special Event Q&A

Closing Night Film Special Event: Live Q&A with Charli XCX, a SICK moderator, and directors Bradley & Pablo

7 Sounds
Art and Life Talk with Filmmakers Daryl Wein & Zoe Lister-Jones of Mister Lister Films

Black Monday Q&A

Clerk and Twerk with Kevin Smith and Malcolm Ingram
Confronting a Serial Killer Conversation
Jada Pinkett Smith in Conversation with the Creator, Executive Producers, and Cast of the new Amazon Prime Video Terror Anthology, Them

A Conversation with the Filmmakers Behind Hulu’s WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn

Cosmic Breakthrough: Women in The Hunt for Planet B

Cruel Summer Q&A
HBO Max’s Made for Love: Panel with Stars and Executive Producers

Homeroom with Nasim Pedrad, creator of TBS’s new comedy series Chad

Hysterical: Behind the Velvet Curtain with Comedy’s Boundary-Breaking Women

In Conversation with Mark Duplass & Natalie Morales

Incorporating Choreography and Verse Into Blindspotting

Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story – Scenes from the Rough Cut

The Making and Digital Restoration of I Went to the Dance

On the Road(trip) to Recovery: Filmmakers Mallory Everton, Whitney Call and Stephen Meek Talk their Feature Debut in the Midst of a Pandemi

Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché – In Conversation with the Filmmakers

A Q&A with Kier-La Janisse of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched

Solar Opposites Table Read & SHLORPION SILENT (AND ALONE) DISCO

Scoring my first Feature Film, a conversation with Finneas O’Connell

Swipe Righteous

SXSW Film Fest Episodic Pitch-a-Thon Presented by SeriesFest
Til Death Do Us Part: A Jakob’s Wife Discussion

Twyla Moves… You

Violet Q&A

Weed, Murder & Bigfoot: A Conversation with the Team Behind Hulu’s Sasquatch

SHORTS PROGRAM

NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION

Are You Still There?- Rayka Zehtabchi, Sam Davis

Bruiser- Miles Warren

Chuj Boys of Summer (Guatemala, United States)- Max Walker-Silverman

The Criminals (Romania, Turkey)- Serhat Karaaslan

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma- Topaz Jones, rubberband

Femme (United Kingdom)- Ng Choon Ping, Sam H. Freeman

The Journey (Canada)- Ève Saint-Louis

Like The Ones I Used To Know (Canada)-Annie St-Pierre

Marvin’s Never Had Coffee Before- Andrew Carter

The Mohel (Canada)- Charles Wahl

The Nipple Whisperer (Belgium)- Jan Van Dyck

Ryan Pineda: When it comes to film, animation, video games and other mediums, I can discuss for hours about how much on why certain films and animated media made me the person I am today. I adore the artistic merit that comes from a lot of pop-culture media and will definitely love to have a conversation about favorite movies any day! I have graduated in 2017 with a BA in Film and Television at the University of Arizona. Been passionate about writing about films due to always having an interesting outlook on the medium. Will always see a film and will definitely be sure to recommend it to someone that I know for a fact would love that movie. Not only that but will also give reasons for why I think that film did or did not work as a movie, and the same can go for other pieces of media like television, video games and especially animated projects.
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