Xavier Gens’ The Divide An Official SXSW Entry

New pic and festival details

I speculated a few weeks back that director Xavier Gens was bringing his latest film, The Divide, to South by Southwest and confirmation arrived today. On the money. With that confirmation, comes a new image (see to the left) and full details on SXSW’s midnight programming. Scroll down and read on. You’ll also find a teaser trailer for The Divide.

The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce features in the Midnighters and SXFantastic sections, as well as the complete short films lineup, which will debut at this year’s Festival, which runs from March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas.

A key component of the SXSW Film lineup, the Festival offers two midnight feature programs, each including five titles. The long-standing Midnighters section has hosted the premieres and fostered the careers of such filmmakers as Ti West, Eli Roth, and Scott Glosserman, and is programmed by SXSW Senior Programmer & Conference Manager Jarod Neece. In 2009, SXSW added the SXFantastic sidebar, a series of midnight films programmed by Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S. Last year, the section was home to the world premieres of Gareth Edward’s Monsters and the much buzzed about A Serbian Film.

”Our midnight programs are the bloody, beating heart of SXSW,” said SXSW Film Conference & Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “Since the beginning, midnight films have been an essential ingredient to what makes SXSW so exciting and fun, and this year’s selections are no exception.”

150 short films were selected from 3,089 short film submissions, and will screen as part of twelve overall shorts programs. Short film submissions saw an increase of 29% over 2010. A comprehensive list of the short films lineup is detailed below. For more information on Midnighters and the complete SXSW Film Lineup (features and shorts), visit www.sxsw.com/film. For more information on SXFantastic and Fantastic Fest, visit www.fantasticfest.com/sxfantastic/.

“After months of reviewing a record number of submissions, we’re tremendously happy to share the final program,” said Shorts Programmers Claudette Godfrey and Stephanie Noone, “The short films selected this year delve into the space between families, lovers, strangers and the void within ourselves, examining what those spaces mean, and the length to which we go to fill, cope with, conquer and mend them. We can’t wait for the SXSW audiences to experience them!“

The SXSW Film Festival will open on Friday, March 11, 2011 with Duncan Jones’ Source Code. In addition to nine full days of film screenings, SXSW Film will ultimately feature over 80 sessions of panels and workshops in the Film Conference. For details on the confirmed sessions, selected from proposals submitted via the SXSW PanelPicker™ interface, visit www.sxsw.com/film/talks. The final panel and conference lineup will be announced on Tuesday, February 15. Visit http://www.sxsw.com/film for more information and updates.

Source: Shock Till You Drop