South By Southwest is a grueling experience, especially if you decide to stay for the entire days in the 10-day film festival. Most of the Hollywood crowd had left by Tuesday, following the jury awards that night, but there was still plenty of reasons to stick around for the long haul.

As an SXSW rookie, I decided to go for the Gold Badge, figuring that I might find time to check out some of the Interactive panels. While it was easy to do so on the first day, it was too difficult for the rest of the Interactive days. I checked out former Vice President Al Gore’s presentation, and then saw Charles Barkley explain why social media isn’t always a good thing.

But from then on, it was full speed ahead with film events. First up was Ryan Gosling’s in-depth discussion about Lost River. Then, I checked out Hal Heartley’s Ned Rifle and the hilarious HBO special 7 Days In Hell.

Yes, you read that right. An HBO special was screened during a film festival. Recently, SXSW has added TV episodes to the line-up, which means I got to see the first episodes of Rashida Jones’ Angie Tribeca and Billy Crystal’s The Comedians. There were also engrossing panels about television, including one with the cast of Community and another about writing shows with John Ridley and Will Forte. The latter one was easily my favorite panel.

SXSW has also struggled with its identity as of late. While it is way too early in the year to show studio’s Oscar bait like Toronto or Venice can, SXSW gets the raunchy comedies that Hollywood likes to put out there in the summer. There were screenings of Melissa McCarthy’s Spy and Get Hard with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. A “work in progress” version of Judd Apatow’s hilarious upcoming Trainwreck with Amy Schumer was also screened. Schumer was hilarious and engaging in her panel session.

I skipped the awards to squeeze in Adult Beginners with Nick Kroll and Rose Byrne, which was more in line with the style of indie comedy that SXSW is known for highlighting. Other similar, understated comedies screened include The Overnight and 7 Chinese Brothers.

My favorite film of the festival, without a doubt, was Love & Mercy. Even if I wasn’t a big Beach Boys fan, I still would have been impressed with director Bill Pohlad’s serious take on the life of Brian Wilson.

Two films that really disappointed me were Robert Duvall’s Wild Horses and a horror movie I saw called The Diabolical. Wild Horses was particularly sad to see, since it features some top talents, but it just didn’t work well.

During my time at the festival, I made sure to see some documentaries. Peace Officer was easily the best one I saw and covers the militarization of police in America, through the lens of a sheriff whose son-in-law was killed during a SWAT raid. Tab Hunter: Confidential is also an enjoyable film for any classic movie fan.

Lastly, I got to interview Pixar animator Jim Murphy, who provided some fascinating insight into the making of Lava, which will be shown with Inside Out. I also sat down with Tab Hunter himself, along with director Jeffrey Schwarz and producer Allan Glaser.

Other films I checked out include Hello, My Name Is Doris, 6 Years and KRISHA.

Also, on Thursday, I spent the entire day trying to get into Jimmy Kimmel Live! and it worked. I’ll cross off “being in the same room as Bill Murray” from my bucket list.

SXSW was certainly fun. It was so long, although next time I will know that I really don’t have to stay until the very last day. However, there was an advantage to this. I got to go to early panels and caught up on the films I missed earlier in the week. Plus, it was easier to get into these later screenings and I met plenty of Austin locals who love film as much as I do.

photos by Daniel S Levine