SXSW Teaming With Amazon for Free Online Film Festival

The annual South by Southwest film festival (SXSW) was cancelled this year, just seven days before it was supposed to begin last month. This left independent filmmakers without the ability to showcase their work, which means that a lot of films won't get distribution deals from studios. Fortunately, Amazon is teaming up with SXSW to revive the festival online, making it free to view for all with an Amazon Prime subscription. Any filmmaker whose film was set to screen at Sundance can opt-in to the Amazon version of the festival. Those films will be available on Amazon Prime Video for 10 days, likely beginning in late April.

Not every movie that was supposed to screen at Sundance will opt-in to this festival, as some already have distribution deals with other studios. But there will still be a lot of features, short films, and TV projects that will be available for the public to watch for a limited time, allowing distributors to see reactions and reviews. Hopefully that leads to most of the projects being picked up.

"We're honored to be able to provide a space for the SXSW filmmakers to share their hard work and passion with audiences for the first time," said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. "It's been a privilege collaborating with [SXSW director of film] Janet Pierson and the SXSW team to bring these diverse and inspiring films to viewers around the country. We are supporters of SXSW and other independent film festivals, and hope this online film festival can help give back some of that experience, and showcase artists and films that audiences might otherwise not have had the chance to see."

"Ever since SXSW was cancelled by the City of Austin, we've been focused on how we could help the incredible films and filmmakers in the SXSW 2020 Film Festival lineup," said Pierson. "We were delighted when Amazon Prime Video offered to host an online film festival and jumped at the opportunity to connect their audiences to our filmmakers. We're inspired by the adaptability and resilience of the film community as it searches for creative solutions in this unprecedented crisis."

At this point, SXSW has not announced whether or not it will be putting on any of the planned panels from the physical festival for the online version. For now, it's just the films being presented.

Are you looking forward to attending SXSW from home? Let us know in the comments!