Similar but definitely different. Familiar but not the same.
It's difficult to pin down how best to describe the first in-person edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival since 2019, returning to its home of Austin, Texas. So much has happened in the time since then, the world has changed, people have changed, that even when the festival hit its sweet spot combining freewheeling entertainment one moment and fresh discoveries the next, it could still feel like a muscle that wasn't used to being flexed. In introductions to screenings, festival head Janet Pierson repeatedly spoke with delighted surprise about how the "vibe" of the festival was back.
There were starry high-energy premieres such as Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis at "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Sandra Bullock and Daniel Radcliffe on hand for "The Lost City" and Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal with "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent."
