SXSW Film Festival Announces Its Feature Lineup

A vintage drag queen and Richard Nixon will both be on screens at this year’s South by Southwest film festival.

The annual film conference and festival in Austin. Tex., has usually ranged far  and wide, from the quirky to the Hollywood flashy to the horror-nerd friendly. In the Visions category, which  includes some films that the programmers consider boundary-pushing, festivalgoers can find “Our Nixon,”  made up of Super 8 footage recorded by three of  Nixon’s closest aides. And this year’s selections include several addressing gay, lesbian bisexual or transgendered themes, like  “I Am Divine,” a look back at the life of Harris Glenn Milstead and how he became Divine, the drag star of several John Waters films.

Also included are the documentaries “Before You Know It,” about three gay seniors; “Mr. Angel,” on the transgender porn performer and educator Buck Angel; and “Continental,” which tells the story o New York City’s Continental Baths.

“There are a plethora of L.G.B.T. films this year,” said Janet Pierson, the film festival producer, speaking by phone from Austin. “All these films struck us one after another.”

Ms. Pierson said the programmers were looking  for  diversity in budget sizes and tone.

“We want some films that are funny, we want some films that are scary. We want some films that are thought-provoking, we want some films that are super-arty,” she said. “But mostly, we’re looking at these thousands of films that come into us and we’re looking for what grabs us and engages us.”

Of those thousands of submissions, the festival chose more than 100 features, including 69 world premieres, like Adam Rifkin’s  television satire “Reality Show,” and films that played at other festivals but fit  into the SXSW mold, like Harmony Kor! ine‘s “Spring Breakers.”

Often without intention, some similar threads emerge. In the narrative and documentary competition lineup, two films share Branson, Mo., as a location. In “Awful Nice,” from Todd Sklar, two brothers travel there when their late father leaves  them  his lake house. And the documentary “We Always Lie to Strangers,” from AJ Schnack and David Wilson, focuses on the appeal of the Ozarks town as a tourist destination.

There are fewer star-driven Hollywood offerings than usual, but  the opening-night comedy, “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” does feature Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi, and  Joe Swanberg‘s film,  “Drining Buddies,”  with Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston, is starrier than the work he is known for.  The cast of “I Give It a Year,” a comedy about the first year of marriage from Dan Mazer, a writer of “Bruno” and “Borat,”  includes Rose Byrne, Anna Faris and Simon Baker.

And as usual, music and musicians factor into the lineup: including the documentary “Good Ol’ Freda,” which looks at the Beatles through ! the eyes ! of the woman who served as their secretary. Documentaries about Green Day (“¡Cuatro!”), funk music (“Finding the Funk”) and Snoop Dogg (“Reincarnated”) are also on the schedule.

The film conference and festival runs March 8-16. An extended listing of films can be found here.