SXSW: Get Organized with B-Side’s Awesome ‘Festival Genius’

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 9, 2009

Aside from my desperate need to locate and purchase Jurassic Park on DVD, this week’s Reject HQ is all about preparation for the South by Southwest Film Festival that will be taking over our home town of Austin later this week. And with a full team of Rejects coming into town to cover it, we’ve got our hands full trying to flesh out a schedule that will allow us to accomplish all of our goals: drink copious amounts of alcohol, hit on countless indie rock chicks and review a plethora of films for our adoring readership. We also may do some interviews, if we have time.

Enter the brilliant tool that is the ‘Festival Genius’ from the fine folks over at B-Side.com. I was reminded of it this morning by a post by Scott Weinberg over at Cinematical. Essentially the way it works is that you go through and pick out all of the movies that you’d like to see. And once you are done saying yes to the likes of Ong Bak 2, Duncan Jones’ Moon and Greg Mattola’s Adventureland, the (as Weinberg oh-so-accurately describes it) “magical fairies sprinkle pixie dust into your modem and BANG, you get a complete layout of what you’re seeing and when AND it shows you all your potential conflicts and then … fixes ‘em!”

For anyone who has been to a major film festival, SXSW or otherwise, this is a godsend. If only there was something like this for Sundance. To see what it is all about, check out the video below or just head right on over to B-Side.com where you can begin to build your own schedule. Also, stay tuned to our official SXSW ‘09 homepage, as we will be revealing our 13 Must See Movies of SXSW 2009 list tomorrow night.

Read more articles by Neil Miller