February 12, 2008–The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference & Festival announced its complete slate of panels and workshops for the 15th annual event in Austin. The SXSW Film
Conference will take place in the Austin Convention Center during March 8-11, and is open to all SXSW Film, Gold, and Platinum registrants.
In addition, the SXSW Film Conference will co-host joint sessions with the SXSW Interactive Conference. Nearly 200 industry veterans and experts are on tap as speakers for the panels.
Among the newly-announced additions to the panels schedule are: A Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton & Dwight Yoakam on March 11, Coming Soon: The Making of a Trailer scheduled for March 10, An Actor's Workshop with Jeffrey Tambor on March 9, Drugs, Politics, and Race: A Harold & Kumar Panel and What the Writers Strike Taught Us on March 8.
These panels join already announced highlights such as A Conversation with Harlan Ellison, Stanley Nelson: History in the Making and A Conversation with Helen Hunt, both confirmed for March 9. The SXSW Film Conference will
conclude on the afternoon of March 11 with A Conversation with Moby, where BMIs Doreen Ringer-Ross will conduct an interview with the prominent musician and film composer.
New this year for the SXSW Film Conference is Global Doc Days, an event built around programming by various international film organizations. In the Austin Suite of the Austin Convention Center, countries such as Mexico,
Canada, Norway, and China will present some of their latest documentary programming to SXSW Film Conference participants. Global Doc Days will strive to bridge gaps between international documentary industries, and place itself as one of the only venues in the US, where such activity occurs. Two selections from Mexico, the documentaries Born Without and The Old Thieves, have also been added to official festival screenings lineup of SXSW.
The entire panels lineup and schedule, will be available on the SXSW Web site on Friday, February 15. On February 12, SXSW will release the full list of confirmed short films screening at the 2008 Film Festival, on the official site: sxsw.com/film. For more information, email
film@sxsw.com.
