I'm still working on a write-up of the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards ceremony last night, but in the meantime, I will tantalize you with a photo or two. Here we have Dennis Quaid on the red carpet before the awards ceremony. I was very professional and didn't shout out anything like "Ohmygod, you're in one of my favorite movies of all time!" (Breaking Away), just like I didn't say, "We watch you every Christmas. You're a tradition!" to Billy Bob Thornton.

Quaid presented the Tom Mix Honorary Texan award to Billy Bob Thornton -- they co-starred in the movie The Alamo together. I've also got some fabulous photos of Larry Hagman and Linda Gray, Catherine Hardwicke, and Kinky Friedman, so keep an eye out.

SXSW is upon us and I always get a little antsy trying to figure out my schedule. It's tough to balance the screenings, panels, parties and general socializing with friends I only see at festival time. Not for the first time, I had to decide if I was going to stick with a Film badge or upgrade to Gold to take advantage of the Interactive conference. Thankfully, SXSW knows the lines between Interactive and Film get blurrier each year, and offer a number of joint panels and events.

Like every other year, I like to have a screening-heavy schedule. SXSW is a film lover's dream because the programming is very eclectic, with an emphasis on smart, independent films (Hollywood hates me, but I'll write about that later). This year, my most anticipated films seem to include more docs than usual, something I blame on SXSW; I never used to be a big doc fan, but the lineup is consistently strong, and several of them really resonate with me.

Just a few of the films I'm looking forward to seeing are:

Yes, that's me in the picture on the right, which was taken during SXSW. (Thanks to Melanie Addington for taking it and posting it to Facebook.) No points for guessing which movie I was about to see. I'll probably look just like that this year, except for the lei, so say hi if you see me.

Meanwhile, the SXSW announcements and excellent blog entries keep rolling in. Here are a few for today:

• In case you hadn't heard yet, Fantastic Fest and SXSW are co-sponsoring a special screening of some clips from Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film, Bruno. The screening takes place on Sunday night, March 15, at 11 pm at Alamo South Lamar. You don't need a SXSW badge or pass to attend -- it's first come, first serve. (I'm planning to see the Sam Raimi movie instead -- it's impossible to see both without a chauffeur, sadly.)

Love him or hate him, you have to admit Kinky Friedman is a genuine Texas Colorful Character, and it's fascinating to see what he's going to do next. (But not running for governor again. Please.) I started to tell you all my own little story about meeting Friedman when I worked as an Austin City Limits intern in 1994, but it went on too long. And I don't want to take the spotlight away from my e-mail interview with David Hartstein, director of the documentary Along Came Kinky ... Texas Jewboy for Governor. The film is having its world premiere at SXSW this year.

Along Came Kinky ... Texas Jewboy for Governor plays just once during SXSW: Thursday, March 19 at 7:30 pm at the Paramount. I bet it's going to be fun to watch with a big audience, especially if a lot of Texans are there. Here's what local filmmaker Hartstein had to say about the film.

Note: A 2010 guide to the SXSW Film Festival is now available.

[Editor's Note: Jenn originally posted this survival guide to her blog last week, and I thought it was so enjoyable and useful that I asked permission to repeat it here.]

I've been a badge holder for SXSW film for the last several years, with the exception of last year, when I had a film pass. If you're going to really do a film festival, and get 4-6 screenings in a day, with all that line standing, you can make it easier on yourself with:

I emailed Tommy Pallotta a couple of weeks ago and asked him about doing an interview via email for his documentary American Prince, which is premiering at SXSW 2009. The former Austin resident is living in Amsterdam these days, so email seemed like the easiest way to communicate. Pallotta sent me what's essentially a very cool short article about the film. He told me to feel free to put it in interview format, but I love the story that this article tells and I don't want to break it up with questions and extra formatting.

American Prince is about Martin Scorsese's hard-to-find documentary American Boy and the man Scorsese profiled 30 years ago, Steven Prince. The two films will screen together during SXSW at Alamo South Lamar: on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 pm, and again on Tuesday, March 17 at 11 am.

Check out some clips from the documentary and a very cool poster from the film over at Cinematical. And although this has nothing to do with American Prince per se, I recommend reading the Filmmaker Magazine interview with Pallotta about why he no longer uses Facebook or other social media.

Only a few days before SXSW Film starts, and I still am not entirely sure which movies I'm going to see. I always end up changing my schedule at the last minute, anyway.

Slackerwood still has interviews, helpful guides, and other SXSW-related info that will be appearing this week, so keep checking your RSS feed, or bookmark, or whatever you use. (We may even have non-SXSW news, amazingly.) Here are some bits of news and information that you surely want to know before Friday:

• B-Side SXSW 2009 Festival Genius -- Have you tried this yet? It's lots of fun and also can be very useful. Check out B-Side's handy video overview and tutorial. You plug in the titles of the films you want to see at SXSW this year, and Festival Genius makes you a tidy little schedule with no overlaps. The only drawback is that Festival Genius doesn't care if you have to run back and forth three times from Alamo South to Paramount, but maybe you don't care either, if the films are good enough.
• SXSW Advance Tickets -- If you're a SXSW Film badgeholder, watch the linked video for info about the new Advance Ticket system, which ensures you get into the movies you want to see most.

One of the most intriguing trailers I've seen for SXSW this year has been for St. Nick, the feature from writer-director David Lowery that will premiere at the festival. I've attached the trailer after the jump so you can see for yourself.

David has a great blog called Drifting: A Director's Log where he often writes about the projects he's working on. His short films have screened at Slamdance, SXSW, and Austin Film Festival.

I recently conducted the following email interview with Lowery about St. Nick. If you're a vegetarian, you especially want to read to the end of this interview (why? you'll find out). St. Nick is playing during SXSW three times, each time at Alamo Ritz: Sunday, March 15 at noon, Tuesday, March 17 at 2:30 pm, and Friday, March 20 at 12:30 pm.

In previous years, the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards took place on the opening night of SXSW, which presented a dilemma for some festgoers. Fortunately, Austin Film Society moved the annual fundraising gala this year to the Thursday night before the SXSW Film Festival begins.

Some other changes are going on with Texas Film Hall of Fame, too. AFS has added "Party in the Red Room," in which attendees can watch the awards as a live simulcast from an "enormous party tent" next to the studio where the award ceremony is held. It sounds like fun and is more affordable than the tables at the in-person awards. The Red Room party (no Shining references, please) is being hosted by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (Friday Night Lights and fabulous bottle-smasher) and Paul Saucido.

Thomas Haden Church will be the emcee for the actual awards ceremony this year. I've listed the award recipients and presenters after the jump.

[Editor's Note: Please welcome our latest contributor, Jenn Brown.]

With SXSW just around the corner, and Tim McCanlies' latest film, The Two Bobs having its world premiere, it's a perfect time to review one of his earlier films, Secondhand Lions. McCanlies is a well-known figure in the local filmmaking scene as a writer, director, and co-founder of Fantastic Fest. His script for 2003's Secondhand Lions was known in Hollywood as one of the best unproduced scripts around, taking 10 years to make it the screen.

It's the 1960s, and Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is a weenie, even by his mother's low standards, so she abandons him to his great-uncles in rural Texas, with hopes of getting part of their rumored wealth. Garth and Hub (Michael Caine, Robert Duvall) after a mysterious 40-year absence, are back home and not taking retirement any more gracefully than the presence of greedy relatives and traveling salesmen. After Walter suggests they spend some of their money, the uncles start spending their wealth on the most outrageous items, starting with a skeet machine and culminating with a lion.