As American public life shrank from the spread of COVID-19 in early March, one of the first victims of the virus was the massive South by Southwest Conference & Festivals, canceled just days before it was set to kick off in Austin, Texas. In the wake of the cancellation, filmmakers and festival planners have scrambled to figure out how to properly debut the films that were slated to premiere at the fest, and the result is something that will hopefully please homebound film fans.
SXSW and Amazon Prime Video announced that they plan to run a 10-day, one-time online event titled, “Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection.” For those filmmakers who opt in, their films will be available to watch during this window for anyone with a free Amazon account. So if your trip to Austin was canceled, or you’ve always wanted to attend SXSW, fire up some homemade queso and settle in for your own Quarantine Film Festival. The date has yet to be announced, but they’re looking at a late April premiere.
Some films, with distribution already secured, have moved forward with digital and On Demand releases, like “The Quarry,” arriving On Demand on Friday. This slow-burn thriller stars Shea Whigham and Michael Shannon and was originally slated to debut at SXSW. Written and directed by Scott Teems, who wrote and directed the award-winning feature “That Evening Sun,” “The Quarry” is an intense character actor faceoff. Whigham stars as a drifter who kills a traveling reverend and takes his place as the head of a small border town congregation, with Shannon as the local sheriff who starts to suspect that the popular new preacher isn’t quite who he says he is. Costarring Catalina Sandino Moreno, “The Quarry” is a quietly seething, searing slice of dusty Southwestern noir.
The filmmakers who were due to premiere their work in the SXSW Episodic Pilot Competition have also come together to bring their projects into the world, making their six pilots available on Vimeo now, in the SXSW 2020 Pilot Showcase. This international and diverse selection of work, including four edgy comedies, “Bored,” “Cooper’s Bar,” “The Dream” and “This Isn’t Me,” and two documentaries, “Bananas” and “Homecoming: The Journey of Cardboard,” will be available to watch for free on Vimeo for at least a month, at vimeo.com/channels/sxswshorts.
Also pivoting to a home entertainment release Friday is the demonic possession horror film “Behind You,” following two young sisters who unleash evil spirits when they go poking around all the covered mirrors in their aunt’s house. This spooky chiller is the debut of writing/directing team Andrew Mecham and Matthew Whedon.
Cut the cable cord and curious about TV alternatives? YouTube Live and Hulu Live boast a hefty monthly subscription fees between $35 and $55, but there’s now a more reasonably priced competitor on the market. Philo (online and via Roku/Apple TV apps) is only $20 a month and offers a host of popular cable channels, including A&E, AMC, Food Network, IFC, HGTV, MTV, VH1 and more, with shows available to watch on your time via a live TV option. The catch? No sports. But if you’re after plenty of reality shows, sitcoms, dramas and kid content, as well as decent selection of movies, Philo can do the trick. And there’s no time like now to take advantage of the seven-day free trial they’re offering.
———
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.