South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival organizers today announced the 2013 Midnighters and short film lineup which rounds out the entire 2013 film festival lineup barring any last minute additions before the festival in mid-March.
The late night feature films, known as "midnighters," joining the previously announced regular narrative and documentary features, include films of a horrific, sexual and mind-bending nature.
"We work year-round searching for films that will wow our audiences at Midnight," said SXSW Senior Programmer & Operations Manager Jarod Neece. "This year we scoured the globe and brought back a batch that we knew would truly satisfy the gore hounds of SXSW. Full of scares, sex, madness, laughs, chills and major mind f*cks, we hope there's a little something for everyone."
Leading this crop of thrillers and "mind f*cks" are two Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett led projects and proven festival circuit favorites in “You're Next” and “V/H/S/2.” The former experienced great success at the 2011 editions of the Toronto International Film Festival and Austin”s own Fantastic Fest where the film won four awards including Best Picture (horror). The latter, a sequel to the 2012 SXSW hit "V/H/S/," comes to SXSW after receiving widespread critical acclaim at this year's Sundance Film Festival where the film was screened using its original title “S-VHS.”
The Midnighters lineup also features the hotly anticipated Canadian film “Haunter.” Directed by Vincenzo Natali (“Splice) and starring Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”), the film tells the mind-bending story of a family repeating the day they were all killed in 1985.
More information on the aforementioned films and the list of the rest of the Midnighters lineup is available here.
Not to be lost in all of the excitement about the midnight films is the 2013 festival's short film lineup. The 2013 SXSW short film program includes films of the standard narrative, documentary and animated varieties as well as a series of shorts made my Texas high school students and music video shorts which help blend SXSW's music and film festivals together.
"Every year my admiration for shorts filmmakers grows," said Shorts Programmer Claudette Godfrey. "We are continually lucky to share the results of the extreme commitment and heart that goes into the creation of these short films. "
The SXSW shorts programs offer both an opportunity for up-and-coming filmmakers to expose their work to the film community but also an opportunity for the festival goers to take a break from the regular feature festival fare and see exquisite films that they may never be able to see again in public. The entire SXSW short film lineup, starting with the narrative shorts, is available here.
The 2013 SXSW film festival and conference runs from March 8-16 in downtown Austin and across the greater Austin area. More information on the festival including film news, speaker announcements and badge purchasing options can be found here.
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