SXSW Film 2010

Welcome to the fourth annual Slackerwood guide to SXSW film festival venues. SXSW now has a handy video that shows you a map of the venues, but we've got the details: the best seats, the least crowded theaters, and decent meals and wireless access between or even during the movies. A few changes have occurred since our 2009 guide, and with help from my Slackerwood colleagues and the SXSW staff, I've included all the new info I could find.

While I've included a few nearby options for coffee or meals, you'll want to check our Restaurant Guide next week. We'll have more details on places to get a variety of things to eat and drink near all the SXSW film-festival venues. We're also working on a general SXSW Survival Guide as well as a guide for locals with film passes or who want to buy individual tickets for films.

While downtown, you can walk to/from any of these venues in this guide except Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Even if you are from NYC and walk everywhere, it's too far. (I tell y'all this every year and yet someone always staggers up to me beet-faced and in danger of collapse, panting to me that they wish they'd believed me.)

The Austin Convention Center (ACC) "theater" is a temporary setup on the ground floor of the convention center during the SXSW Film Festival. The theater is also known as the "Hitachi G-Tech theater" this year, but it's in the same location as in previous years (ACC Exhibit Hall 5). It seats a surprisingly large amount of people and I've rarely seen a full house. During the film conference, this is the most convenient theater of the festival. During the music festival, I sometimes feel weirdly out of place here, but it's even easier to find a seat at most screenings.

Pros: ACC may be the best place for passholders or individual ticket buyers to see SXSW films. The location is unbeatable during the film conference -- you feel like you're right in the heart of the festival. The seats are on a good incline and short people should have no problem viewing the screen.

Cons: The seats are cramped, with hardly any legroom (or room for your backpack). You don't get the movie-theater vibe that you would with the Paramount ... this feels more like a big classroom. Also, once the music festival starts, the area outside the theater gets even more crowded than usual, although the theater itself almost always has seats.

Parking: Pay to park in the garage next to the convention center, or the big surface/dirt lot closest to Cesar Chavez. This is a good place to park for the day (and night) during SXSW, especially before Music starts.

Distance: You can walk to the Paramount and Alamo Ritz, and you're smack in the middle of the film conference. If you've got a room at the Hilton, you barely have to walk at all, you lucky dog.

Food and Beverages: Skip the convention center itself unless you're seriously dying of hunger or in need of coffee. Outside, you'll find some good, affordable spots like Iron Works, PF Chang's, and Mongolian BBQ. These places will be super-swamped at lunchtime, so you might want to walk a few blocks more and explore Austin's many downtown lunch options.

Wireless: When the conference is going on, the wireless lounge is usually right next to the theater. Can't beat that.

The Hideout is a combination coffeehouse and performance venue. The downstairs theater, located in the back of the coffeehouse, seats about 50. Even if you aren't seeing a movie here, it's a good place for coffee-and-wireless, although the coffeehouse area can get extremely busy at night and during film festivals or other events. The theater is rarely used to show movies except during film festivals.

Pros: Good coffee and other caffeinated beverages, and comfy couches in the coffeehouse area. You can sometimes get a bagel or other snack here for emergency sustenance when other nearby restaurants are closed. The theater has a cozy, intimate feeling.

Cons: The Hideout is not primarily a movie theater and they sometimes have difficulty getting their digital projection up to speed. The seats are not very comfortable.

Parking: No Hideout-specific parking. Park on the street or in a nearby lot/garage.

Bus routes: All downtown routes, including 1L, 1M, 5, 6, 7, 9, 20, 30, 101 stop on the same block.

Distance: It's a block away from the Paramount, and also convenient to Alamo Ritz and many downtown hotels and restaurants.

On-side food and beverages: Lots of coffee drinks, frappes, tea, etc. They also have baked goods and snacks, depending on the time of day (the earlier you go, the better the selection).

Nearby dining options: Same as the Paramount.

Wireless: Free wireless right there, yay. And you can relax on a sofa with a tasty beverage while you use your laptop, if it's not too crowded.

Alamo Drafthouse at South Lamar, aka Alamo South, is one of the three Alamo theaters owned by Tim and Karrie League. It's a six-screen theater in a strip mall, renovated from what used to be a grocery store. The theater primarily shows first-run movies, but also serves as a venue for many local film festivals, and is the primary venue for Fantastic Fest. Locals appreciate this venue during SXSW and other festivals because it's central and has parking.

The six theaters are various sizes: the largest can seat about 200 people. Two of the screens have Sony 4K digital. Lines for the movies may be inside the lobby or outside depending on the size of the crowds and the weather.

Pros: Like Alamo Ritz, you get pre-show clips, food, and beer. Little lights under the tables in front of your seat are meant to make menu reading easier, but are also helpful if you're taking notes on the film (or want to look at your bill).

Cons: When it gets crowded here, it gets really crowded and verges on the chaotic, although Alamo staff (and volunteers, during fests) have managed to instill very good line control. Popular first-run movies often sell out quickly, especially on summer weekends. Avoid the first two rows of the theaters unless you like craning your neck.

Parking: Alamo South Lamar is part of a strip mall with a big parking lot. If the lot in front looks full, you can park behind the theater in a smaller lot. Beware of parking with reserved signs for other shops and restaurants, as they will tow. The lot will fill during film festivals and you may have to park in the neighborhood ... try to be considerate of the residents, if so (we don't want them lobbying for permit parking on their streets!).

Bus routes: #3, #338, and #484 Night Owl can take you downtown from here.

Distance: You can't walk to downtown movie theaters from here unless you're into serious hiking, but you can take a bus or find a friendly Austinite with a car. A cab from the theater to downtown isn't expensive, but they're unlikely to hang around the parking lot, so be prepared to phone. Make sure the cab service has your name so they won't drive off with some other film geek.

On-side food and beverages: The menu is similar to Alamo Ritz, except that this Alamo does not serve hard liquor. The milkshakes are my favorite in Austin.

Nearby dining options: The Highball, Suzi's Chinese Kitchen and Casa Garcia are in the same strip mall, and the super-trendy (and pricey) Japanese restaurant Uchi is across the street and down about a block. Almost directly across Lamar, you will find a lot with several food trailers: Odd Duck for bistro-style small plates; Brevita for coffeehouse fare; and Gourdough's for huge decadent donuts (open late for your sugar and fat convenience). If you've got a car, you can hit restaurant row over at Lamar and Barton Springs Rd, or go further south down Lamar for Olivia's upscale but tasty cuisine and Kerbey Lane's gingerbread pancakes.

Wireless: Wireless is usually available in the lobby and the theaters, although the signal isn't consistent, especially during film festivals. If the weather is nice and the wireless is strong, try the picnic benches next to the theater. The Highball also has wireless. About two blocks further south down Lamar (away from downtown), you'll find a Starbucks in a strip mall across the street from Saxon Pub. Flipnotics also has wireless, on Barton Springs Road about a block west of Lamar, but that's not walking distance.

Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, aka Alamo Ritz, is one of three Alamo theaters owned by Tim and Karrie League. The downtown theater is a renovation of the old Ritz Theater, built in 1929. The theater has two screens and shows a combination of first-run movies, arthouse films, and the interestingly obscure. The smaller theater seats about 90; the larger one, close to 200, depending on how the balcony is used.

Pros: The location is ideal for downtown-based film festivals like SXSW and AFF -- maybe too ideal, since it's often hard to get in. The seats are comfy except in the balcony, but the view from there can be pretty cool and makes up for whatever temporary seating they've arranged up there. There really are no "bad seats" in the larger theater. If you're in the smaller theater, see if you can score a spot on the couches in the back row.

Cons: The front row of the smaller theater is a challenging angle for watching movies, although honestly not as bad as it looks. Wireless is spotty at best. And frankly, we wish the theaters were larger, especially during film fests. When you sit down at an Alamo theater, don't try to put an empty seat between yourself and the people next to you -- the waitstaff will ask you to move so seats can be consolidated if (when) the theater fills up.

Parking: No Alamo Ritz-specific parking; park on the street or find a downtown lot/garage. The Southwest Tower lot at 7th and San Jacinto (a block or so away) offers a $2 refund if you show your Alamo ticket stub on the way out, Sundays through Thursdays. The St. David's parking garage is also a good bet. If you're seeing a midnight movie and parking in a garage, make sure it will still be open after the movie ends.

Bus routes: All downtown routes.

Distance: Only three blocks from Congress Ave. You can walk to the Paramount and The Hideout, and to a number of hotels and restaurants.

On-site food and beverages: Alamo Ritz offers a full menu for lunch and dinner, including an extensive beer menu and full bar. They also have weekend brunch options. You also can get standard movie-theater fare like popcorn and candy. (Please don't forget to tip if you order anything.)

Nearby dining options: Sixth Street has lots of food and most of it's not so hot. However, Iron Cactus next door has Tex-Mex. The Driskill Hotel's 1886 Cafe is good for lunch. If you have time on your hands and want one of the best burgers in Austin, walk a few blocks down Sixth towards I-35 to Casino El Camino. If price is not a primary consideration, splurge on some small plates or even a full meal at Parkside, about a block away.

Wireless: The Ritz has wireless in the lobby but the theater walls are so thick that it doesn't penetrate there very well. Sixth Street tends to have bars rather than coffeehouses -- walk over to The Hideout or try Halcyon on Fourth Street.

The Paramount is located downtown. It's primarily a venue for live performances, but shows movies during film festivals, red-carpet premieres, and the theater's annual Summer Classic Movie Series. The theater seats nearly 1200 people (okay, 1199 to be precise).

During film festivals and gala screenings, lines for the films form outside the theater and wrap in both directions down Congress. The lines often look deceptively long -- just because a line is stretched around the block and halfway down the next street doesn't mean you won't get in.

The balcony may not be open during movies that aren't expected to draw a big audience. However, it's time to dispel a rumor: In previous years, we've heard people claim that sometimes during SXSW, the Paramount will turn away potential audience members if the orchestra level is full, without opening the balcony. SXSW staff have assured me that this is not the case. When the lower level fills, the Paramount will open the balcony area and let you in.

Pros: The theater is so large that it's not difficult to gain admission to most film-festival movies here, even if you're not a badgeholder. This is the best venue for celebrity spotting and perhaps even a red carpet or two.

Cons: The seats are narrow and close together, and you may feel a little too friendly with your neighbors. You cannot shoot video in the Paramount at any time and depending on the event, you may not be allowed to take still photos either.

Best/worst seating: Avoid the box seats. The boxes also may partially block your view if you're sitting far left or right on the lower level. Some short people claim the best view is from the middle of the very last row of the orchestra/mezzanine level. Balcony seats have cramped legroom but offer good visibility if you're short. However, avoid the front row of the balcony; your view will be impeded by a big iron bar.

Parking: No Paramount-specific parking. You can park in nearby garages or, on weekends and after 5:30 on weekdays, on the street in metered spots. Parking at St. David's garage (E. 7th) is reasonably priced if you want to avoid the hassle of finding a spot on the street, although their rates often increase during special events (like the music portion of SXSW).

Bus routes: All downtown routes.

Distance: You can walk to Alamo Ritz or the Hideout, to Austin Convention Center, and many downtown hotels, bars and restaurants.

On-site food and beverages: You can buy bottled water, soft drinks, and beer and wine. Food is limited to popcorn and candy.

Nearby dining options: Jette likes Roaring Fork in the Stephen F. Austin hotel next door, which has weekday happy-hour food specials at the bar, and the Driskill's 1886 Cafe and Bakery, which has some reasonably priced items before 5 pm like soup and salad, and very filling breakfasts. Silhouette, across the street, has happy hour sushi. El Chile has turned back into El Chilito, so it's only open for breakfast and lunch. Sadly, most nearby fast-food places are closed at night (except Pita Pit and Jimmy John's) and even on Sundays.

If you're looking for a pre-movie cocktail, try the second floor of the Stephen F. Austin and sit out on the balcony, which is perfect for people-watching.

If you're carrying your own water bottle, stow it in your car/hotel or conceal it in a backpack or purse before you get to the theater entrance. The ushers take pains to ensure that no outside food or drinks enter the theater, although they won't check inside bags and purses.

Wireless: Walk a block toward Sixth Street to The Hideout. For a less crowded alternative, walk a few blocks toward the Capitol to Little City Coffeehouse, which has great sandwiches at lunchtime.