You can watch the 2020 SXSW film festival online for free right now
This story has been updated with the live date of the SXSW film festival online.
Back in early March, it was a surprise when the South by Southwest (SXSW) music and film festival was canceled due to the spread of COVID-19. At that point, big changes were just starting to take place. (What a difference a few weeks makes, huh?) The cancellation of SXSW meant—among other things—that a bunch of new movies wouldn’t be getting their premieres. While it’s impossible to make up for what was lost, the festival is trying something new. Right now, movies from the SXSW film festival are available to stream online for free.
SXSW teamed up with Amazon Prime to bring 39 of the films and episodic entries online for a week and a half, starting today, Monday, April 27th and ending Wednesday, May 6th.
The movies are available in front of the paywall, meaning you do not need to be subscribed to Amazon Prime; you’ll just need a free Amazon account.
Find the virtual SXSW film festival right here.
The work available to stream includes narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and episodic series. For example, the documentary My Darling Vivian will tell the story of Johnny Cash’s first wife, Vivian Liberto. As for narrative films, the drama Gunpowder Heart follows two women in Guatemala who have to decide whether to get revenge after being attacked on the street. There’s also the short Daddio, about a father and daughter handling grief. Casey Wilson directs and stars in Daddio. The full list of what will be streaming can be seen on the SXSW site.
It was up to filmmakers to decide whether they wanted to be part of the online festival, so, unfortunately, some of the most highly anticipated features are not on the list.
For example, The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel, and The King of Staten Island, starring Pete Davidson and directed by Judd Apatow, will not be available. These films, no doubt, will still be released in theaters—or perhaps to stream, not for free—at a later date. The Lovebirds, which stars Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani, was also supposed to show at SXSW. It will premiere on Netflix on May 22nd.
That said, if you are a movie lover, the online film festival is a great opportunity to check out movies that you wouldn’t have gotten the chance to see otherwise. Get your popcorn and cozy clothes ready.
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