The 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival has announced the competition jury for this year’s festival, as well as some of the companies sponsoring awards for the winning filmmakers. The awards will be presented on Tuesday, March 16, at 8:00 p.m. The 2004 SXSW Film Festival runs March 12-20.
“This year, we put together a great lineup of jury members that will have their work cut out for them,” says SXSW Festival Producer Matt Dentler. “There are a lot of really special films in competition this year and it will be exciting to see who this year’s jury picks.”
Award sponsors this year include Final Draft, The Criterion Collection, Kodak, Panavision, API Productions, and more. In addition to the usual jury prizes, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will select a winner for a special honor. This will be awarded to the competition narrative short, under 15 minutes, that BAFTA’s jury wishes to select.
This year’s SXSW Film Jury includes:
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE ^ Kirby Dick is the acclaimed director of the documentaries Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist and Derrida. His new film, “The End,” premieres at this year’s festival.
Steve James is the acclaimed director of the pivotal documentaries Hoop Dreams and Stevie. His new documentary project, the miniseries “The New Americans,” screens at this year’s festival.
NARRATIVE FEATURE ^ Sandra Adair is the editor of many feature films including nearly all of Richard Linklater’s work (from “Dazed and Confused” to The School of Rock, and beyond).
Bingham Ray co-founded the influential October Films company, which was later acquired by Universal. He recently served as the President of United Artists, releasing such films as Bowling For Columbine and Pieces of April.
REEL SHORTS ^ David Barker is an acclaimed filmmaker and distributor, as well as the former Artistic Director of the Cinematexas International Shorts Film Festival.
Todd Hansen is the Director of Programming for the IFP MSP/Central Standard Film Festival.
ANIMATED SHORTS ^ Erik Jambor oversees the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.
Bob Sabiston is an acclaimed animator who helped invent the programming used to animate the popular film “Waking Life.”
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS ^ Kyle Henry is an award-winning documentary and experimental filmmaker.
Luke Savisky is a visual installation artist based in Austin, TX.
MUSIC VIDEOS ^ Amy Maner is a documentary filmmaker who’s feature “Lubbock Lights” debuted at SXSW 2003.
Graham Reynolds is the leader of Golden Arm Trio and Golden Arm Symphony, collectives of musicians known for composing musical scores to accompany silent films.
For more info, visit the SXSW website.
