The Austin-based multimedia festival SXSW has announced the features program for its 2015 film edition. As was announced last month, Ondi Timoner’s documentary about Russell Brand will open the festival, which will also host gala premieres of the Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy Get Hard and the Melissa McCarthy CIA spoof Spy. The festival will also host the premieres of the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy and Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine, as well as a special in-progress screening of Judd Apatow’s new comedy Trainwreck, starring Amy Schumer.
But before we start shaking our heads and scratching our beards (just kidding—beards are totally mainstream now) and lamenting how SXSW has sold out, man, these are but the most high profile in a slate of 145 films, which according to Variety will include 100 world premieres, 13 North American premieres and 11 U.S. premieres. Other notable features include the premiere of 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina, Michael Showalter’s Hello, My Name Is Doris, David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn starring Al Pacino, Ryan Gosling’s super weird Lost River, Jamie Babbit’s Fresno starring Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer, Robert Duvall’s Wild Horses, and the meta-horror movie The Final Girls.
In the documentary program, highlights include Alex Winter’s Silk Road documentary Deep Web, the female-gamer documentary GTFO: Get The F% Out, the Tig Notaro documentary Knock Knock, It’s Tig Notaro, Lina Mannheimer’s dominatrix documentary The Ceremony, and Colin Hanks’ Tower Records documentary All Things Must Pass. The festival will also host screenings of the pilots for Larry Charles’ FX series The Comedians, The CW’s iZombie, and the Rashida Jones-starring Angie Tribeca as part of its Episodic program.
Special events will include a screening of 1981’s The Road Warrior, which should have special resonance in the oil lands of Texas, SXSW regular Doug Benson cracking wise with Doug Benson & Master Pancake Interrupt Leprechaun 3, and a program of short films made in Austin in the early ’80s curated by Jonathan Demme. The SXSW Film Midnighter and Short Films programs will be announced on February 10, with a full lineup, including schedule, on February 17. The SXSW Film Festival will run from March 13 to March 21 in Austin, Texas.