Left: New Line Cinema, right: Columbia Pictures / Peter Iovino
Left: Kal Penn (left) and John Cho in "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay." Right: Kate Bosworth (left) and Jim Sturgess in "21."
[UPDATED below on the premiere of "21" and a preview of "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay."]
AUSTIN, Texas -- It's probably easiest to explain the appeal of the South by Southwest Film Festival, which launched here on Friday night with the premiere of the MIT-students-vs.-Vegas caper "21" (more on which below), by describing what it isn't. When SXSW's film component was launched in 1994, it was more or less an adjunct or baby sister to the long-established, alt-rock-oriented music industry bash. It isn't that anymore, although there's a significant subset of music-related movies and both festivals still share the same friendly-party vibe.
SXSW isn't a major acquisition marketplace for new films in the mode of Sundance or Berlin, and I'm not sure it ever will be. Some modest proportion of the movies that premiere here will sneak into the marketplace sooner or later -- maybe through tiny boutique distributors, or public TV, or straight-to-DVD release -- but plenty of others will never make it off the festival circuit. It's definitely not a celeb-spotting glamour zone à la Cannes or Venice; those actors and directors who do show up are liable to be eating right next to you, unrecognized, at Chuy's Tex-Mex or Ruby's Barbeque.