
Amazon cracks me up sometimes.
Some humor before getting to the true purpose of this post: to recap my thoughts and experience of the SXSW 2020 virtual film festival offered through Amazon Prime Video.
That event has, to coin a cliche, gone to the dogs.
For those looking at the Amazon internal 404 (page not found) the image above is what was seen this morning — 3 days after — when trying to return to the SXSW page that was formerly available here: https://www.amazon.com/adlp/sxsw
Sure, it was a limited event that ran from April 27 – May 6, but this is only May 9th and they are already showing … literally … a dog named Ike. Yeah, dogs have everything to do with the SXSW 2020 virtual film festival — not.
What we should be seeing is something like the official SXSW recap page … or at least links to this page: https://www.sxsw.com/film/2020/amazon-prime-video-sxsw-film-fest-collection-april-27/ which looks like this …

“SXSW has always championed creators forging their own paths to success, often with just the right mix of passion, vision, and radical experimentation to make their dreams happen,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film at SXSW. “There is no one-size-fits-all, especially in these uncertain times, and we knew this opportunity would be of interest to those filmmakers who wanted to be in front of a large audience now. We believe people will be captivated by this selection of intriguing work that would have been shown at our 2020 event.”
Prime Video’s SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection Launches April 27
SXSW 2020 Coverage
Here are links to all our SXSW 2020 posts captured under the tag: SXSW 2020
- Attend A FREE Film Festival Online: SXSW 2020 Festival April 27 – May 6, 2020 via Amazon Prime Video
- SXSW 2020 REVIEW: Cursed Films Season 1 – All 5 Episodes Rated and Reviewed
- SXSW 2020 REVIEW: Gunpowder Heart⭐️⭐️
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Selfie, Modern Whore, The Voice in Your Head, Single
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Quilt Fever, Call Center Blues, Blocks
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Basic, Broken Orchestra, Runon, Broken Bird
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Daddio, Dirty, Waffle
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Vert, Still Wylde, Lions In The Corner, Figurant
- SXSW 2020 Short Film REVIEWS: Dieorama, Face To Face Time + Selfie changes
Full-length Films
- My Darling Vivian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Gunpowder Heart ⭐️⭐️
- Selfie NR – Only watched one episode of the anthology
TV Series
- Tales from The Loop Season 1 (8 episodes) ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
- Cursed Films Season 1 (5 episodes) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Short Films
- Daddio ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Lions In The Corner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Figurant ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Broken Orchestra ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- The Voice In Your Head ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Vert ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
- Dieorama ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
- Modern Whore ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Quilt Fever ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Single ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Basic ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Runon ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Waffle ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Still Wylde ⭐️⭐️½
- Blocks ⭐️⭐️½
- Call Center Blues ⭐️⭐️
- Face To Face Time ⭐️½
- Dirty ⭐️
- Broken Bird NR
Not Watched
Just because I didn’t watch something in the festival doesn’t mean anything from a review perspective, it merely didn’t appeal (as much) to me as much as the other works. I would have liked to have time to watch everything and maybe if I had visited the film festival in person this would be possible, but something tells me that most attendees don’t watch everything.
Here’s the list of 13 films alphabetically that weren’t watched:
- A Period Piece
- Affirmative Action
- Betye Saar: Taking Care Of Business
- Father Of The Bride
- Hiplet: Because We Can
- I’m Going To Make You Love Me – full length
- Le Choc du Futur – full length
- Mizuko (Water Child)
- Motherland: Fort Salem – TV Series
- No Crying at the Dinner Table
- Reminiscences of the Green Revolution
- Soft
- Summer Hit
SXSW 2020 Afterthoughts
First and perhaps most importantly: thank you to SXSW and Amazon for making this event possible. Can’t beat the cost: FREE and it was interesting covering and “attending” this event.
Now, some constructive feedback for the organizers.
The virtual experience — my first ever involved in a film festival — was lacking in terms of the social aspect. There could have been at least some organized watchalongs or some other type of social activities. Maybe these did exist, but I missed them. The films were mostly OK and I liked viewing the short films more than expected.
Most major film festivals have theater release films and something tells me this is one of the main reasons to attend. To see these movie theater films earlier than the masses. So, those covering can get reviews posted way in advance of those of us that didn’t attend.
There were none of those films made available as part of this virtual event. That’s a bummer.
There is an annual local film festival nearby that I may attend later this year, assuming it happens. Right now so many things up in the air.
Would I like to see/attend/cover more virtual film festivals? Yes. Any chance to view movies for me is at least of some interest. There is another one coming up at the end of May 2020. I’ll be posting about that soon.
What are your thoughts on SXSW 2020?
Will you attend more virtual film festivals? Would you rather go in person? Let’s discuss in the comments.