South by Southwest
Encyclopedia
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring (usually in March) in Austin, Texas
, United States
with the exception of SXSWeco which takes place in October. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center
. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates. In 2011, the conference lasted for ten days, with interactive lasting for five, music for six, and film lasting the longest at nine days.
s in the United States, with more than 2,000 performers playing in more than 90 venue
s around downtown Austin over four days, in March. SXSW Music offers artist-provided music and video samples of featured artists at each festival via their official YouTube channel.
SXSW Film has become one of the world's premier film festivals, focusing on new directing talent.
Similarly, SXSW Interactive has attracted a strong following among web creators and entrepreneurs. Its focus on emerging technology has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. According to festival co-organizer Louis Black
, SXSW Interactive "has probably been the biggest of its kind in the world" since 2007.
The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events have grown every year, most recently bringing around 15,000 to 20,000 registrants to Austin every March.
Collectively, SXSW is the highest revenue-producing special event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of $167 million in 2011.
music festival New Music Seminar
contacted Roland Swenson, a staffer at the alternative weekly
The Austin Chronicle, about organizing an extension of that festival into Austin. The plans did not materialize, so Swenson decided to instead co-organize a local music festival, with the help of two other people at the Chronicle: editor and co-founder Louis Black, and publisher Nick Barbaro. Louis Meyers, a booking agent and musician, was also brought on board. Black came up with the name, as a play on the name of the Alfred Hitchcock
film North by Northwest
. The event was first held in March 1987. The organizers considered it a regional event and expected around 150 attendees to show up, but over 700 came, and according to Black "it was national almost immediately."
Meyers left Austin and the festival in the early 1990s, but Black, Barbaro and Swenson remained the festival's key organizers as of 2010.
was the keynote speaker at the 1992 South by Southwest. She caused controversy by delivering a speech, written by her then-husband Bart Bull
, criticizing white musicians for stealing music from African-American artists; and then later during the same conference when she tried to kick the band Two Nice Girls
off of a benefit concert, a move that some called anti-gay, due to Two Nice Girls' overtly lesbian
image.
That year, the three brothers of the band Hanson
were brought to SXSW by their father in order to perform impromptu auditions for music executives, in the hopes of getting industry attention. Among the people who heard them was A&R executive Christopher Sabec
, who became their manager, and would soon afterward get them signed to Mercury Records
.
John Mayer
's performance at the 2000 SXSW Music festival led to his signing soon thereafter with Aware Records
, his first record label
.
at the 2002 SXSW Music festival helped bring them to national attention before they had signed with a major label.
At the 2002 SXSW Film Festival, the film Manito
won the jury award for narrative feature, while the documentary Spellbound won the jury award for documentary feature.
was discovered by producer Linda Perry
while playing a small show at the 2004 SXSW Music festival, and was signed to Perry's Custard Records
soon thereafter, where he would go on to release all three of his subsequent albums.
film genre. A number of films now classified as mumblecore, including The Puffy Chair
and Mutual Appreciation
, screened there, and Eric Masunaga, a musician and the sound editor
on Mutual Appreciation, is credited with coining the term "mumblecore" at a bar while at the festival.
The film Hooligans won both the Feature Film Jury Award and the Feature Film Audience Award for narrative feature, while The Puffy Chair won the Feature Film Audience Award in the "Emerging Visions" category.
was called one of the "Top 10 Music-Festival Moments" of all time by Time
magazine in 2010.
The 2006 SXSW Interactive featured a keynote panel of Wikipedia
co-founder Jimmy Wales
and Craigslist
founder Craig Newmark
.
That year, "Screenburn at SXSW", a component for video games, was added to SXSW Interactive.
Two of the top film premieres that year were Elvis and Anabelle
and Skills Like This
.
The social media
platform Twitter
notably gained a good deal of early traction and buzz at the 2007 SXSW Interactive, though it did not launch there, as is sometimes reported.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg
by technology journalist Sarah Lacy
that was considered by some observers to be a "train wreck" due to an audience perception that Lacy was asking uninteresting questions, as well as mocking or terse answers in response from Zuckerberg.
(primarily due to heavy iPhone
usage). Also new was the founding of an international organization for those not attending, dubbed NotAtSXSW. Coordinating through Twitter
and other online tools, notatsxsw events were held in London, New York, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon and Miami. According to the Los Angeles Times
, some Twitter users were only pretending to be at the 2009 festival. During the conference a group of British web developers occupied a conference room and held their own panel "Not Another Social Media Panel" in reaction to the perceived homogeneity and lack of dissent of some of the other panels.
The 2009 SXSW Interactive saw the launch of the Foursquare application, which was called "the breakout mobile app" of the event by the Mashable
blog.
The 2009 SXSW Film screened 250 films, including 54 world premieres. The event was notable for having the United States premiere of the film The Hurt Locker
, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
in 2010. The winners of the feature jury awards were, for documentary feature, "45365
", and for narrative feature, Made in China
.
, who died shortly before he was to perform with Big Star
. A tribute concert was performed in his honor on March 20, 2010.
At the 2010 festival, nearly 2,000 bands were officially scheduled to perform, and festival reps estimated that over 13,000 industry representatives attended. Though traditionally the Austin Music Awards kick off the festival, that year organizers slated it as the closing act. Local musician Bob Schneider
earned 6 awards, including Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, and Band of the Year (with Lonelyland
.) The 2010 festival was also notable for appearances by the surviving members of the band Moby Grape
.
At the 2010 Film festival, Magnolia Pictures
bought the film rights to the science-fiction film Monsters
on the night it screened, in what was the first-ever "overnight acquisition" at SXSW. Journalist Meredith Melnick of Time
magazine called this purchase a turning point for SXSW, leading to a greater interest among film studio executives in attending the festival in person.
The 2010 Interactive festival had an estimated 12-13,000 paying attendees, which represented a 40% jump over the previous year. This was the first year in which the interactive festival's attendance surpassed the music festival's. The keynote presentation was an interview of then-Twitter CEO Evan Williams by Umair Haque
, an interview that many in the audience found disappointingly superficial. Also during the interactive festival, the first-ever (and so far only) "Hive Awards For the Unsung Heroes of the Internet" were held.
The keynote presenter for SXSW Interactive was Seth Priebatsch
, founder and CEO of the mobile-gaming platform SCVNGR
. The 2011 Interactive festival was by far the largest it had ever been, with an estimated 20,000 attendees.
Also in attendance at SXSW was boxing legend Mike Tyson
, promoting his new iPhone game with RockLive
at the Screenburn Arcade
At least two films screened at the SXSW Film festival gained distribution deals there: the documentary Undefeated
and the thriller The Divide
. As a result, film critic Christopher Kelly wrote that in 2011, SXSW Film went from being "a well-regarded but fundamentally regional event" to having "joined the big leagues of film festivals around the world."
, North by Northeast
(NXNE) in Toronto
, North by Northwest (NXNW) in Portland, Oregon
, West by Southwest (WXSW) in Tucson, Arizona
and Incubate
(formerly known as "ZXZW") in Tilburg
, The Netherlands.
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the exception of SXSWeco which takes place in October. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center
Austin Convention Center
The Neal Kocurek Memorial Austin Convention Center is a multi-purpose convention center located in Austin, Texas, USA. The building is the home of the Texas Rollergirls, and was also home to the Austin Toros basketball team, until their move to the Cedar Park Center in nearby Cedar Park in 2010.The...
. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates. In 2011, the conference lasted for ten days, with interactive lasting for five, music for six, and film lasting the longest at nine days.
Overview
SXSW Music is one of the largest music festivalMusic festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
s in the United States, with more than 2,000 performers playing in more than 90 venue
Music venue
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music...
s around downtown Austin over four days, in March. SXSW Music offers artist-provided music and video samples of featured artists at each festival via their official YouTube channel.
SXSW Film has become one of the world's premier film festivals, focusing on new directing talent.
Similarly, SXSW Interactive has attracted a strong following among web creators and entrepreneurs. Its focus on emerging technology has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. According to festival co-organizer Louis Black
Louis Black
Louis Black is a co-founder of The Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly newspaper published in Austin, Texas, and has been the newspaper's editor since its inception. He has written over 600 articles in his column in that newspaper...
, SXSW Interactive "has probably been the biggest of its kind in the world" since 2007.
The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events have grown every year, most recently bringing around 15,000 to 20,000 registrants to Austin every March.
Collectively, SXSW is the highest revenue-producing special event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of $167 million in 2011.
History
In July 1986, the organizers of the New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
music festival New Music Seminar
New Music Seminar
The New Music Seminar was a series of multi-venue music showcases held annually in New York City, in the month of June, from 1980 to 1995, then relaunched in 2009....
contacted Roland Swenson, a staffer at the alternative weekly
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
The Austin Chronicle, about organizing an extension of that festival into Austin. The plans did not materialize, so Swenson decided to instead co-organize a local music festival, with the help of two other people at the Chronicle: editor and co-founder Louis Black, and publisher Nick Barbaro. Louis Meyers, a booking agent and musician, was also brought on board. Black came up with the name, as a play on the name of the Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
film North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
. The event was first held in March 1987. The organizers considered it a regional event and expected around 150 attendees to show up, but over 700 came, and according to Black "it was national almost immediately."
Meyers left Austin and the festival in the early 1990s, but Black, Barbaro and Swenson remained the festival's key organizers as of 2010.
1992
Singer-songwriter Michelle ShockedMichelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...
was the keynote speaker at the 1992 South by Southwest. She caused controversy by delivering a speech, written by her then-husband Bart Bull
Bart Bull
Bart Bull is an American writer, reporter, author, columnist, and critic.-Background:Born in Seattle, Washington, Bull grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He dropped out of high school in order to write a novel, and then returned briefly, leaving again without graduating. He was married to...
, criticizing white musicians for stealing music from African-American artists; and then later during the same conference when she tried to kick the band Two Nice Girls
Two Nice Girls
Two Nice Girls were a self-styled "lesbian rock" band from Austin, Texas, featuring singer-songwriter Gretchen Phillips.The group's original line up was*Gretchen Phillips - guitar, bass, mandolin and vocals...
off of a benefit concert, a move that some called anti-gay, due to Two Nice Girls' overtly lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
image.
1994
In 1994, SXSW added a component for film and other media, named the "SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference".That year, the three brothers of the band Hanson
Hanson (band)
Hanson are an American pop rock band formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by brothers Isaac , Taylor , and Zac Hanson . They are best known for the 1997 hit song "MMMBop" from their major label debut album Middle of Nowhere, which earned three Grammy nominations...
were brought to SXSW by their father in order to perform impromptu auditions for music executives, in the hopes of getting industry attention. Among the people who heard them was A&R executive Christopher Sabec
Christopher Sabec
Christopher Sabec is an entertainment attorney, manager and executive who has worked with Dave Matthews Band, Hanson, the Jerry Garcia Estate and Tea Leaf GreenSabec currently is the co-founder and CEO of DigitalRights...
, who became their manager, and would soon afterward get them signed to Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
.
1995
In 1995 the SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference was split into two separate events, "SXSW Film" and "SXSW Multimedia".2000
Singer-songwriterSinger-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
's performance at the 2000 SXSW Music festival led to his signing soon thereafter with Aware Records
Aware Records
Aware Records is an American record label, existent to seek unsigned musical artists and expose them to the mainstream media. The label has had success with a range of artists, including John Mayer, Train, Five For Fighting, Mat Kearney and Guster....
, his first record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
2002
A performance by the band The Polyphonic SpreeThe Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree is a choral symphonic pop rock band from Dallas, Texas that was formed in 2000 by Tim DeLaughter. The band's sound relies on a variety of vocal and instrumental color by featuring a choir, flute, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, guitars, bass, drums,...
at the 2002 SXSW Music festival helped bring them to national attention before they had signed with a major label.
At the 2002 SXSW Film Festival, the film Manito
Manito (film)
Manito is a 2002 American Independent film written and directed by first time film maker Eric Eason. Shot in the cinema verite style, Manito chronicles 48 incident-packed hours in the lives of a Washington Heights Latino family....
won the jury award for narrative feature, while the documentary Spellbound won the jury award for documentary feature.
2004
British singer James BluntJames Blunt
James Hillier Blount , better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, and former army officer, whose debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover", brought him to fame in 2005...
was discovered by producer Linda Perry
Linda Perry
Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...
while playing a small show at the 2004 SXSW Music festival, and was signed to Perry's Custard Records
Custard Records
Custard Records is an American record label, best known for its success with English singer-songwriter and Number 1 recording artist James Blunt...
soon thereafter, where he would go on to release all three of his subsequent albums.
2005
The 2005 SXSW Film is considered by some to be the origin of the mumblecoreMumblecore
Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that arose at the turn of the 21st century. Filmmakers associated with the movement include Andrew Bujalski, Lynn Shelton, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz, Joe Swanberg, and Barry Jenkins....
film genre. A number of films now classified as mumblecore, including The Puffy Chair
The Puffy Chair
The Puffy Chair is a 2005 comedy film written and directed by Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass. It screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival. It is considered part of the mumblecore movement...
and Mutual Appreciation
Mutual Appreciation
Mutual Appreciation is an independent film by Andrew Bujalski who previously directed Funny Ha Ha . The script is primarily dialogue between a group of young people as they try to determine where they fit in the world. It is considered part of the mumblecore movement.-Plot:The principal characters...
, screened there, and Eric Masunaga, a musician and the sound editor
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
on Mutual Appreciation, is credited with coining the term "mumblecore" at a bar while at the festival.
The film Hooligans won both the Feature Film Jury Award and the Feature Film Audience Award for narrative feature, while The Puffy Chair won the Feature Film Audience Award in the "Emerging Visions" category.
2006
A secret concert at the 2006 SXSW Music by the band The Flaming LipsThe Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
was called one of the "Top 10 Music-Festival Moments" of all time by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine in 2010.
The 2006 SXSW Interactive featured a keynote panel of Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
co-founder Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
and Craigslist
Craigslist
Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....
founder Craig Newmark
Craig Newmark
Craig Alexander Newmark is an Internet entrepreneur best known for being the founder of the San Francisco-based international website Craigslist.-Biography:...
.
That year, "Screenburn at SXSW", a component for video games, was added to SXSW Interactive.
2007
The 2007 music festival took place from March 14 to 18, and more than 1,400 acts performed.Two of the top film premieres that year were Elvis and Anabelle
Elvis and Anabelle
Elvis and Anabelle is an independent film directed by Will Geiger. It premiered on March 10, 2007 at the South by Southwest film and music festival in Austin, Texas...
and Skills Like This
Skills Like This
Skills Like This is a 2009 comedy film distributed by Shadow Distribution released theatrically on March 20, 2009. The DVD released on November 17, 2009 and the Premium Cable premiere on Starz and Starz On Demand 1.1. 2010. It was directed by Monty Miranda, written by Spencer Berger, and stars...
.
The social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
platform Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
notably gained a good deal of early traction and buzz at the 2007 SXSW Interactive, though it did not launch there, as is sometimes reported.
2008
The 2008 SXSW Interactive got media attention due to a keynote interview of FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president...
by technology journalist Sarah Lacy
Sarah Lacy
Sarah Ruth Lacy is an American technology journalist and author.She co-hosts web video show Yahoo! Tech Ticker and is a columnist at BusinessWeek...
that was considered by some observers to be a "train wreck" due to an audience perception that Lacy was asking uninteresting questions, as well as mocking or terse answers in response from Zuckerberg.
2009
The 2009 festival was held March 13–22. In 2009, the Interactive section of SXSW in particular drew larger attendance levels. This influx of tech-savvy attendees seriously strained the networks of providers such as AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
(primarily due to heavy iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
usage). Also new was the founding of an international organization for those not attending, dubbed NotAtSXSW. Coordinating through Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and other online tools, notatsxsw events were held in London, New York, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon and Miami. According to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, some Twitter users were only pretending to be at the 2009 festival. During the conference a group of British web developers occupied a conference room and held their own panel "Not Another Social Media Panel" in reaction to the perceived homogeneity and lack of dissent of some of the other panels.
The 2009 SXSW Interactive saw the launch of the Foursquare application, which was called "the breakout mobile app" of the event by the Mashable
Mashable
Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...
blog.
The 2009 SXSW Film screened 250 films, including 54 world premieres. The event was notable for having the United States premiere of the film The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
in 2010. The winners of the feature jury awards were, for documentary feature, "45365
45365
45365 is a 2009 documentary film made by first-time directors and brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross. The film is about the everyday life of small town Sidney, Ohio and the people living in it; the title comes from the town's postal code....
", and for narrative feature, Made in China
Made in China (film)
Made in China is a comedic feature film produced, co-written and directed by Judi Krant that was released in 2010. The title of the film is a reference to the Made in China label on many manufactured goods...
.
2010
The 2010 music festival, which took place March 12–21, was dedicated to Alex ChiltonAlex Chilton
William Alexander "Alex" Chilton was an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star...
, who died shortly before he was to perform with Big Star
Big Star
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later...
. A tribute concert was performed in his honor on March 20, 2010.
At the 2010 festival, nearly 2,000 bands were officially scheduled to perform, and festival reps estimated that over 13,000 industry representatives attended. Though traditionally the Austin Music Awards kick off the festival, that year organizers slated it as the closing act. Local musician Bob Schneider
Bob Schneider
Bob Schneider is an Austin, Texas-based musician and artist. He currently resides in Bee Cave, Texas.- Early career :...
earned 6 awards, including Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, and Band of the Year (with Lonelyland
Lonelyland
Lonelyland is the second solo album by Bob Schneider and his first released by a major label, released on March 13, 2001. It is produced by Carl Thiel.The album is offered in CD format or as a download from the iTunes Music Store...
.) The 2010 festival was also notable for appearances by the surviving members of the band Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...
.
At the 2010 Film festival, Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films....
bought the film rights to the science-fiction film Monsters
Monsters (2010 film)
Monsters is a 2010 British science fiction film, written, shot and directed by Gareth Edwards. Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy star in the lead roles.-Plot:...
on the night it screened, in what was the first-ever "overnight acquisition" at SXSW. Journalist Meredith Melnick of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine called this purchase a turning point for SXSW, leading to a greater interest among film studio executives in attending the festival in person.
The 2010 Interactive festival had an estimated 12-13,000 paying attendees, which represented a 40% jump over the previous year. This was the first year in which the interactive festival's attendance surpassed the music festival's. The keynote presentation was an interview of then-Twitter CEO Evan Williams by Umair Haque
Umair Haque
Umair Haque is a London-based consultant, author & economist. He is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review, where he focuses on capitalism and creating prosperity in the 21st century.-Early life:...
, an interview that many in the audience found disappointingly superficial. Also during the interactive festival, the first-ever (and so far only) "Hive Awards For the Unsung Heroes of the Internet" were held.
2011
The 2011 SXSW festival ran from March 11 to 20.The keynote presenter for SXSW Interactive was Seth Priebatsch
Seth Priebatsch
Seth Priebatsch is the creator of SCVNGR and LevelUp social gaming sites. Seth was a keynote speaker at South by Southwest 2011. According to the SCVNGR site, the goal of the application is to "build the game layer on top of the world"....
, founder and CEO of the mobile-gaming platform SCVNGR
Scvngr
SCVNGR is a social location-based gaming platform for mobile phones. The application has both a consumer and enterprise component. Companies, educational institutions, and organizations can build challenges, the core unit of their game, at places on SCVNGR from the web. The service also supports SMS...
. The 2011 Interactive festival was by far the largest it had ever been, with an estimated 20,000 attendees.
Also in attendance at SXSW was boxing legend Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
, promoting his new iPhone game with RockLive
RockLive
RockLive is a mobile entertainment company that develops apps and social games for the iPhone and iOS devices.Originally founded under the name "Rock Software" by brothers John and Sam Shahidi, the company's first app was RunPee, a database of the best times to go to the bathroom during specific...
at the Screenburn Arcade
At least two films screened at the SXSW Film festival gained distribution deals there: the documentary Undefeated
Undefeated (2011 film)
Undefeated is a 2011 documentary directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. The film documents the struggles of the Memphis's Manassas Tigers as they attempt a winning season after years of losses...
and the thriller The Divide
The Divide (film)
The Divide is a post-apocalyptic science-fiction thriller film directed by Xavier Gens and written by Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean. It stars Michael Biehn, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia.-Plot:...
. As a result, film critic Christopher Kelly wrote that in 2011, SXSW Film went from being "a well-regarded but fundamentally regional event" to having "joined the big leagues of film festivals around the world."
Similar festivals
SXSW has inspired similar festivals elsewhere, including 35 Conferette (formerly known as "North by 35" or "NX35") in Denton, TexasDenton, Texas
The city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
, North by Northeast
North by Northeast
North by Northeast is an annual five-day live music and film festival and music conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, held each June....
(NXNE) in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, North by Northwest (NXNW) in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, West by Southwest (WXSW) in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
and Incubate
Incubate (festival)
Incubate is a multidisciplinary arts festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands. On June 16, the festival changed it name into Incubate after a request by the Austin, US based festival SXSW to change its name. Between 2005 and 2008 the festival was called ZXZW....
(formerly known as "ZXZW") in Tilburg
Tilburg
Tilburg is a landlocked municipality and a city in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of Noord-Brabant.Tilburg municipality also includes the villages of Berkel-Enschot and Udenhout....
, The Netherlands.