Inauguration in the 1980s In July 1986, the organizers of the New York City music festival
New Music Seminar contacted Roland Swenson, a staffer at the
alternative weekly The Austin Chronicle, to talk about organizing an extension of that festival into Austin. They thereafter announced they were going to hold a "New Music Seminar Southwest". The plans did not materialize, however, so Swenson decided to instead co-organize a local music festival, with the help of two other people at the
Chronicle: editor and co-founder
Louis Black, and publisher
Nick Barbaro. Louis Meyers, a
booking agent and musician, was also brought on board. Black came up with the name, as a play on the name of the 1959
Alfred Hitchcock film
North by Northwest. It should not be confused with "southwest by south" (SWbS), a
point on a compass. The event was first held in March 1987. The organizers considered it a regional event and expected around 150 attendees to show up, but over 700 came, and according to Black "it was national almost immediately." Meyers left Austin and the festival in the early 1990s, but Black, Barbaro and Swenson remained the festival's key organizers as of 2010. In 1993, SXSW moved into the
Austin Convention Center, where it is still held. In 1994, SXSW added a component for film and other media, named the "SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference". That year, the three brothers of the band
Hanson were brought to SXSW by their father in order to perform impromptu auditions for music executives, in the hopes of getting industry attention. Among the people who heard them was A&R executive
Christopher Sabec, who became their manager, and would soon afterward get them signed to
Mercury Records. In 1995, the SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference was split into two separate events, "SXSW Film" and "SXSW Multimedia". At the 2002 SXSW Film Festival, the film
Manito won the jury award for narrative feature, while the documentary
Spellbound won the jury award for documentary feature. British singer
James Blunt was discovered by producer
Linda Perry while playing a small show at the 2004 SXSW Music festival, and was signed to Perry's
Custard Records soon thereafter, where he would go on to release all three of his subsequent albums. The 2005 SXSW Film is considered by some to be the origin of the
mumblecore film genre. A number of films now classified as mumblecore, including
The Puffy Chair,
Kissing on the Mouth,
Four Eyed Monsters and
Mutual Appreciation, were screened, and
Eric Masunaga, a musician and the
sound editor on
Mutual Appreciation, is credited with coining the term "mumblecore" at a bar while at the festival. The film
Hooligans won both the Feature Film Jury Award and the Feature Film Audience Award for narrative feature, while
The Puffy Chair won the Feature Film Audience Award in the "Emerging Visions" category. The documentary film
Cowboy del Amor won the SXSW Competition Award and the Audience Award. and
Lateef performing at South by Southwest 2006 A secret concert at the 2006 SXSW Music by the band
The Flaming Lips was called one of the "Top 10 Music-Festival Moments" of all time by
Time magazine in 2010. The 2006 SXSW Interactive featured a keynote panel of Wikipedia co-founder
Jimmy Wales and
Craigslist founder
Craig Newmark. That year, "Screenburn at SXSW", a component for
video games, was added to SXSW Interactive. though it did not launch at SXSW 2007 as is sometimes reported. In 2008, a comedy element was added to SXSW; it was held for one night. (By 2012, comedy performances occurred on all nights of the festival.)
2009 The 2009 festival was held March 13–22. The Interactive section of SXSW in particular drew larger attendance levels; the influx strained the networks of providers such as
AT&T (primarily due to heavy
iPhone usage). Also new was the founding of an international organization for those not attending, dubbed NotAtSXSW. Coordinating through Twitter and other online tools, notatsxsw events were held in London, New York, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon and Miami. The 2009 SXSW Interactive saw the launch of the
Foursquare application, which was called "the breakout
mobile app" of the event by the
Mashable blog. In 2009, the first Indian classical music artists performed at SXSW: Canadians
Cassius Khan and Amika Kushwaha. The 2009 SXSW Film screened 250 films, including 54 world premieres. The event was notable for having the United States premiere of the film
The Hurt Locker, which went on to win the
Academy Award for Best Picture in 2010.
2010s 2010 The 2010 music festival, which took place March 12–21, was dedicated to
Alex Chilton, who died shortly before he was to perform with
Big Star. A tribute concert was performed in his honor on March 20, 2010. At the 2010 festival, nearly 2,000 bands were officially scheduled to perform, and festival reps estimated that over 13,000 industry representatives attended. Though traditionally the Austin Music Awards kick off the festival, that year organizers slated it as the closing act. Local musician
Bob Schneider earned 6 awards, including Song of the Year, Singer of the Year, and Band of the Year (with
Lonelyland.) At the 2010 Film festival,
Magnolia Pictures bought the film rights to the science-fiction film
Monsters on the night it screened, in what was the first-ever "overnight acquisition" at SXSW. Journalist Meredith Melnick of
Time magazine called this purchase a turning point for SXSW, leading to a greater interest among film studio executives in attending the festival in person. That year also saw the premiere of the indie favorite
Tiny Furniture, which won the award for Best Narrative Feature. The 2010 Interactive festival had an estimated 12–13,000 paying attendees, which represented a 40% jump over the previous year. This was the first year in which the interactive festival's attendance surpassed the music festival's.
2011 promoting ''
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop'' at SXSW 2011 The 2011 SXSW festival ran from March 11 to 20. The keynote presenter for SXSW Interactive was Seth Priebatsch, founder and CEO of the mobile-gaming platform
SCVNGR. The 2011 Interactive festival was by far the largest it had ever been, with an estimated 20,000 attendees. Also in attendance at SXSW was boxing legend
Mike Tyson, promoting his new iPhone game with
RockLive at the Screenburn Arcade. At least two films screened at the SXSW Film festival gained distribution deals: the documentary
Undefeated (which went on to win the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature) and the thriller
The Divide. As a result, film critic Christopher Kelly wrote that in 2011, SXSW Film went from being "a well-regarded but fundamentally regional event" to having "joined the big leagues of film festivals around the world." That festival was also notable for having the premiere of the film
Bridesmaids. The March 15 screening of the
Foo Fighters documentary
Back and Forth was followed by a surprise live performance by the band itself, with a setlist that included the entirety of the then-upcoming album
Wasting Light.
2012 SXSW 2012 ran from March 9 to 18. The standout technology of the 2012 SXSW Interactive was generally stated to be "
social discovery" mobile apps, which let users locate other nearby users. Social discovery apps that had a presence at SXSW included
Highlight, Glancee, Sonar and Kismet. SXSW Film saw the premiere of two major Hollywood films:
The Cabin in the Woods and
21 Jump Street. Another film,
Gimme the Loot, which won the SXSW Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize, got a distribution deal a week after the festival.
Bay of All Saints received the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary. 2012 was also the first year the music portion was expanded to Tuesday. The musical festival included rappers such as
Talib Kweli and
Lil' Wayne, along with surprise appearances by
Big Sean and
Kanye West; indie bands that appeared included
MENEW and
The Shins.
Bruce Springsteen was the keynote speaker for the music festival.
2013 SXSW 2013 ran from March 8 to 17. The big-budget films
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and
Evil Dead premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film, and
Spring Breakers had its U.S. premiere. The film
Short Term 12 won the grand jury award for Best Narrative Feature. The films
Awful Nice,
Cheap Thrills, and
Haunter received distribution deals, and
Drinking Buddies obtained a distribution deal several days later. The 2013 SXSW Interactive saw another huge jump in registration, now with 30,621 paying attendees. This was over three times the number that had attended in 2008 (9,000), just five years previously. The keynote talk for the 2013 SXSW Interactive was given by
SpaceX CEO
Elon Musk. The "Screenburn" and "Arcade" components were renamed to "SXSW Gaming" and "SXSW Gaming Expo", respectively. The Interactive conference had an increased corporate presence, featuring major participation by
Samsung,
3M,
Target,
American Airlines,
Adobe Systems and
AT&T, among others. According to
CNN,
CBS and
CNET called
Grumpy Cat the undisputed "biggest star" of SXSW Interactive over Musk,
Al Gore and
Neil Gaiman.
2014 SXSW 2014 ran from March 7 to 16. SXSW Film had premieres of the big-budget films
Neighbors,
Veronica Mars and
Chef, and
Cesar Chavez had its North American premiere In March 2014 On Her Louder Tour
Lea Michele Headlined the SXSW 2014 For her louder . A clip for the big-budget film
Godzilla was also screened. The films
Space Station 76 and
Exists got distribution deals at the festival, A new section, "Episodic" (on television programming), was introduced to SXSW Film. Television series that previewed at the festival include
Silicon Valley and
From Dusk till Dawn: The Series. The talk show
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taped for a week at the festival; it joined the talk show
Watch What Happens: Live, which began taping at SXSW in 2013. SXSW Interactive featured a keynote speech by
NSA leaker
Edward Snowden, via streaming video, about privacy rights. The festival also featured a talk from another famous leaker,
Julian Assange, also speaking remotely. Besides privacy issues, another major focus of the Interactive festival was
wearable technology, including devices for
augmented reality,
activity tracking, identity authentication, charging cell phones and others.
Computerworld magazine called the
Oculus Rift, a
virtual reality gaming headset, the "sleeper hit" of the festival, although it was displayed not at the Interactive but at the Film portion, as part of a
Game of Thrones exhibit. The SXSW Gaming section introduced its
SXSW Gaming Awards to recognize achievement in video and other types of gaming, which has continued through future SXSW festivals. The keynote presenter and headline act this year for Stubb's was
Lady Gaga. To promote her upcoming album,
Food,
Kelis cooked and served barbecue-style food from a food truck to festival attendees. On March 13, 2014, a drunk driver, Rashad Charjuan Owens, drove his car into a crowd of festival attendees while trying to evade a traffic stop. Two people were killed immediately, another two died later from their injuries and another 21 were injured but survived. Owens was convicted of
capital murder charges after a November 2015 trial in which eyewitnesses testified that about "a chaotic and harrowing scene" on the night, as hundreds of people ran and screamed as the car sped through crowds of people. Owens was given an automatic sentence of
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. On March 15, 2014, rapper
Tyler, the Creator was arrested on
misdemeanor charges of "
inciting to riot" after yelling to fans to push their way past security guards at a sold-out show the previous day. In February 2016, the riot charges were dropped against Tyler, The Creator pursuant to a
plea agreement with prosecutors (under which the rapper pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of
disorderly conduct and paid a $100 fine, with the case to be dismissed if he stays out of trouble for three months).
2015 filming "Can't Stop Crayon Pop" for
Funny or Die before
K-Pop Night Out at SXSW 2015 SXSW 2015 took place from March 13 to 22. SXSW Film screened 145 feature films, an all-time high for the festival. The big-budget films
Furious 7 (which was a last-minute addition to the lineup),
Get Hard,
Spy, a rough cut of
Trainwreck,
Moonwalkers and
The Final Girls had their world premieres, as did the documentaries
Danny Says,
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and
Brand: A Second Coming.
Ex Machina had its North American premiere.
6 Years,
Manson Family Vacation and
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine all got distribution deals at the festival. The 2015 festival hosted the swearing-in ceremony of
Michelle K. Lee as the new head of the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker administered the oath of office to Lee at the festival on Friday, March 13. Various sources called
Meerkat, an iOS app that had launched two weeks earlier that lets users livestream video via Twitter, the breakout technology of SXSW Interactive. Another product that received significant buzz was a prototype of the
roadable aircraft AeroMobil. On March 11, 2016, President
Barack Obama gave a speech at SXSW Interactive in which he called on the technology industry to help solve many of America's problems, such as upgrading outdated networks, helping balance security and privacy, and the
FBI–Apple encryption dispute. Films that premiered at SXSW Film include
Everybody Wants Some!!,
Keanu, ''
Pee-wee's Big Holiday, Sausage Party and Don't Think Twice''. On the night of March 20, gunshots rang out on 6th Street during SXSW, causing mass hysteria and panic. No injuries were reported and a man from Memphis, Tennessee was arrested with discharging a firearm and
disturbing the peace. Following a visit by then-President
Barack Obama, SXSW collaborated with the
Obama administration, the
President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the technology media company Futurism to host
South by South Lawn on the
South Lawn of the White House on October 3, 2016.
2017 Films that premiered at SXSW Film include
Song to Song,
Baby Driver,
Atomic Blonde,
Gemini,
The Ballad of Lefty Brown.
Spettacolo and
The Disaster Artist. Television series that previewed include
The Son,
Dear White People and
American Gods. To promote the third season of the
AMC original series
Better Call Saul (a spin-off prequel of
Breaking Bad), a pop-up "
Los Pollos Hermanos" restaurant, representing the fictional fast food chain featured in both series, appeared in downtown Austin. Guest speakers included former mayor of Newark, NJ and current Senator
Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), political activist and commentator
Van Jones and former Vice President
Joe Biden, who spoke about his cancer research initiative.
Nile Rodgers gave the keynote address for the music portion of the festival, while filmmakers
Gareth Edwards and
Lee Daniels gave the keynote presentations for the film portion. Major companies and brands which exhibited at SXSW (many with standalone "brand activation" pavilions) included
IBM,
Intel,
Panasonic,
Nintendo,
GE,
Giorgio Armani,
Mazda and
National Geographic. Major performers during the music component of the festival included
Garth Brooks,
Lana Del Rey,
Lil Yachty,
The Roots,
The Avett Brothers,
Willie Nelson,
Solange Knowles,
Rae Sremmurd,
Cardiel,
Migos, and
The Chainsmokers, among others. En route to SXSW 2017, Italian
post-punk band Soviet Soviet, traveling on the
Visa Waiver Program, was denied entry to the United States, detained overnight and
deported after an
immigration officer at
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport claimed they were planning on conducting a paid performance, which would have required a work visa. The band presented a letter from their American record label stating that both their performances at
KEXP (which was what had brought the band to Seattle) and at SXSW were for promotional purposes only, but this failed to convince officials at the airport. There was a "Contrabanned" showcase on March 17, featuring various artists and musicians (residents of the U.S. and Canada) who are natives of, or have family connections to, countries affected by the
2017 U.S. travel ban.
Uber and
Lyft were not available to attendees because they had pulled out of Austin in May 2016 as a result of a city ordinance mandating fingerprint-based background checks for drivers of any
ridesharing company. However, other services such as (locally based) RideAustin,
Fasten and Fare, were available, although in high demand. Uber and Lyft resumed service in Austin in May 2017.
2018 's Laura Prudom (far left) hosts a panel at 2018's South by Southwest convention discussing Superman's eightieth anniversary and the release of
Action Comics #1000, with (left to right):
Dan Jurgens,
Jim Lee,
Frank Miller, and
Brian Michael Bendis. SXSW 2018 ran from March 9 to 18. Finalists of the 2018 SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event included Cambridge Cancer Genomics and Bluefield Technologies. Two winners of the event were Austin-based: GrubTubs (in the Hyper-Connected Communities category) and ICON 3D (in the Social and Culture category). Guest speakers included politicians
Bernie Sanders,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Sadiq Khan; journalists
Christiane Amanpour and
Ta-Nehisi Coates; filmmakers
Barry Jenkins,
Darren Aronofsky and
Steven Spielberg; and others including
Elon Musk and
David Banner. Actor and comedian
Bill Murray appeared at several unofficial functions during SXSW. Major performers during SXSW Music included
Tinashe,
Rae Sremmurd,
Rita Coolidge,
Salt-N-Pepa and
Khalid. There was an apparent increased emphasis on locally based performers, international acts and relative unknowns. New games announced during the 2018 SXSW Gaming Expo included
Sonic Mania Plus. At the SXSW Gaming Awards (held March 17), the award for Game of the Year went to
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Films that premiered at the 2018 South By Southwest Film Festival include
A Quiet Place, Blockers,
Ready Player One and the documentary feature and winner of a Special Jury Prize,
Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable. Films that had their U.S. premiere include
Final Portrait and
Who We Are Now. To promote the second season of the HBO series
Westworld, a recreation of the show's fictional Western "town" of Sweetwater was built on two acres of open land just outside Austin. Fans took shuttles to the site, which was dressed in the Old West style, with over 60 actors playing the parts of the android "hosts". SXSW 2018 coincided with a
string of bombings in Austin, which had begun on March 2 and ended on March 21, when the presumed perpetrator, Mark Anthony Conditt, blew himself up after being discovered by police. Two of the bombings occurred during SXSW. On March 17, Live Nation Music, a company organizing events for SXSW, received a bomb threat via email. Police searched the area mentioned in the email and found nothing of concern, but planned performances by
The Roots and
Ludacris, among others, were canceled. Police arrested 26-year-old Trevor Weldon Ingram the next day; Ingram was charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony, in connection with the email.
2019 South by Southwest 2019 ran from March 8 to 17. Films entered at SXSW Film included
Us,
The Beach Bum,
Long Shot,
Booksmart and
The Highwaymen. TV series that previewed included
FX's
What We Do in the Shadows,
Hulu's
Shrill and
OWN's
David Makes Man. At the SXSW Gaming Awards (held March 16), the award for Game of the Year went to
God of War. Major performers for SXSW Music included
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (their first-ever appearance at SXSW). Winners of the 2019 SXSW Pitch event, in which emerging startups pitch to potential investors, included Derq, Pathway and ENZO Tyres. The "Best In Show" winner was
Nebula Genomics; the "Best Bootstrap" award went to TwentyTables and the "Best Speed Pitch" went to Xplosion Tech. Some of the first forums of the
2020 presidential race took place at SXSW, with
Democratic presidential candidates
Pete Buttigieg,
Julian Castro,
John Delaney,
Tulsi Gabbard,
John Hickenlooper,
Jay Inslee,
Amy Klobuchar,
Beto O'Rourke,
Elizabeth Warren and
Andrew Yang all making appearances at the festival (though some had not yet announced their candidacy at the time). Other scheduled guest speakers included politicians
Mazie Hirono and
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; musicians
David Byrne and
Wyclef Jean; actors and comedians
Aidy Bryant,
Kathy Griffin,
Ethan Hawke,
Trevor Noah and
Zoe Saldaña; businesspeople
Tim Ferriss,
Jeffrey Katzenberg and
Guy Kawasaki; and others including
Priscilla Chan,
Neil Gaiman,
Valerie Jarrett,
Michael Mignano,
Bill Nye,
Dawn Ostroff,
Robert Rodriguez and
Maria Shriver. To promote the final season of
Game of Thrones,
HBO organized a
blood drive with the
American Red Cross titled "Bleed for the Throne" which included actors in costumes similar to those on the series. To promote the
Amazon Prime original limited series
Good Omens, a brand activation experience called "Garden of Earthly Delights" was installed in downtown Austin.
2020s 2020 South by Southwest 2020 was scheduled to run from March 13 to 22, but was officially canceled on March 6 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas, the result of an order by the city of Austin. The city's Mayor
Steve Adler announced the cancellation of the 2020 SXSW and also declared a local disaster area. In the month prior to the conference, SXSW organizers had resisted calls to cancel the conference. On February 28, a spokesperson said: However, in the run up to the conference, numerous companies and organizations canceled their SXSW attendance, including Twitter-,
Facebook,
Vevo,
Intel,
Mashable,
Universal Music Group,
Amazon,
Entertainment Weekly,
TikTok,
SAP,
Netflix,
Apple,
Indeed,
WarnerMedia,
The Washington Post, and
IBM. Additionally, many individual attendees, headliners and speakers had decided not to attend, including keynote speaker
Tim Ferriss and artists such as the
Beastie Boys,
Ozzy Osbourne and
Trent Reznor. An
online petition called for SXSW 2020 to be canceled due to health concerns; by the time of the cancellation, it exceeded 50,000 signatures. SXSW organizers said that they were "devastated" by the cancellation, stating that, The show must go on' is in our DNA." Various unofficial SXSW events, as well as "alternative" SXSW events, did occur, in an attempt to help local workers and businesses who would be hurt most by the cancellation. The Austin Community Foundation also launched a "Stand with Austin Fund" for donations to "individuals and small businesses most negatively impacted by the cancellation of SXSW and least able to recover on their own." On March 13, 2020, festival organizers announced that they would proceed with juried and special awards, with judges viewing submissions online. On March 24, the winners of the 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards were announced on the SXSW website, and the honorees recorded acceptance messages for the SXSW
YouTube channel and website.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was awarded Video Game of the Year. On April 2, SXSW announced a joint venture with
Amazon Prime Video to launch a film festival collection. Filmmakers scheduled to screen films at SXSW were given the option to have their films play exclusively, and for free, on Prime Video in the U.S. for a 10-day "virtual film festival". In May, SXSW organizers announced "SXSW Sessions Online", a weekly series of online discussions to run through June, with some of the previously announced guest speakers; each video session was streamed online with Q&A portions made available initially to those originally registered for the festival. All sessions were posted afterwards on the SXSW YouTube channel.
2021 Using a combination of technologies from
Brightcove for
B2C, and
Shift72 for
B2B, SXSW ran a virtual event from March 16 to 20. Films and miniseries that premiered at SXSW include
Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil,
Hysterical, ''
Jakob's Wife, Violet, Dear Mr. Brody, Here Before, The Fallout, The Lost Sons, Introducing, Selma Blair, Lily Topples the World, Not Going Quietly, The Return: Life After ISIS, Fruits of Labor
and United States vs. Reality Winner''. Featured speakers included
Samantha Bee,
Richard Branson,
Chiquis Rivera,
Tim Ellis,
Laurieann Gibson,
Taraji P. Henson,
Rana el Kaliouby,
Matthew McConaughey,
Adriene Mishler, and
Alexi Pappas. Keynote addresses were given by
Stacey Abrams,
Pete Buttigieg and
Willie Nelson. In April 2021,
Penske Media Corporation purchased a 50% stake in SXSW.
2022 South by Southwest 2022 ran from March 11 to 20. The SXSW Conference & Festivals and SXSW EDU drew total participation totalling approximately 278,681. Organizers of SXSW planned for a hybrid event (in-person with online viewing and participation options); all registered in-person participants and attendees were required to provide proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, or a recent negative COVID-19 test, as a condition of receiving their badge. The Austin Convention Center, along with other event venues, upgraded air filtration and increased the cleaning and sanitizing frequency of high touch surfaces, including using UV light technology. Overall the event was slightly smaller than in previous (in-person) years with the core downtown area not quite as crowded (and therefore easier and faster to get around) and a smaller number of musical artists and overall content; significantly fewer major celebrities (especially musical acts) appeared than in previous years, although the film component seemed to celebrate a strong comeback after two years of virtual festivals. Films that premiered at SXSW Film were
Everything Everywhere All at Once,
The Lost City,
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,
Bodies Bodies Bodies,
X,
Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood,
I Love My Dad,
Master of Light (winner of the documentary competition), and
What We Leave Behind (winner of the Louis Black "Lone Star" and Fandor New Voices Awards). TV series previewed include
WeCrashed (
Apple TV+), the third season of FX's
Atlanta,
Halo (
Paramount+), and
The Last Movie Stars (
CNN+). At the SXSW Gaming Awards (held March 12), the award for Game of the Year went to
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (
Square Enix); it also took home awards for Excellence in Narrative and Excellence in Original Score. (2022 would be the final year to date for the SXSW Gaming Awards; the event would not be held in 2023.) Major performers for SXSW Music included
Ashanti,
Dolly Parton (her first time at SXSW; the appearance was to promote
Run, Rose, Run, her new album (and companion novel written in collaboration with
James Patterson)),
Shawn Mendes,
Beck (who was also a keynote speaker) and Oleksandra "Sasha" Zaritska, the frontperson of Ukrainian band KAZKA, who planned to make their U.S. debut at SXSW, but the other two members were drafted into military service due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Zaritska performed as part of a special "Austin Stands With Ukraine" musical showcase. Winners of the 2022 SXSW Pitch event, in which emerging startups pitch to potential investors, included Syrup Tech, Anthill, and Sonavi Labs. The "Best In Show" winner was Hilos, the "Best Bootstrap" award went to Kiro Action, and the "Best One-Minute Speed Pitch" went to Unpacking. The Winner of the 2022 SXSW EDU Launch event, in which companies pitch to a panel of investors and education leaders, was
OurWorlds, Inc., a Native American edtech company founded on the
Pala Indian Reservation. Major organizations and brands which exhibited at SXSW (many with standalone "brand activation" pavilions) included
Porsche, the
University of Arizona,
Amazon Prime Video (including a promotion for
Lizzo's reality competition series,
Watch Out for the Big Grrrls),
Peacock,
Paramount+, and several galleries devoted to
NFTs, including the Doodles project, co-created by artist Evan Keast. Promoting its new
Halo series (based on the
video game franchise), Paramount+ deployed a swarm of 400 purple-lighted drones in the nighttime skies above Austin, spelling out a scannable QR code as well as "#HaloTheSeries Streams Mar 24" and the Paramount+ logo. Keynote speakers included Grammy Award-winning artists
Lizzo and
Beck; author
Neal Stephenson, and producer/director Celine Tricart.
2023 SXSW 2023 occurred March 10–19 in Austin. The SXSW Conference & Festivals and SXSW EDU drew total participation totaling approximately 345,066. Films that premiered at the festival included
Angel Applicant (which won the Documentary Feature Competition),
Bottoms,
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,
Evil Dead Rise,
I Used To Be Funny,
The Wrath of Becky,
Late Night with the Devil,
Problemista,
Tetris,
Talk to Me, ,
Brooklyn 45,
It Lives Inside,
Monolith,
Raging Grace (which won the Narrative Feature Competition),
Deadland and
Bloody Hell. TV series that premiered included
Grown (which took the TV Pilot Competition award) and
Mrs. Davis. In what was reported as a "surprise" announcement,
John Wick 4 made its US premiere at SXSW on March 13; star
Keanu Reeves participated in a live Q&A session immediately after the screening.
Hypnotic, an action thriller starring
Ben Affleck and directed by
Robert Rodriguez, was given a "work in progress" preview screening on March 12. In another surprise screening to close out the film portion of SXSW, Affleck premiered
Air, the biographical drama he directed about the creation of the
Nike Air Jordan shoes (starring himself,
Viola Davis and
Matt Damon), on March 18. Winners of the 2023 SXSW Pitch event (held March 11–12 at the Hilton Austin Downtown), in which emerging startups pitch to potential investors, included Reality Defender, Reach Pathways and Urban Machine. The "Best in Show" winner was PentoPix, the "Best Bootstrap" award went to AMA — Environmental Agents and the "Best Speed Pitch" went to LeadrPro. 13 out of the 40 startups participating in SXSW Pitch were from outside the USA. Veteran broadcast journalist
Dan Rather was the tenth inductee into the SXSW Hall of Fame; he addressed the attendees at the induction event on March 13. Rather joined previous inductees including
Kara Swisher,
Baratunde Thurston and
Jeffrey Zeldman. Austin-based tech entrepreneur
Whurley delivered a 45-minute presentation completely generated with the help of
generative AI tools
ChatGPT and
Midjourney. Major performers for SXSW Music included
New Order (the members of whom also participated in a keynote on March 15),
Jeff Tweedy (of
Wilco), Austin-based band Porcelain, New York City-based rock/soul quintet SUSU, rap artist
Armani White and
Michigander. The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) held a rally at the Austin Convention Center on March 16, demanding increased compensation for the majority of the over 1,400 musical acts (the majority of them independent and relatively unknown musicians and bands, as opposed to more famous/established artists) contracted to appear at SXSW. Artists and bands are generally expected to cover many of their own expenses (including travel to Austin) while performing at the festival; other music festivals around the country offer more generous compensation, including lodging assistance. UMAW's demands include raising compensation, waiving application fees; SXSW representatives said they would review the compensation guidelines/policies after the festival. Keynote speakers included
José Andrés,
Priyanka Chopra Jonas,
Tilda Swinton,
RZA, and the members of the band
New Order. A new spinoff event, SXSW Sydney, was held for the first time from October 15 to 22, 2023 in
Sydney, Australia.
2024 SXSW 2024 took place from March 8–16. Films that premiered during the festival included the headlining
Babes and
The Fall Guy,
Arcadian,
Civil War,
The Idea of You,
Immaculate,
Monkey Man, Road House, and
Y2K. Post Malone, Jake Gyllenhaal, and
Conor McGregor made appearances for the premiere of
Road House. Featured television premieres included
3 Body Problem (Netflix), ''Black Twitter: A People's History
(Hulu), Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (HBO), and Ren Faire (HBO). XR Films that premiered at the XR Film Festival included Chief'' by Native American XR company OurWorlds which debuted on the
Apple Vision Pro, the first time a film for the device appeared in competition. Around 80 acts pulled out of the festival, including all ten Irish acts, citing the sponsorship of the event by the
US Army and several military-industrial companies including
RTX Corporation (formerly
Raytheon), the world's largest producer of guided missiles. Some acts cited the US military's support for
Israel in the
Gaza war as part of their criticism of the sponsorship. One of the groups leading these protests—Austin for Palestine—was faced with trademark and copyright complaints from SXSW for using a parody of its logo (depicting blood-stained fighter jets flying off the arrow) in communications advocating against the festival. The
Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a response on behalf of Austin for Palestine, arguing the image was clearly a
parody allowable under
United States trademark law, and doubting that a copyright claim could be made because the logo in question is
too simplistic to be eligible for copyright.
2025 Following the boycotts in the previous year, the festival terminated its contracts with the US Army and RTX Corporation. SXSW 2025 took place from March 7 to 15. SXSW Film had several premieres, with juried awards announced on March 12. Notable award winners in the competitions included:
Shuffle (Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize),
One Day This Kid (Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize),
Retirement Plan (Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize),
Stomach Bug (Animated Short Grand Jury Prize), and
Harvester (Midnight Shorts Grand Jury Prize and Texas Shorts Grand Jury Prize). The music video for Swedish singer-songwriter
Sarah Klang's
Other Girls won the Music Video Competition, and
Fckups Anonymous* won the TV Pilot Competition. Major celebrities attended film premieres and featured sessions, including
Ben Affleck (for
The Accountant 2),
Anna Kendrick (for
Another Simple Favor),
Jenna Ortega and
Paul Rudd (for
Death of a Unicorn),
Robert Downey Jr. (featured session),
Pedro Pascal and
Bella Ramsey (featured session for
The Last of Us), and
Sadie Sink (for ''
O'Dessa). In addition to Another Simple Favor
, the opening night of the festival featured the premiere of the comedy series The Studio'', starring
Seth Rogen,
Catherine O'Hara, and
Kathryn Hahn, scheduled to premiere globally on
Apple TV+ on March 26, 2025. The SXSW Innovation Awards were held on March 10. Winners included Wandercraft's Self-Balancing Exoskeleton (Artificial Intelligence), "I SEE MUSIC!" by Synegram (Audio Experience) and Share@MealConnect (Community Empowerment). The People's Choice Award went to "Engineering the world's first Smart Lipstick" (a R&D project of Grupo Boticário and CESAR Innovation Hub of Brazil), and
SolarSPELL won Best in Show. Investor and entrepreneur
Mark Cuban was inducted into the SXSW Hall of Fame on March 10 during the Innovation Awards Ceremony. In his speech, he was highly critical of US President
Donald Trump and his special advisor, entrepreneur
Elon Musk. The 2025 SXSW Pitch event, presented by
KPMG, saw nine category winners announced on March 9, with an official media event the next day at the
JW Marriott in downtown Austin. This competition allows early-stage startups to present their businesses (across nine categories) to a panel of industry technology experts, media personnel, venture capitalists, and angel investors. Polygraf AI was named "Best in Show," while Azul Biotechnologies, Inc. won "Best Bootstrap Company," Tempest Droneworx received the "Best Speed Pitch" award, and Launch Ahead was recognized for "Best In Inclusivity." Keynote speakers included
John Fogerty,
Jay Graber (CEO of
Bluesky),
Arvind Krishna (chairman and CEO of
IBM),
Bryan Johnson,
Issa Rae,
Meredith Whittaker (President of
Signal), and
Cristiano Amon (President and CEO of
Qualcomm Incorporated). The crew of the upcoming
Artemis II crewed lunar mission were also featured as speakers. Major performers at the SXSW Music Festival included
Benson Boone,
Common,
Koe Wetzel,
Big Freedia,
Megan Moroney,
Immersion (
Malka Spigel and
Colin Newman), and French electronic music duo
Kap Bambino. There were more international acts than ever before, with 35% of the music lineup coming from outside the United States. Participation in the music festival has reportedly been dropping since the 2010s, when the average band count peaked at around 2,000. This year's edition reportedly saw 1,012 bands showcasing. After the conclusion of SXSW 2025, organizers announced the 2026 edition of the music portion (the original component of SXSW in 1987) will be two days shorter in response to the decline. Several major brands had a significant presence with activations, including
Paramount+,
Whataburger (Whataburger Museum of Art),
Rivian (Rivian House and partnership with
Ben & Jerry's),
JBL (official audio partner with immersive experiences),
Lululemon (Like New resale shop),
Uber (driverless car service with
Waymo),
NASA (immersive space at the
Central Public Library), and
Adobe (discussions on AI and support for filmmakers). SXSW 2025 highlighted a significant shift in the perception of
AI, moving beyond hype towards practical applications across various industries, with brands actively exploring its budgetary value and integration into workflows. The uncertain future of
TikTok, amidst potential sales or bans, sparked discussions about user-centric internet models and data practices. Streaming platforms maintained a strong presence with immersive activations (among them
Prime Video and Paramount+
2026 SXSW 2026 took place from March 12–18, marking the festival's 40th annual edition. For the first time in the festival's history, all three major components — the Innovation Conference (formerly Interactive), Film & TV Festival, and Music Festival — ran concurrently over a condensed seven-day schedule, a departure from the traditional staggered ten-day format. The structural change was driven in part by the ongoing renovation of the Austin Convention Center, which is undergoing a three-year, $1.6 billion expansion, displacing the festival's primary indoor venue. In response, organizers established three "Clubhouses" to serve as track-specific hub locations: Brazos Hall (an event venue on 4th Street) for Innovation, venues near the
Paramount and State Theatres for Film & TV, and various Rainey Street and
6th Street venues for Music. Additionally, most of downtown Austin's major hotels, including the JW Marriott and the Hilton Austin, hosted several events. The Music Festival was also extended to seven consecutive nights of showcases, adding one additional night compared to previous years. The festival coincided with the
98th Academy Awards ceremony on March 15, creating scheduling conflicts for several prominent attendees and causing some film distribution buyers to screen premieres in Los Angeles instead. SXSW 2026 was presented by Rivian. The Film & TV Festival opened with the world premiere of
I Love Boosters, directed by
Boots Riley and starring
Keke Palmer, with a cast that included
Naomi Ackie,
Taylour Paige,
Poppy Liu,
Eiza González,
LaKeith Stanfield, and
Demi Moore. Other headlining premieres included
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (directed by
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and
Tyler Gillett, starring
Samara Weaving,
Kathryn Newton and
Sarah Michelle Gellar),
Over Your Dead Body (directed by
Jorma Taccone, starring Samara Weaving and
Jason Segel), and
Pretty Lethal, starring
Uma Thurman and directed by
Vicky Jewson. On the television side, featured premieres included ''
Margo's Got Money Troubles (created by David E. Kelley, based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman), Monsters of God
(created by Jeremy McBride), and the long-awaited Season 3 of The Comeback'' from creators
Lisa Kudrow and
Michael Patrick King, which screened in the TV Spotlight section. Keynote and featured session speakers across the Innovation, Film & TV, and Music conferences included
Steven Spielberg, who participated in a live taping of the podcast
The Big Picture and also appeared on a panel discussing his upcoming film
Disclosure Day;
Jane Fonda and comedian
W. Kamau Bell, who headlined the session "Say It Louder: Artists, Activism & the First Amendment," alongside Jessica Weitz of the ACLU; California Governor
Gavin Newsom;
Serena Williams; and
José Andrés. Other featured speakers included Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer,
Andy Cohen (in conversation with NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Matt Strauss), Keke Palmer,
Bob Odenkirk,
Riz Ahmed (previewing his Prime Video series
Bait), and
Phil Schiller (a 35-year
Apple veteran, appearing in a session on Apple's first 50 years).
Radiohead guitarist
Ed O'Brien appeared at the Music Conference. The Vox Media Podcast Stage ran March 13–15 at the Hilton Austin and featured sessions with
Jonathan Glazer, Lisa Kudrow, Michael Patrick King,
Mark Cuban,
Spike Jonze,
Kara Swisher, and
Scott Galloway, among others. The SXSW Music Festival featured more than 1,000 artists across seven nights of showcases. Notable performing artists included Alanis Morissette, Jack Johnson (performing with Hermanos Gutiérrez in conjunction with the documentary premiere
SURFILMUSIC), Ingrid Andress, St. Vincent (DJ set), Ty Dolla $ign, Vic Mensa, ZHU, Benny the Butcher, Ella Langley, Geordie Greep (formerly of Black Midi), and Hiroko Yamamura. The All-American Rejects' Tyson Ritter also appeared in connection with the festival's keynote programming. Local radio station
KUTX in association with arts nonprofit EQ Austin presented a showcase, free and open to the public, at a venue on Sixth Street that featured primarily local and regional artists. The Innovation Conference tracks included Brand & Marketing, Cities & Climate, Creator Economy, Culture, Startups, Sports & Gaming, Tech & AI, and Workplace. The Innovation Clubhouse, new for 2026, was located at Brazos Hall (204 E. 4th St.). The SXSW Comedy Festival featured
Bill Burr recording a live episode of
The Monday Morning Podcast, the
Upright Citizens Brigade, and comedy duo
Devon Walker and Alex English performing their show
DAD. The 18th annual SXSW Pitch event saw 45 startups compete across nine categories over a two-day competition, with winners announced at an award ceremony on March 14. Category winners were Yuzi Care (Enterprise and Future of Work); OneCourt (Entertainment, Media, Sports & Creator Content); Surgicure Technologies, Inc. (Healthcare, Assistive Tech & BioTech); Mayimflow (Innovative World Tech); AlterEcho (Intelligent Systems, Robotics & Multisensory Technology); GigU (Smart Cities, Transportation, Manufacturing & Logistics); Smart Bricks (Smart Data, Security, and FinTech); Pittsburgh Coastal Energy (Student Startups); and Sotira (Sustainability, AgTech & Food); Sotira also took the Best in Show award. The Best Bootstrap Company award went to PLNTmatter of Los Angeles, the Best Speed Pitch award to Ecosphere Organics of Detroit, and the Best Inclusivity award to Rea Diagnostics SA of Lausanne, Switzerland. Organizers noted the 2026 applicant pool was the strongest since 2009; to date, more than 80 percent of the 732 companies that have participated in SXSW Pitch across its history have secured funding, collectively raising over $22 billion in venture capital. Brand activations at SXSW 2026 focused on immersive, AI-driven experiences and story-driven pop-ups, including
IBM’s
Ferrari-themed AI Sports Club (at the JW Marriott),
Rivian’s R2 Electric Roadhouse, and
Hulu’s immersive bus tour to promote
The Testaments. Due to rising costs, brands favored highly targeted, fan-centered interactive spaces, such as themed lounges, "living storyworlds," and personalized memorabilia and content, focused primarily along Congress Avenue and Rainey Street, rather than the expensive pavillions of past years. SXSW Sydney, the Australian spinoff event that had run annually since its 2023 debut, did not return in 2026. == Economic impact ==