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SXSW Announces 2014 Features Lineup

The South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) has announced their 2014 features lineup today and I must say, I'm kind of on the fence in regards to how I feel about it. On one hand, there's a ton of really exciting films playing here, like The Raid 2, Bad Words, Only Lovers Left Alive, Frank and a couple others. But on the other hand, a lot of these have already been screened at previous festivals. Although, I suppose when it comes to SXSW that's usually the case. If you want premieres you usually need to go to TIFF and Cannes.

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

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10,000KM (Spain)

Director: Carlos Marques Marcet, Screenwriters: Carlos Marques-Marcet, Clara Roquet Autonell

A year of a long distance relationship, two computers and two cities – Los Angeles and Barcelona, can love survive 6,000 miles?

Cast: Natalia Tena, David Verdaguer (World Premiere)

Animals

Director: Collin Schiffli, Screenwriter: David Dastmalchian

Jude and Bobbie are a young, homeless couple who masterfully con and steal in an attempt to stay one step ahead of their addiction. They are ultimately forced to face the reality of their situation when one of them is hospitalized.

Cast: David Dastmalchian, Kim Shaw, John Heard (World Premiere)

Before I Disappear

Director/Screenwriter: Shawn Christensen

Based on the 2013 Academy Award® winning short film Curfew. At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his eleven-year-old niece, Sophia, for a few hours. 

Cast: Shawn Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, Ron Perlman, Richard Schiff

(World Premiere)

Fort Tilden

Directors/Screenwriters: Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers

It shouldn’t be this hard for Allie and Harper to get to the beach. 

Cast: Bridey Elliott, Clare McNulty, Griffin Newman, Jeffrey Scaperrotta, Neil Casey (World Premiere)

The Heart Machine

Director/Screenwriter: Zachary Wigon

A man begins to suspect that his long-distance girlfriend, whom he met online but has never met in person, has been living in the same city the whole time and sets out to find her. 

Cast: John Gallagher Jr., Kate Lyn Sheil, David Call, Louisa Krauss (World Premiere)

I Believe in Unicorns

Director/Screenwriter: Leah Meyerhoff

I Believe in Unicorns follows the lyrical journey of an imaginative teenage girl who runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter, but not even unicorns can save her now. 

Cast: Natalia Dyer, Peter Vack, Julia Garner, Amy Seimetz, Toni Meyerhoff (World Premiere)

The Mend

Director/Screenwriter: John Magary

A dark comedy about rage, doubt, lust, madness and other brotherly hand-me-downs. 

Cast: Josh Lucas, Stephen Plunkett, Lucy Owen, Mickey Sumner, Austin Pendleton (World Premiere)

Wild Canaries

Director/Screenwriter: Lawrence Michael Levine

When their elderly neighbor suddenly drops dead, a young Brooklyn couple investigates signs of foul play. 

Cast: Sophia Takal, Lawrence Michael Levine, Alia Shawkat, Annie Parisse, Jason Ritter (World Premiere)

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION 

Beginning With The End

Director: David Marshall

Beginning With the End takes viewers on a profound, and profoundly moving, journey with a group of high school seniors working as trained hospice volunteers — a story of beginnings and endings in a year of self-discovery and awakening. (World Premiere)

Born To Fly

Director: Catherine Gund

Born To Fly pushes the boundaries between action and art, daring us to join choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her dancers in pursuit of human flight. (World Premiere)

*SXsports screening

The Great Invisible

Director: Margaret Brown

Penetrating the oil industry’s secretive world, The Great Invisible examines the Deepwater Horizon disaster through the eyes of oil executives, explosion survivors and Gulf Coast residents who were left to pick up the pieces when the world moved on. (World Premiere)

The Immortalists

Directors: Jason Sussberg, David Alvarado

Two eccentric scientists struggle to create eternal youth in a world they call “blind to the tragedy of old age.”  As they battle their own aging and suffer the losses of loved ones, their scientific journeys ultimately become personal. (World Premiere)

Impossible Light

Director: Jeremy Ambers

Impossible Light reveals the drama and the daring of artist Leo Villareal and a small team of visionaries who battle seemingly impossible challenges to turn a dream of creating the world’s largest LED light sculpture into a glimmering reality. (World Premiere)

Mateo

Director: Aaron I. Naar

Mateo follows America’s most notorious white mariachi singer on his misadventures in Cuba.

(World Premiere)

Print the Legend

Directors: Luis Lopez, Clay Tweel

The 3D Printing revolution has begun. Who will make it? (World Premiere)

Vessel

Director: Diana Whitten

A fearless sea captain, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, sails a ship through loopholes in international law, providing abortions on the high seas, and leaving in her wake a network of emboldened activists who trust women to handle abortion on their own terms. (World Premiere)