Comic-Con is a fun event for film fans hoping to get their first peek at upcoming blockbusters and the stars behind them, but I’ve always been a lot more partial to film festivals. Why? Because film fests are all about actually watching films. (Yes, I know studios have recently started hosting screenings during Comic-Con but they still number in the single digits and they’re always future wide-release movies anyway.) Trailer previews and scenes are fun to watch at the Con, and while I won’t be attending this month I hope to get back again with the FSR crew next year. But a solid film festival trumps everything the Con has to offer by virtue of the number and variety of films available. The best fest, hands down, is Austin’s Fantastic Fest (which I’ll be eating, drinking, and breathing this September), but it’s not the only one worth watching…

American Grindhouse was my most anticipated film of SXSW 2010. I have studied grindhouse and exploitation cinema with the fervor of a doctoral candidate. But my research has been limited to simply getting my hands on as many of the films as possible so it’s all based on knowledge of the product. So the documentary American Grindhouse seemed gift-wrapped for me.

Today, we’re looking forward to a lot of the narrative competition films and a few cool spotlight premieres. It’s the fattest day of screening here at SXSW, so gird your loins — it’s about to get messy.

It’s that time again. The 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival is upon us, and we couldn’t be more excited. For the second year in a row, we’re covering one of our favorite American film festivals as an Austin-based publication. And we kick off our official festival coverage with a list.

Considering the essence of Austin, and the large segment of its movie-loving population that really gets into this kind of film — we see them every week at the Alamo Drafthouse on Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday — this seems like the perfect doc for SXSW. And that’s an assumption made on premise alone. Wait until you see the images and trailer…

Just in time, the folks at South by Southwest (SXSW) have released their final additions to this year’s festival. Taking place from March 12 – 20, 2010, the 2010 edition of the film festival will feature a wide range of films. It will open with Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. And as we know now, it will close with Chris Morris’ Four Lions, a highly acclaimed film from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Also on the list of additions are Spike Jonze’s great short I’m Here, a tale of robot love; Elijah Drenner’s American Grindhouse, an exploration of American exploitation films; and more…