SXSW 2013 Reveals Its Opening Slate, Including ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,’ ‘Evil Dead,’ ‘Spring Breakers,’ and More
I’m currently just four days away from attending my very first Sundance Film Festival, and I’m understandably excited (and nervous about the cold). But just because my upcoming affections will be directed towards this frigid newcomer doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten the one that broke my festival cherry. That honor belongs to Austin’s SXSW in March of 2009.
SXSW remains one of the preeminent film festivals for movie lovers, and FSR is still covering it better than anyone else. 2013 will be no different thanks to what looks like another fantastic line-up of films and events. The first few titles have just been announced, and they include a mix of the hotly anticipated and the interesting unknowns. The opening night film is The Incredible Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, and we’ll also be seeing the scary as f*ck-looking remake of Evil Dead, a new Joe Swanberg film potentially made bearable thanks to its immensely appealing cast, Harmony Korine’s unabashedly sexy and strange Spring Breakers, and more.
Keep reading to see what other films are being teased at this year’s SXSW, and check back with us when the full slate is announced January 31st through February 6th.
Downloaded (World Premiere)
Director: Alex Winter
Downloaded is a documentary that explores the rise and fall of Napster and the birth of the
digital revolution. It’s about the teens that helped start this revolution, and the artists and
industries who continue to be impacted by it.
Drinking Buddies (World Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Joe Swanberg
Weekend trips, office parties, late night conversations, drinking on the job, marriage pressure,
biological clocks, holding eye contact a second too long… you know what makes the line
between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer.
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston
Everyone’s Going to Die (World Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Jones
A modern British story about coming home, getting by and the redemptive power of feeling
you’re not alone. A story where porn hotlines rub shoulders with sexy beavers on rollerskates;
where the past is laid to rest, two lives are changed and nobody, finally, is going to die.
Cast: Nora Tschirner, Rob Knighton, Kellie Shirley, Madeline Duggan (United Kingdom)
Evil Dead (World Premiere)
Director: Fede Alvarez, Screenwriter: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues
Five friends, holed up in a remote cabin, discover a Book of the Dead that unwittingly summons
up dormant demons, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left to fight
for survival.
Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore
Good Ol’ Freda (World Premiere)
Director: Ryan White
Good Ol’ Freda tells the story of Freda Kelly, a shy Liverpudlian teenager asked to work for a
young local band hoping to make it big: The Beatles. Their loyal secretary from beginning to
end, Freda tells her tales for the first time in 50 years.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (World Premiere)
Director: Don Scardino, Story by Chad Kultgen & Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan Goldstein & John
Francis Daley. Screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley
When superstar Vegas magicians Burt and Anton let their act grow as stale as their friendship,
an ambitious rival with a cutting-edge delivery swoops in for the kill. Cast: Steve Carell, Steve
Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, with Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini and Jim Carrey
Spring Breakers (U.S. Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Harmony Korine
Four college girls who land in jail after robbing a restaurant in order to fund their spring break
vacation find themselves bailed out by a drug and arms dealer who wants them to do some dirty
work. Cast: James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine”
SXSW 2013 runs March 8th until March 16th. [SXSW]
