While we’re still waiting for the full lineup, the SXSW Film Festival has made some exciting announcement for what it has on tap for this year. According to Variety, the festival hold the world premieres for Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, AMC’s Preacher, the documentaries Beware the Slenderman and Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, and the Grecian film Cheavlier. It will also play host to the North American premiere of Jeff Nichols’ sci-fi thriller Midnight Special. This is all in addition to the film festival opening with Everybody Wants Some, Richard Linklater’s spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused.
I can’t wait to hear the buzz on these films and on Preacher (Variety doesn’t note if they’re just showing the pilot or if they’ll show anything beyond the first episode). I’m also curious to see what will be joining these seven titles. The full feature film lineup will be announced on February 2nd.
Check out brief descriptions of the new additions below. The 2016 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 11 – 19th.
Beware the Slenderman (World Premiere)
Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky
In this horrifyingly modern fairytale lurks an online Boogeyman and two 12-year-old girls who would kill for him. The entrance to the internet quickly leads to its darkest basement. How responsible are our children for what they find there?
Chevalier
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Screenwriters: Efthimis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari
Six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game to compete. Things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. (Greece)
Cast: Yorgos Kentros, Panos Koronis, Vangelis Mourikis, Makis Papadimitriou, Yorgos Pirpassopoulos, Sakis Rouvas
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (World Premiere)
Director: Joe Berlinger
Granted unprecedented access, Berlinger captures renowned life and business strategist Tony Robbins behind the scenes of his mega seminar Date with Destiny, pulling back the curtain on this life-altering and controversial event, the zealous participants and the man himself.
Midnight Special (North American Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Jeff Nichols
A father goes on the run to protect his young son and uncover the truth behind the boy’s special powers in the sci-fi thriller Midnight Special, a film as supernatural as it is intimately human.
Cast: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Jaeden Lieberher, Sam Shepard
Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (World Premiere)
Director: John Lee, Screenwriters: Paul Reubens, Paul Rust
In Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, a fateful meeting with a mysterious stranger inspires Pee-wee Herman to take his first-ever holiday in this epic story of friendship and destiny.
Cast: Paul Reubens, Joe Manganiello, Jessica Pohly, Alia Shawkat, Stephanie Beatriz
Preacher (World Premiere)
Directors: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Screenwriter: Sam Catlin
Preacher is a supernatural, twisted and darkly comedic drama that follows a West Texas preacher named Jesse Custer, who – along with his ex-girlfriend Tulip and an Irish vagabond named Cassidy – is thrust into a crazy world, much bigger than he is.
Cast: Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, Joseph Gilgun, Ian Colletti, W. Earl Brown, Lucy Griffiths
