Amazon Prime Will Stream SXSW 2020 Films for Free

There are wonderful news coming from the United States! Amazon Prime Video have teamed up with SXSW to launch ‘Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection’, which offers filmmakers in the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup an invitation to opt in to take part in this online film festival.

The 10-day film festival part of this year’s SXSW was among the many casualties of the last-minute cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival was meant to be a joyous cinematic celebration that included everything from Hollywood blockbusters to sleeper indie flicks and Academy Award-winning documentaries.

In fact, SXSW Film is a crucial part of a small, yet important network of festivals meant to help artists find distributors and get onto the screens. Its cancellation means the abrupt end of a years-long dream for many filmmakers, depriving audiences of new, fresh works of film.

THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE IN AUSTIN ©SHELLEY HIAM

Fortunately, this new collaboration will ensure that these movies will be screened through Amazon’s streaming platform, for the very first time. The Texas-based festival and the tech giant announced the creation of a one-time online film jamboree where filmmakers who were meant to debut their work at SXSW 2020 can do so on Prime. Running the length of SXSW itself, the movie fest will stream for 10 days in the United States, and it will be available for free, with or without an Amazon Prime membership.

Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in a press release: ‘We’re honoured to be able to provide a space for the SXSW filmmakers to share their hard work and passion with audiences for the first time.’

According to the same release and while the dates are yet to be determined, the Prime film fest could begin by late April. Not much is known about the line-up, either, but filmmakers who were originally slated to appear at SXSW have received details on how to take part. On top of that, they will also be paid a screening fee for the ten days of the festival.

‘I’m thrilled that these two great champions of indie film (SXSW and Amazon Prime Video) are teaming up to resurrect this year’s cancelled film festival’, Jay Duplass, independent filmmaker and SXSW alum, said. ‘These are unprecedented times, and it’s going to take unprecedented solutions to carry on and celebrate these great films and the people who worked so hard to make them.’

On 24^th March of this year, SXSW Film announced the 2020 Jury and Special Award winners of what would have been the 27^th festival. Hopefully, the 28^th will find us all back in Austin.