James Franco’s ‘The Disaster Artist’ joins South By Southwest Film Festival lineup
The South By Southwest Film Festival, following up on its main program announcement last week, on Tuesday released more titles for the upcoming edition of the Austin, Texas-based event.
Topping the new list is a work-in-progress screening of “The Disaster Artist,” directed by and starring James Franco. Based on the making of the 2003 movie “The Room,” starring and directed by Tommy Wiseau, Franco’s film explores the origins of a startling and ongoing object of cult fascination and popularity. The cast includes Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Jacki Weaver and Alison Brie. (“The Room” will also screen during the festival.)
For the record:
11:45 p.m. April 24, 2024An earlier version of this post noted the screening of “The Disaster Artist” as a world premiere, based on information provided to the Times. After publication, the information changed. The film will be shown as a work-in-progress screening.
Also, Eleanor Coppola’s fiction feature directing debut “Paris Can Wait,” starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin, will have its U.S. premiere, and David Fairhead’s documentary “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo” will have its world premiere.
The festival is elevating virtual reality work to its own official section and will program 38 projects. The festival also announced its lineup of 128 short films, which will screen in 12 curated shorts programs.
The “Midnighters” section, dedicated to genre filmmaking, will screen 10 films, including eight world premieres. The titles are Trent Haaga’s “68 Kill,” Laurence “Baz” Morais’ “Game of Death,” Karen Skloss’ “The Honor Farm,” Taneli Mustonen’s “Lake Bodom,” Joe Lynch’s “Mayhem,” Yoshihiro Nishimura’s “Meatball Machine Kodoku,” Adam Mason’s “Pig: The Final Screenings,” Tyler MacIntyre’s “Tragedy Girls,” Dominic Bridges’ “Two Pigeons” and a 10th-anniversary screening of Scott Glosserman’s “Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon,”
“In this current political climate, genre filmmakers are more necessary than ever,” SXSW senior film programmer Jarod Neece said in a statement. “They give us the chance to escape the horrors in our daily lives and spend some time in the dark, hallowed halls of the cinema.”
The SXSW Conference also announced a new group of speakers for the concurrent event. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) will be the opening speaker (following up on last year’s opening-day appearance by President Obama). Others appearing at the event will be Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actress Julia-Louis Dreyfus and the cast of “Veep,” singer and songwriter Kesha, actor Bob Odenkirk and actor John Cena. CNN’s Jake Tapper will interview Paul J. Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Previously announced speakers include Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and writer-director-producers Lee Daniels and Jill Soloway.
The South By Southwest Film Festival is set to run March 10-19. For more information, visit sxsw.com
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