Editor

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference & Festival is happy to announce its complete slate of panels and workshops for the 15th annual event in Austin, Texas. The SXSW Film Conference will take place in the Austin Convention Center during March 8-11, and is open to all SXSW Film, Gold, and Platinum registrants. In addition, the SXSW Film Conference will co-host joint sessions with the SXSW Interactive Conference. Nearly 200 industry veterans and experts are on tap as speakers for the panels.

Among the newly-announced additions to the panels schedule are: ³A Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton & Dwight Yoakam² on March 11, ³Coming
Soon: The Making of a Trailer² scheduled for March 10, ³An Actor¹s Workshop with Jeffrey Tambor² on March 9, ³Drugs, Politics, and Race: A ŒHarold & Kumar¹ Panel² and ³What the Writers¹ Strike Taught Us² on March 8. These panels join already announced highlights such as ³A Conversation with Harlan Ellison,² ³Stanley Nelson: History in the Making² and ³A Conversation with Helen Hunt,² both confirmed for March 9. The SXSW Film Conference will conclude on the afternoon of March 11 with ³A Conversation with Moby,² where BMI¹s Doreen Ringer-Ross will conduct an interview with the prominent musician and film composer.

New this year for the SXSW Film Conference is ³Global Doc Days,² an event built around programming by various international film organizations. In the Austin Suite of the Austin Convention Center, countries such as Mexico, Canada, Norway, and China will present some of their latest documentary programming to SXSW Film Conference participants. ³Global Doc Days² will strive to bridge gaps between international documentary industries, and place itself as one of the only venues in the United States where such activity occurs. Two selections from Mexico, the documentaries Born Without and The Old Thieves, have also been added to official festival screenings lineup of SXSW.

The entire panels lineup and schedule, will be available on the SXSW Web site on Friday, February 15. On February 12, SXSW will release the full list of confirmed short films screening at the 2008 Film Festival, on the official site: http://sxsw.com/film. For more information, email film@sxsw.com.