Davis Guggenheim will be in Toronto with Waiting for Superman.

We’re gearing up for our coverage for the Toronto International Film Festival, and nothing makes the festival feel more real than the arrival of the annual guest list from TIFF organizers.

The fest released their full list of attendees yesterday, and it appears that the city will be host to an especially broad range of entertainers this year: directors showcasing world premieres (including Danny Boyle, Clint Eastwood, Werner Herzog and Michael Winterbottom); a slew of Academy Award-winning actors (the likes of Robert Redford, Hilary Swank, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Javier Bardem are just a few); influential businessmen (Bill Gates will take part in a discussion concerning the American education system that will coincide with the screening of Davis Guggenheim‘s documentary Waiting for Superman); iconic musicians (Bruce Springsteen will be in attendance for a documentary on his work and will be interviewed by Edward Norton) and athletes (NBA star Steve Nash will debut his documentary for ESPN Films).

Here’s the full press release, with a complete list of attendees:

Toronto International Film Festival Announces Hundreds Of Guests For 2010 Event

Toronto – The guest list for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival includes many of the world’s most celebrated directors and actors. Among the filmmakers visiting Toronto to present their world premieres this year: Clint Eastwood, Danny Boyle, Robert Redford, Werner Herzog, Michael Winterbottom, Errol Morris, Guillaume Canet, Milcho Manchevski, Kiran Rao, David Schwimmer, Chris Kraus, Ondi Timoner, John Cameron Mitchell, Mike Mills, Matt Reeves, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Actors expected to attend include: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Natalie Portman, Edward Norton and Aamir Khan. We also expect Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Rachel Weisz, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Catherine Keener and Jeon Do-Yeon; Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, Om Puri, Josh Hartnett, Michael Sheen, Ryan Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Keanu Reeves, Vincent Cassel, Paul Giamatti, Bill Murray, Bob Hoskins, Steve Coogan, Woody Harrelson, Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell. Other guests include Jennifer Connelly, Megan Fox, Uma Thurman, Freida Pinto, Ellen Page, Emma Roberts, James Franco, Ryan Gosling, Jackson Rathbone, Javier Bardem, Jon Hamm and Olivia Newton-John.

Documentary and Mavericks participants attending this year include: David Suzuki, Michael Moore, Bill Gates and Bruce Springsteen.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Aamir Bashir, Aaron Phelan, Abe Sylvia, Achero Mañas, Adam Wingard, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Álex de la Iglesia, Alex Gibney, Amos Gitai, Andrew Lau, Andrucha Waddington, Andy De Emmony, Anna Boden, Anne Emond, Antoine Bourges, Anurag Kashyap, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Atom Egoyan, Avi Nesher, Barr Gilmore, Barry Blaustein, Belmin Soylemez, Ben Affleck, Ben C. Lucas, Ben Stassen, Benoit Jacquot, Boo Junfeng, Brad Anderson, Brandon Cronenberg, Brian D. Johnson, Bruce LaBruce, Bruce McDonald, Callum Cooper, Cam Woykin, Carl Bessai, Carla Susanto, Caroline Monnet, Catherine Breillat, Catherine Martin, Charles Ferguson, Charlotte Sachs Bostrup, Chris Chong Chan Fui & Yasuhiro Morinaga, Chris Kraus, Christophe Nick, Thomas Bornot, Clint Eastwood, Dan Popa, Dan Rush, Daniel Cockburn, Daniel Espinosa, Daniel Hendler, Danis Goulet, Danny Boyle, Darragh McDonald, Darren Aronofsky, David M. Rosenthal, David Schwimmer, Davis Guggenheim, Deborah Chow, Delfina Castagnino, Denis Côté, Denis Villeneuve, Derek Cianfrance, Djo Tunda Wa Munga, Dominic Angerame, Douglas Gordon, Dustin Lance Black, Ed Gass-Donnelly, Emilio Estevez, Emmanuel Shirinian & Russell Bennett, Emre Sahin, Eran Riklis, Eric Lartigau, Eriko Sonoda, Errol Morris, Ezra Holland, Federico Veiroj, Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando, Firas Momani, François Ozon, Frederick Wiseman, Gabriel Range, Gareth Edwards, George Hickenlooper, Gilles Paquet Brenner, Greg Atkins, Guillaume Canet, Guillem Morales, Guy Maddin, Guy Moshe, Hans Olson, Helga Fanderl, Ian Sharp, Iciar Bollain, Im Sang-Soo, Ingrid Veninger, Isaac Cravit, Isabelle Stever, J. Clay Tweel, Jacob Tierney, James Andean & Francois Xavier Saint-Pierre, James Benning, James Gunn, James Wan, Janus Metz, Jeff Barnaby, Jem Cohen, Jerome Sable, Jim Mickle, Joe LoBianco, Jody Shapiro, John Bolton, John Cameron Mitchell, John Carpenter, John Curran, John Gray, John Madden, John Price, John Sayles, John Turturro, Jonathan Nossiter, Jonathan Sobol, José Luis Guerin, Juanita Wilson, Julian Schnabel, Julien Carbon, Julio Hernández Cordón, Justin Chadwick, Justin Lerner, Katrin Bowen, Kaveh Nabatian, Kazik Radwanski, Kelly Reichardt, Ken Loach, Kevan Funk, Kevin Jerome Everson, Khalo Matabane, Kim Longinotto, Kiran Rao, Kire Paputts, Koen Mortier, Ky Nam Le Duc, Larysa Kondracki, Laura Israel, Leon Ford, Linda Hoaglund, Liz Van Allen Cairns, Laurent Courtiaud, Louis Bélanger, Louise Alston, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Madison Brookshire, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Malcolm Venville, Manuel Martin Cuenca, Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre, Marion Hänsel, Mark Hartley, Mark Romanek, Martin Sokol, Matt Reeves, Max Winkler, Michael Dowse, Michael McGowan, Michael Nyman, Michael Rowe, Michael Snow, Michael Vass, Michelangelo Frammartino, Mike Goldbach, Mike Leigh, Mike Mills, Milcho Manchevski, Mitch Glazer, Nadia Litz, Nathaniel Dorsky, Nick Fox Gieg, Nicolás Pereda, Nigel Cole, Oliver Husain, Oliver Schmitz, Ondi Timoner, Özlem Sulak, Pablo Trapero, Pasquale Scimeca, Patricio Guzmán, Pelin Esmer, Perry Bard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Pierre Thoretton, Rachid Bouchareb, Rebecca Meyers, Reha Erdem, Richard Ayoade, Richard Bowen, Richard J. Lewis, Risteard Ó Domhnaill, Robert Redford, Rodrigo Cortés, Romain Gavras, Rowan Joffe, Ryan Fleck, Ryan Redford, Sara St. Onge, Sarah Bouyain, Sarah McCarthy, Saverio Constanzo, Seren Yüce, Sergei Loznitsa, Shawn Ku, Sion Sono, Sophie Fiennes, Sophie Goyette, Stefano Incerti, Stefano Pasetto, Stephen Frears, Steve Nash, Steven Silver, Sturla Gunnarsson, Susanne Bier, Tao Gu, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, Terry Miles, Theodore Ushev, Theron Patterson, Thom Andersen, Thom Zimny, Tom Hooper, Tom Tykwer, Tomonari Nishikawa, Tony Goldwyn, Trevor Anderson, Vincent Biron, Vincent Gallo, Vincent Grenier, Wang Bing, Werner Herzog, Will Gluck, William D. MacGillivray, Woody Allen, Wuershan, Xavier Dolan, Yoel Meranda.

The following guests are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Aamir Khan, Aaron Eckhart, Aaron Poole, Abigail Breslin, Adelaide Clemens, Adrienne Ciuffo, AJ Bowen, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Russell, Alexander Gammal, Alexandra Chowaniec, Allie MacDonald, Amanda Plummer, Amber Heard, Amy Grey, Amy Madigan, Amy Ryan, Anamaria Marinca, Andrea Riseborough, Anna Hopkins, Anna Mae Routledge, Andy Sparacino, April Telek, Aqib Khan, Ari Cohen, Audrey Mars, Barry Pepper, Belén Rueda, Bill Gates, Bill Murray, Bill Pullman, Bjorn Lomborg, Blake Lively, Bob Hoskins, Bruce Greenwood, Bruce Springsteen, Carey Lovelace, Carey Mulligan, Carla Sacks, Carrie Ng, Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Keener, char davies, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher C.J. Wallace, Christopher Plummer, Cindy Nelson, Clive Owen, Colin Firth, Connor Paolo, Craig Roberts, Cyril Dugovic, Danielle Harris, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Dave Lawrence, David Suzuki, David Timoner, Dominic Cooper, Doro Bachrach, Dwight Yoakam, Edward Norton, Ellen Page, Emily Hampshire, Emma Roberts, Emma Stone, Emmanuel Bilodeau, Erwin Strauss, Evan Sneider, Fisher Stevens, Francesca Gasteen, Freida Pinto, Garrett Dillahunt, Gemma Arterton, Geoffrey Canada, Geoffrey Rush, George Rush, Georgina Haig, Glenn Howerton, Guerilla Girls, Hallie Switzer, Harvey Keitel, Helen Mirren, Hilary Swank, Irène Jacob, Isabelle Blais, Jackson Rathbone, Jake Johnson, James Caan, James Franco, Jason Jones, Javier Bardem, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Connelly, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeremy Renner, Jill Hennessy, Jim Broadbent, Joe Swanberg, John Brolin, John Ortiz, Jon Hamm, Jon Lovitz, Jonathan Baldock, John Legend, Josh Hartnett, Josh Lucas, Juan Diego Botto, Julian Richings, Julie Bilson Ahlberg, Juno Temple, Kailey Swanson, Kat Dennings, Kat Germain, Keanu Reeves, Keir Gilchrist, Kelly Preston, Kevin Spacey, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kristin Scott Thomas, L.J. Benet, Lambert Wilson, Laura Dern, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Pace, Lesley Chilcott, Lesley Manville, Liana Liberato, Liv Tyler, Ludivine Sagnier, Macha Grenon, Malin Akerman, Maria Bello, Marion Cotillard, Martha Wilson, Martin Sheen, Martina Gusman, Mary Steenburgen, Matt Damon, Maya Hawke, Megan Fox, Melanie Laurent, Michael Angarano, Michael C. Hall, Michael Moore, Michael Pena, Michael Sheen, Mickey Rourke, Milla Jovovich, Minnie Driver, Miranda Richardson, Molly Parker, Morgan Davidoff, Nadia Litz, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Noah Reid, Oliver Ackland, Olivia Newton-John, Olivier Barthelemy, Om Puri, Paolo Costanzo, Patrick Labbé, Paul Giamatti, Paul J. Spence, Penn Badgley, Philomène Bilodeau, Pierre Bergé, Rachel Weisz, Rachelle Lefevre, Rainn Wilson, Ray Winstone, Rebecca Hall, Rebecca Hill, Reece Thompson, Rick Miller, Robert De Niro, Robert James, Roberta Cairney, Romain Duris, Ron Hynes, Ron Perlman, Ronnie Fridthjof, Rosamund Pike, Ross Clark, Ruth Charney, Ruth Sheen, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Kwanten, Ryan Phillippe, Ryan Reynolds, Sally Hawkins, Sam Rockwell, Sara Stockman, Sarah Kolasky, Sarah Peter, Sarah Silverman, Scott Speedman, Seán Cullen, Shannon Woodward, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Stephen Root, Temuera Morrison, Terra Hazelton, Thomas Haden Church, TJ Power, Tracy Lawrence, Uma Thurman, Valentina Berisa, Vera Farmiga, Vincent Cassel, Will Ferrell, William B. Davis, William H. Macy, Woody Harrelson, Xiao Min, Yasmin Paige, Zach Braff, Zach Galifianakis, Zak Santiago.

Maggie Q at the Nikita panel

With an influx of families and other weekenders, Saturday is probably the busiest of Comic-Con’s four days. Fortunately, I had already gotten a solid feel for how lines work at the Con, and was therefore able to get in to a substantial number of panels throughout the day.

My first panel was for Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. Admittedly, I haven’t watched the show in years, but the panel itself was an absolute blast. In attendance was a wealth of cast and crew along with SpongeBob himself, Tom Kenny. They showed a five-minute making-of video, which was both funny and enlightening. Next, they took questions from the audience, most of which came from the children in attendance. After three days of listening to adults mostly ask wordy, awkward questions, the kids’ simple yet hilarious inquiries were a breath of fresh air. My favorite of the day came from a very young child with clear studio executive aspirations who asked “How much does it cost to make an episode of SpongeBob?” To conclude the panel, they premiered a straight-to-DVD episode called ‘Trench Billies,’ which finds SpongeBob and Patrick unwillingly adopted in to a Beverly Hillbillies-type underwater clan.

I was going to stay behind for the premiere of The Event, but had to run to a Leverage press event instead. This seems like a good choice in hindsight, as we were able to spend a considerable amount of time with each of the actors in attendance. While Timothy Hutton and Beth Riesgraf had lots of interesting insights to share about the show, the most fun came when Aldis Hodge and Christian Kane (sipping on a Bud Light) sat down at my table. They spent nearly 20 minutes joking around with us, sharing good stories, and reflecting on the show’s success and how that’s affected their lives. Neither of them appeared to have any ego whatsoever, and they seemed truly grateful for all of their success.

After Leverage, I made my way back to the exhibit halls for the SyFy Channel’s Warehouse 13 and Eureka panels. Both panels began with an extended trailer and were hosted by a member of the other show. The hall was packed with excited fans of the shows, which are clearly perfectly engineered for the Comic-Con audience. Each cast seemed to have good chemistry, and there was the nice added bonus this year of having James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar on ‘Battlestar Galactica’) in attendance thanks to his new role on Eureka. As far as newsworthy items go, ‘Eureka’ announced that Felicia Day will be taking on a guest-starring role, while future crossover episodes between the two shows are strongly being considered.

Next up was the premiere of the pilot episode of CW drama Nikita, which I admit wasn’t my cup of tea. While it had solid action and an intriguing premise (though I liked it better when it was called Alias), it was riddled with painful expository scenes and spy show clichés. The unfavorable rumblings I heard afterward don’t bode well for word-of-mouth, though I won’t attempt to deny the drawing power of a scantily-clad Maggie Q. Speaking of Maggie Q, she came on stage afterward with fellow star Lyndsy Fonseca and executive producer Craig Silverstein, though it was a brief appearance and was mostly spent trying to describe how this ‘Nikita’ differs from prior incarnations.

My final panel of the day was for Fox’s Human Target, which developed a nice little following through its first season. Mark Valley, Chi McBride, Jackie Earle Haley and new showrunner Matthew Miller were on stage to discuss the second season of the show, including the addition of some regular female cast members like ‘Rome’s Indira Varma. Chi McBride, who killed with a William Shatner impersonation, was talking about some of the other TV shows he’s done, paused, and said “I’m just doing my IMDb page.” Thanks for the shout-out, Chi!

That’s all for my Comic-Con 2010 coverage. My personal highlight was definitely The Walking Dead panel (this is a guaranteed hit), while the most disappointing presentation was probably for The Cape. Overall, the Con was exhausting, stressful, and tons of fun, and I’m glad to have been able to experience it with the rest of the excellent IMDb team.

–Ray Subers

While pre-existing hit shows like True Blood and The Big-Bang Theory dominated Ballroom 20 today, a handful of upcoming shows took to the smaller venues in the hopes of sparking some positive buzz ahead of their debuts.

Waking up bright and early, I was able to start my day off with the Hawaii Five-O reboot panel featuring stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, both of whom entered to boisterous applause. While they were obviously there to promote Hawaii Five-O, Lost and Battlestar Galactica were constantly being discussed. Unfortunately, neither Kim nor Park had seen the ending of the other’s show, so they were both amusingly subjected to major spoilers.

Next up was AMC’s The Walking Dead, which I will readily admit was my most anticipated panel due to my affinity for both zombie movies and AMC original programming (I heart Don Draper). From the beginning, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed: the audience (myself included) was blown away by the astounding five-minute trailer, which honestly looked better than most movie previews. The cast and crew provided some seriously great moments as well, including executive producer Frank Darabont‘s hilarious rant about the importance of tax incentives (they shoot the show in Georgia, not in Los Angeles) and the reveal that composer Bear McCreary (of Battlestar Galactica fame) will be handling the show’s music. Throughout the rest of the day I repeatedly overheard positive rumblings about the show, indicating that AMC could have yet another major hit on their hands.

A little later in the day I managed to catch the pilot episode of NBC’s The Cape, though thanks to a ridiculously rushed pace and questionable editing I initially thought I had watched select footage from the first few episodes. The show finds the only clean cop left in fictional Palm City framed for murder, left for dead, and forced to become a vigilante superhero. Based on the footage shown and the panel discussion afterward (which featured genre favorites Summer Glau and Vinnie Jones), the show seems aimed at filling the void left behind by the departure of Heroes, though the decidedly mixed audience reaction indicates the jury is still out on this one.

The most pleasant surprise of the day came from MTV’s Teen Wolf, of which I fully expected to disapprove of prior to the presentation (really, why would you make a TV version of Teen Wolf?). While the ten minutes of footage they showed was by no means groundbreaking, it was tense, atmospheric and well-written, and instantly made the main characters seem worth caring about. The young stars of the show seemed a bit nervous on the panel, though they did demonstrate some nice chemistry. An ongoing discussion was whether there was room for another werewolf or vampire show on television, to which star Tyler Hoechlin (Road to Perdition) cleverly quipped “there’s always room for something good on TV.” I couldn’t agree more, Tyler.

The last panel I was able to check out was for Falling Skies, a TNT series from executive producer Steven Spielberg that’s set to debut next June. They kicked things off with the trailer, which depicted survivors battling back, insurgency style, in the aftermath of an alien invasion. During the panel segment, ER‘s Noah Wyle and Terminator Salvation‘s Moon Bloodgood (looking splendid, I might add) amusingly answered what they would grab from Sears in the case of an actual alien invasion: Wyle went the practical route by opting for duct tape, while Bloodgood took a moment before deciding she’d track down some clean underwear.

-Ray Subers

SXSW FILM ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL
2010 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS

Austin, Texas – March 22, 2010 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced additional Audience Award-winners today from the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters categories.

For the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, 134 feature-length films, including 64 world premieres, were selected from a record 1,572 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,206 U.S. and 366 international feature-length films. 130 shorts were selected from 2,312 short film submissions. The 2010 SXSW Film Festival Awards were hosted by Ovation TV.

Additional 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:

Feature Film Audience Awards

SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES
Winner: Richard Garriott – Man on a Mission
Director: Mike Woolf

EMERGING VISIONS
Winner: NY Export: Opus Jazz
Director: Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes

24 BEATS PER SECOND
Winner: When You’re Strange – a film about the Doors
Director: Tom DiCillo

LONE STAR STATES
Winner: Thunder Soul
Director: Mark Landsman

MIDNIGHTERS
Winner: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Director: Eli Craig

In my last post, I said I’d write a little about what it was like being on the Narrative Shorts jury at SXSW 2010. Shorts are really the building blocks of film festivals. First, the distribution options for short filmmakers are few and far between, especially in the United States – film festivals and the internet being two great places to get caught up. At film festivals, shorts filmmakers are often given the chance to debut their talents (short films are sometimes referred to as a “calling card”), and shorts programs are often among the most popular and anticipated at film festivals, if just because festivals are your best (and quite possibly only) chance of seeing them on the big screen. I was lucky to have on my jury team two affable and articulate lovers of movies – Todd Luoto, a shorts programmer with the Sundance Film Festival, and Amy Dotson, Deputy Director of the Independent Feature Project. We were charged with watching three feature-length programs of shorts over a two day period, each handpicked by the SXSW shorts programming team. It’s worth noting that the shorts programs that we attended at the festival were always full, no matter the time of day. People love their shorts here. Watching these three programs was truly a pleasure: there was really something to recommend each short that we watched, and we knew from the first frame of the first film we watched that it wasn’t going to be easy to select a winner. Some highlights from each program:

But the winner for this jury was captivating, uncompromising Cigarette Candy the fourth short from director Lauren Wolkstein, who’s bold directing decisions coupled with a drum-tight screenplay from Jeff Sousa produced a tense, ambitious drama about a young Marine home from war and attending a neighborhood party in his honor. While friends and family shower him with attention, the shell-shocked warrior can’t seem to focus on anything but the mysterious, seductive charms of the rebellious Candy. We loved this film, in particular the astonishing performance of Jonathan Orsini.

Other random highlights in no particular order…

The full press release follows:

SXSW FILM ANNOUNCES 2010 AWARD WINNERS

Austin, Texas – March 16, 2010 – The Jury and Audience Award-winners of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival were announced tonight at the Festival’s closing Awards Ceremony hosted by comedian Eugene Mirman in Austin, Texas.  Feature Films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature categories.  Films in these categories, as well as the Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Midnighters, Lone Star States and 24 Beats Per Second categories were also eligible for the 2010 SXSW Film Festival Audience Awards.  Only Narrative and Documentary Feature Audience Awards were announced tonight. Spotlight Premieres, Emerging Visions, Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnighters Audience Awards will be announced separately on Monday, March 22.

SXSW also announced the Jury Award-winners in Shorts Filmmaking, and Film Design Awards, and Special Awards, including the SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award and the SXSW Wholphin Award.  Details can be found at www.sxsw.com/film, as well as highlights from the Awards Ceremony at www.youtube.com/sxsw starting Monday, March 22.

“I wasn’t sure how we could top or even present a program as strong as SXSW 2009, but it feels like we did,” said Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson, “There are some films that are rocking crowd pleasers, some that are refining the form or finding a voice, several that are inspiring, and fortunately, a wonderful few that are truly original visions.  We are thrilled to be able to celebrate those tonight.”

The 2010 SXSW Film Festival Juries consisted of:

Narrative Feature Competition: Peter Debruge, Karen Durbin, Joshua Leonard; Documentary Feature Competition: Nelson George, Karina Longworth, Thom Powers; Narrative Shorts: Amy Dotson, Christian Gaines, Todd Luoto; Documentary Shorts: Don R. Lewis, Ron Mann, Finlay Pretsell; Experimental Shorts: Spencer Parsons, Esther Robinson, Kelly Sears; Animated Shorts: Emily Hubley, Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Nathan Zellner; Music Videos: Margaret Brown, Philip Harder, James Kochalka; Texas Shorts: Christopher Holland, Chris Mass, Anne Walker-McBay; Texas High School Shorts: Marcy Garriott, Delicia Harvey, Bart Weiss; Title Design: Ian Albinson, Alexander Ulloa, Susan Bradley, Karin Fong, Ron Pippin, Remko Vlaanderen.

For the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, 134 feature-length films, including 64 world premieres, were selected from a record 1,572 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,206 U.S. and 366 international feature-length films. 130 shorts were selected from 2,312 short film submissions. In its inaugural year, the Title Design Competition included 18 finalists selected from 101 submissions.  The 2010 SXSW Film Festival Awards were hosted by Ovation TV.

Kristen Wiig arrives at the SXSW premiere of MacGruber

For the first time since the festival began on Friday, it seems like the Kick-Ass buzz has ebbed, and is being replaced with discussion of MacGruber, which premiered last night.

The primary cast (Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillipe, Val Kilmer) and creative team (Jorme Taccone, Akiva Schaffer and John Solomon) and producer (Seth Meyers) were all in attendance at the Paramount Theater for the screening, and Taccone briefly introduced the movie, letting the audience know that the film is not quite locked yet, so some sound levels might be off and some scenes not definitely in for the final release.

For the uninitiated, here’s the story: MacGruber is based upon a “Saturday Night Live” skit starring Will Forte as an action hero of sorts, a guy who repeatedly saves (or tries to save) the world using strange items found sitting around, and invariably mucks things up without realizing it. In the film, MacGruber, who has been in seclusion for six years following the murder of his wife, is urged by the military to come out of hiding and help them recover a Russian nuclear warhead stolen by MacGruber’s arch-enemy Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) – the man who killed MacGruber’s wife. MacGruber reluctantly agrees and assembles a team of former military muscle to defeat Cunth and find the warhead — and then accidentally kills them. So, he forms another team consisting of Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig), a former teammate and mistress of disguises turned adult contemporary singer, and Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillipe), their official military liaison, to defeat his dastardly nemesis.

MacGruber is a film that seems perfectly designed for SXSW audiences: it’s created by a much-loved viral video team (Taccone and Schaffer are Lonely Island founders along with Andy Samberg), it looks big but is created on a small budget (relatively speaking, of course – Taccone revealed this morning that the film’s budget was $10 million), and combines comedy and action with the creative skills of a close-knit, constantly working ensemble.

That combination certainly did the trick here; the audience was incredibly vocal and involved through the entire film, cheering the first appearance of each main character, and I honestly don’t think I heard the theater devoid of laughter at any point in the screening. I’m not saying that everyone was laughing constantly; rather, the comedy and the casting were working together on a lot of different levels, providing something for everyone — and that’s what could make this film a box office contender. The couple sitting next to me couldn’t get enough of Kristen Wiig’s singing and disguises. The girls sitting in front of me were giggling breathlessly every time Ryan Phillipe appeared on screen. Personally, a few smaller visual gags were what got me: MacGruber passing a note, the care he takes with his car stereo, and yes, the gloriously goofy abandon Forte displays in the celery scene. (No, I won’t explain that last bit, and don’t do a search – wait until the movie comes out to see what I mean. Seriously. You deserve the chance to first cringe, and then laugh as hard as we did last night.)

I will admit, I came into the movie more than a bit concerned. SNL-based movies have been a hit-or-miss proposition for awhile, and though the cast involved are talented, committed and hard-working, we know that those qualities aren’t always enough to make a movie that can stand on its own. And, while the Lonely Island viral clips are some of the funniest bits of SNL in a long time, it’s hard to know whether short form success can be translated to feature length — it’s something that writers and directors struggle with every day. Taccone noted in an interview yesterday that he had the same concern, and that the initial draft weighed in at a hefty 179 pages before they could pare down and tie everything together. They continually worked on the script while filming, spending the time not on set filming writing and rewriting pieces of the story. While you can see the seams of patched-together segments a few times, they’re certainly not distracting enough to derail enjoyment of the film. It’s apparent that those seams are known and left there purposely, as an homage to all their favorite 1980s films.

There’s a lovely, nostalgia -inspiring Leslie Nielsen-esque quality to Will Forte’s performance here; while the filmmakers have repeatedly mentioned they were included by Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Rambo, Forte’s on-screen performances quietly pay tribute to films like Airplane! and Naked Gun, sharing Nielsen’s ability to convey oblivious self-conviction in way that’s both funny and totally believable – there’s no side winks at the camera, just Forte completely losing himself in portraying this loveable jackass of a character.

In the end, MacGruber is a spot-on nod to the action films and action film spoofs of yesteryear, full of elements to keep the creators’ online and TV fans please. That said, it somehow transcends the formulaic feel of those films. The only premise or throughline I could see is a simple one: the team on this movie wrote and performed things that make them laugh.

With the SXSW film and interactive conferences officially in full swing, Austin is now completely overrun with badge holders dashing hither and yonder in search of enlightenment. And they’re actually pretty likely to find it in some form. Seating capacity permitting, that is. Fortunately, there are an abundance of choices, so SXSW-ers shut out of one oversold event just do a quick twitter check and find out about the scene down the hall at the Convention Center or across town at the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre, which is where I opted to spend this balmy early-early Spring Sunday.

Ask anyone from Austin about the Alamo Drafthouse – they’ll talk about it in hushed, reverence and for good reason – it’s movie going, all figured out. Steeply raked rows of comfortable seating feature narrow tables with neatly stowed menus, note cards and golf pencils. Peruse the offerings of heavenly Texan-style comfort food (think chips and queso, BLT’s, huevos rancheros, chocolate and peanut butter milkshakes) as well as an impressive selection of draft beer and wine by the glass, then wait staff dressed in black T-shirts glide discretely between the rows (and below screen level) to deliver your food. They have the formula down cold and let me tell you, it’s a pretty nice place to spend a Sunday.

First up in the morning was Narrative Shorts Program #3, a feature-length program of shorts from around the world. As I’m on the SXSW Narrative Shorts Jury this year (and you’re really only supposed to discuss the films with your fellow jurors), I’ll hold off on calling out any specific shorts, except to say that the three programs have seen have been quite exceptional and choosing a winner is going to be very tough. More on that process and some of the shorts we saw in later blog posts, when I can break my code of silence.

Film #2 of the day was the world premiere of the documentary Dirty Pictures from filmmaker Etienne Sauret. Sauret is best known for his meticulous and cathartic documentation of 9/11’s devastating toll on New Yorkers in a series of films, including Collateral Damages and WTC the First 24 Hours. In Dirty Pictures, Sauret reverentially profiles “the Godfather of Psychedelics” Dr. Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin, whose rogue experimentation with the drug MDMA spawned the ecstasy movement of the mid-80’s, drawing parallels to the LSD youth culture of the ‘60’s. While he has often worked feverishly outside of the law, testing out his own concoctions along with this wife Ann, he has become an underground cult hero to many and a close friend and colleague to clinical psychologists, academicians and government researchers working in the field of psycho-pharmacology who consider him to have quite literally written the book on the subject. Dirty Pictures is a fascinating portrait of a brilliant chemist on a quest to unlock the complexities of the human mind, and the people whose lives have been forever affected by his work.

Playing some Sundance catch-up, film #3 of the day was Winter’s Bone, a brooding and bleakly moving portrait of determination and survival, set against the poverty of Southern Missouri’s Ozark country. Jennifer Lawrence plays 17-year old Ree Dolly, a young woman who must confront the secrets and lies of her extended backwoods family to find out the truth about her father, mixed up in meth cooking and dealing, who’s disappeared and skipped out on his bail bond. Winter’s Bone is a ravishingly shot and superbly scripted drama that reminded me why I love the movies. It’s no wonder that it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting awards at Sundance in January.

In a nutshell: The film centers on Bazil (Dany Boon), whose solitary existence began young when his military father was killed by a landmine and his mother falls apart as a result. Flash forward a decade or two, and Bazil is still leading a basic, quiet life, working as a clerk in a video store and lip-synching along to the old movies that appear to be his only close acquaintances when a random drive-by shooting leaves him wounded, a bullet left lodged in his brain. The injury results in him becoming unemployed and homeless, and after a bit he is taken under the wing of a makeshift family of misfits, living together and creating whimsical inventions. When he discovers that the bullet that injured him was made by the same corporation that produced the landmine that killed his father, he sets out to exact his own unusual, labyrinthine form of revenge — and his housemates insist upon helping him.

What follows is a series of elaborate, amusing, and highly improbable shenanigans targeting the financial and personal lives of two arms dealers, utilizing the unique skill sets of Bazil and his housemates (mechanical engineering, the flexibility of a contortionist, a scientific measurement savant, and more.) Suspension of disbelief is key here, as it is in most of Jeunet’s films — the fact that this group of people, with just the right skill set to perform just the right tasks came together at just the right time to help Bazil is either very contrived or the ultimate twist of fate, depending on how you view these things.

What makes me inclined to suspend disbelief and lean toward the ‘fate’ option are two things: the artful manner in which Jeunet constructs this insanity (it’s the most ornate creative revenge screwball comedy you can imagine), and the fact that he creates a template for revenge that eschews violence and feels more akin to right than justice. His form of revenge, shared via YouTube at the film’s end, suggests that he really does want the viewers to absorb the rebellious nature of his story and use it in their own lives, using their own personal skill sets to set things right — nonviolently — in their own way. In a time of bank failures and bailouts, megacorporation takeovers and lost jobs, homes, families, Jeunet seeks to remind us that we can do something, if we put our creative minds to it. In his own inimitable way, he’s used cartoon-like characters (echoes of Wile E. Coyote vs. Road Runner, Spy vs. Spy, even Charlie Chaplin) to entertain and help the medicine go down, a sort of whimsical punk-rock big screen manifesto.

It’s not an emotional masterpiece (too many characters to become deeply involved with any one), but it is charmingly, wittily inspirational, things one just doesn’t encounter in theaters often enough lately.

The Directing the Dead panel, which included Ti West, Matt Reeves Conference rooms 18 A, B, C are combined into one today, with fans packing in to see Ti West, Robert Rodriguez, Matt Reeves, Ruben Fleischer, Neil Marshall. Scott Weinberg moderated, and offers topics for discussion such as battles with the MPAA, nudity, the prevalence of remakes, and the spirit of mentorship in the horror genre. We livetweeted the event here, but here are a few points that stood out: