The big buzz at this year’s South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival (SXSW) surrounded the news of IFC Entertainment’s pick up of Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s film, Nights and Weekends. IFC’s acquisition has catapulted the reputation of the 15-year-old festival to new heights. A similar acquisition occurred last year when IFC picked up Swanberg and Gerwig’s Hannah Takes the Stairs, but the agreement wasn’t cemented until after the festival closed. The fact that the Nights and Weekends deal was sealed during the festival this year solidifies SXSW’s place in the big leagues along with other high-profile festivals, such as Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto.

The rise of the festival’s visibility and prestige has made it a must-attend event for many industry professionals. Hollywood distributors now routinely set aside a week in March to head to Texas for business. But it’s not only business that attracts the crowds to SXSW each year; it’s also the music, the films, and the interactive conferences. In a recent interview with Variety, Negin Farsad (director of hip-hop documentary Nerdcore Rising) revealed, “South by Southwest is our first choice for this film. With the music, the interactive: these are our peeps.”

Panel discussions at SXSW 2008 included topics such, as “We Like Shorts,” “Pimp My Film’s Website,” and “No-Budget Filmmaking.” A-list celebrity speakers included Billy Bob Thornton, Helen Hunt, Michael Eisner, and Stanley Nelson.

A key ingredient in SXSW’s success is its ability to attract big studio film premieres. And, according to festival producer Matt Dentler, that’s no mean feat. “Because the SXSW Film Festival runs days before New York's Tribeca Film Festival,” explains Dentler, “making attempts to get world premieres in Texas has been challenging.”

So far, the festival has met this challenge by hosting four studio film premieres at SXSW: Columbia's gambling caper story 21; Universal's Forgetting Sarah Marshall; New Line's Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanmo Bay; and Paramount's war drama, Stop-Loss.

More movies with military or political themes shown at this year’s SXSW included:  Body of War, a documentary by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, which depicts a soldier’s homecoming after becoming paralyzed by gunfire a few days into his Iraqi tour duty; and Crawford, a documentary by David Modigliani, which tells the story of George W. Bush’s move to Crawford, Texas in 1999 ─ before his candidacy.

Numerous regional, national, and international companies came to SXSW 2008 to promote their services and organizations supporting independent filmmaking, including: Austin Film Society, Austin Studios, Canadian Consulate General, Canadian Film Centre, Film Florida, Montana Film Office, Nevada Film Office, Sony Electronics,
South Dakota Office of Tourism, Texas Film Commission, Tucson Film Office, Yahoo, Google, and AOL ─ to name a few.
This year’s SXSW boasted a very hip crowd, filled with plenty of next-generation tech geeks. Festivalgoers appeared pretty laid back, and there was a welcome absence of gawking paparazzi, who often plague major film festivals. The vibe was positive, and the buzz about SXSW as a rising star, proved to be well founded.