What’s Wrong with SXSW on Amazon Prime?

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

I was excited to hear that the Free Online SXSW (South By Southwest) Film Festival on Amazon Prime was going forward April 27–May 6.  But it seems a good number of films that would have screened at SXSW, prior to COVID-19 cancelling the high profile festival, are not interested in participating.  The filmmakers fear it will ruin their chances at distribution deals, as Amazon Prime is not offering to buy each film, just allow them to be shown for a very limited time on their streaming platform. Also, even if theaters remain close for the time being, many filmmakers are still hoping for a theatrical release, which would be made even more unlikely if thousands of people get to see it online before it ever hits theaters.

My thoughts are purely selfish, as I love the idea of not having to hop a plane to Austin and spend the kind of money I did at Sundance, yet still see the next hot films for free.  However, putting my interests aside, the fact of the matter is, SXSW is where distribution companies go to shop for films, so they can still shop online. Think about it. If AmazonPrime shows these films over a 10 day stint (the usual length of time for this festival) and perhaps, they should restrict certain titles to only be available for certain blocks of time during the day; then it’s ostensibly the same audience as a traditional film festival.

Not as many people as they think, are going to watch film after film for those couple days. And even less people are going to set their phone reminders to login for certain windows of screening availability. You have to keep in mind, most of these films don’t have any buzz yet, so you’re going to be attracting the same discovery loving film festival attending audience. Of course, you’ll pick up new audiences who don’t normally attend film fests, because of this free, easy access, but it’s still not going to be this broad, over-exposed viewing that filmmakers and distributors are concerned about.  I think you can do it and still provide the exclusivity.

Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection from Amazon Prime Video and SXSW with 39 films, composed of narrative and documentary features, short films, and episodic titles.