What Felt New or Different About SXSW This Year?

Senior Account Director, TV, Film, Documentaries

This was the first time I attended SXSW without the Austin Convention Center serving as the central hub, as it’s currently closed for expansion and redevelopment. Many attendees wondered how this would impact the overall experience, but in my view, the organizers did an excellent job activating spaces across downtown Austin as showcase venues, panel rooms, and networking hubs.

They also introduced dedicated “clubhouses” for each programming track (i.e., Music, Innovation, and Film & TV). This was a welcome addition; I found it especially useful to regroup between meetings and events while still being able to network and engage with other industry professionals.

It was also the first year where all the programming tracks were scheduled on top of each other, running concurrently during the entire festival, a decision that made planning more difficult for companies and attendees. Travel was also widely impacted, with all tracks descending upon Austin at the same time. I myself fell victim to flight delays, being routed overnight to Miami first just to get into Austin (oof).

That said, I read that there were less attendees overall, but if that was the case I would have never known as the streets seemed just as busy as ever to me.

What conversations kept coming up throughout the festival?

Unsurprisingly, AI was a dominant topic at SXSW this year but what stood out most was how the conversation has evolved. In previous years, it largely centered on emerging AI companies preaching the merits of using their tools and hard pushing for adoption, alongside a handful of panels debating ethics.

While those still existed this year, there was a noticeable shift toward more nuanced and thoughtful assessments and even counters to AI’s impact. This included panels ranging from topics such as “Reclaiming our Humanity in the Age of AI” to “AI & the Brain: As We Embrace AI, Let’s Not Forget Our Minds”.

I also saw film directors openly champion seizing this moment to lean into creating human created work. They encouraged audiences to resist generative AI models, discussing the importance of storytelling and how human authenticity is going to beat the algos, which they estimate, like dataset training models, have become somewhat of an ouroboros.

In conversations with fellow attendees, I noticed a clear change from last year. People who previously felt unsure or uninformed about generative AI were now far more cautious, particularly regarding legal risks and threats to intellectual property. There was a consensus that the tools can be helpful (as long as critical thought is present), while generative AI can be harmful (and/or the reliance on AI in place of human authorship).

At the same time, nearly everyone seemed both deeply engaged with the topic and exhausted by it. It raises the question: As the AI wave gets bigger, has it reached the peak saturation point with the public?

Did you attend any screenings at SXSW this year and if so, which films stood out to you?

James Ward Byrkit Director of Coherence

There’s nothing quite like lining up for a film you’ve never seen before, going in based solely on a synopsis, and watching it alongside a room full of fellow festivalgoers. It’s one of the purest and most rewarding parts of the experience. I had the privilege of seeing many excellent films this year, a reminder of just how much great filmmaking is happening right now. Three really stood out to me personally:

The first was a short doc from the Texas Shorts block titled Forcefield of Love. It follows Dan and Doris, a couple who found each other later in life after both being widowed. Now in their 80s, they live unapologetically as themselves, dressing how they want and moving through the world with openness and love. It’s a deeply moving character study, and you could feel how much the audience collectively craved something so uplifting, in a time when we’re flooded with media.

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel, directed by Ben Feldman, was a compelling origin story of friendship. It felt raw and honest, capturing the emotional bonds between young misfits who found purpose and expression through music. With unseen footage, rare images, unheard recordings, and standout collage-style animation, it delivered everything you’d want from a music doc.

Last but not least, I saw the film The Life We Leave by Director JJ Gerber. I didn’t know what to expect prior to the screening and have to say that it’s one of those films that has the power to change people. I couldn’t stop talking about it to everyone I ran into afterward. The documentary is about transformation in more ways than one. Micah, the man who starts the company Return Home, a terramation company, along with his integral and insightful teammates Katey & Brie, experiences both personal sacrifice and growth while establishing this new form of afterlife service.

Through their journey and the perspectives of grieving families it challenges conventional funeral practices and the transactional nature of death care in the U.S. It was a beautiful film that explores what it means to create and discover new rituals around death and I highly recommend it.  

What advice would you give someone attending SXSW next year?

1. Pace yourself, there is so much to do and so much to see. It can be hard to accomplish over a limited amount of time depending on how long you attend for.

2. Open yourself to conversations with others, you’ll never know what you might learn or who you might befriend.

3. Catch screenings, panels and showcases! (for bands I like the venues Shangri-La, Swan Dive, and Hotel Vegas).

4. Have fun, drink electrolytes, and don’t forget your sunscreen!