The annual SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, represents a microcosm of the contemporary entertainment industry, and 2014 was no exception. Filmmakers, tech startups (“interactive”), musicians, and fans of each, all converged in Austin during the University of Texas’ spring break. 
The ten-day festival claims that by “fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.” The first five days consist of film and interactive programs coinciding with each other, then the film festival continues and overlaps with five days of live musical performances.
The music portion is by far the largest part of the event, with over 2,000 official acts showcased on more than 100 stages and over 70,000 attendees. The film festival features industry heavyweights alongside small-budget indie films. Now, the ever-growing interactive section attracts over 30,000 digital creative types who participate in over 1,000 conference sessions. The film festival attendance is less than half the size of the interactive poriton.
The tech industry continues to influence the distribution and dissemination of both music and film. Movies are becoming increasingly more widely available on services including Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and Video On Demand (VOD) services.
It seems that the movie industry is also going the way of the music industry, where only a small percent of the artists make money. At the same time, both industries have exploded with musicians and filmmakers designing DIY careers — funding their projects through crowd-sourcing, and producing their own music and films, arranging their own tours, selling their own merchandise. In both cases, the amount of the product is expanding, while the number of profitable projects is shrinking.
Demonstrating a future trend, the SXSW Film Festival was heavily sponsored by cable television. Penny Dreadful and COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey, two upcoming cable TV shows, screened in the Episodic division of the film festival. A number of successful Episodics have premiered at SXSW, most notable Lena Dunham’s Girls in 2012. Some of the money and talent that had been going to small- and medium-budget films is now being directed to original films and TV series on Netflix, Showtime, and HBO.
In the traditional film format, the Grand Jury Winner this year was Fort Tilden from first-time directors and writers Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers. The sardonic film follows two flighty 20-something girls on their road trip. The Great Invisible took the 2014 Grand Jury prize in the documentary feature competition. The film examines the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion through the eyes of the oil executives, survivors and Gulf Coast residents. 10000 KM (Long Distance) took the Special Jury Recognition for Best Acting Duo: Natalie Tena and David Verdaguer. The film investigates the intersection of a relationship with modern technology. Separated by job offers between Spain and LA, a young long-term couple awkwardly attempt to maintain their relationship via Skype.
One of the bigger budget premieres, A Night in Old Mexico, was a labor of love project from Robert Duvall and screenwriter William D. Wittliff (Lonesome Dove). Thirty years in the making, the film is a clever, amusing adventure between a crotchey old man who is united for the first time with his twenty-two-year-old grandson. Robert Duvall’s character hijacks the grandson down to Mexico from Texas, with many unexpected capers and charming encounters ensuing. The film keeps you giggling throughout. Already picked up for distribution, look for A Night in Old Mexico to be in theaters and video on demand in May.
Karen Henry is an Associate Editor at LA YOGA who volunteers in a variety of capacities for nonprofit organizations and artists around Los Angeles. She practices yoga as a counterbalance to her daily impact sports and is a mother of four grown children who also practice yoga . Now, she’s working on teaching yoga and joy of life to the grandkids!