‘Dogs’ joins the pack
Wes Anderson’s latest movie is among the titles announced for the Texas showcase.
The upcoming South by Southwest Film Festival continued to add to its program Wednesday with the announcement that the North American premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” will be the closing night selection. The festival runs from March 9-18 in Austin, Texas.
“Isle of Dogs” will have its world premiere as the opening night movie of the Berlin Film Festival this month. The stop-motion animated picture is set in near-future Japan and tells the story of a boy on a journey to find his lost dog amid all the pooches exiled to a garbage dump.
Anderson was at SXSW with his previous film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The impressive voice cast for “Isle of Dogs” includes Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Mari Natsuki, Nijiro Murakami and Courtney B. Vance.
The festival also announced the lineup to its popular midnighters section of genre films, including six world premieres.
Included are two films featuring Betty Gabriel, who had a scene-stealing supporting turn in last year’s horror hit “Get Out.” Gabriel reunites with producer Jason Blum for Stephen Susco’s “Untitled Blumhouse-Bazelevs Film” ( developed as a follow-up to the 2014 film “Unfriended”), and also appears in the tech-thriller “Upgrade” from “Insidious: Chapter 3” director Leigh Whannell.
Also in midnighters will be Ari Aster’s Sundance breakout “Hereditary,” Katsuyuki Motohiro’s “Ajin: Demi-Human,” Owen Egerton’s “Blood Fest,” Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s “Ghost Stories,” Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “A Prayer Before Dying,” Jenn Wexler’s “The Ranger,” Colin Minihan’s “What Keeps You Alive” and multi-director anthology “The Field Guide to Evil.”
Noting that the midnighter selection includes both veteran and many firsttime filmmakers, SXSW senior film programmer Jarod Neece said in a statement, “It is the highlight of my year to get to dive into the yearly pool of genre film submissions and see what wild and devilish ideas these filmmakers have brought to life.”
Other titles added to the program include Melanie Laurent’s “Galveston,” Clayton Jacobson’s “Brothers Nest” and Dan Gregor’s “Most Likely to Murder,” all world premieres in the narrative spotlight section. Jason Outenreath’s “They Live Here, Now” will have its world premiere in the documentary spotlight section.
Added to the 24 Beats Per Second section are Steve Sullivan’s documentary “Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story” and Brett Haley’s “Hearts Beat Loud,” which stars Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons and premiered at Sundance. Bruno Dumont’s “Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc” will screen in the Global section.
Screening in the festival favorites section will be three movies that premiered at Sundance, including two of that festival’s dramatic competition titles: “Blindspotting” — directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada and starring Daveed Diggs — and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer and Terry Crews. SXSW has also added Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster’s “Science Fair,” which claimed Sundance’s inaugural Festival Favorite award, a prize voted on by audiences and open to all films across the festival.
Twelve curated short film programs were also announced for SXSW.