You want to know how I’m cocksure I’m no longer one of the “cool kids”? I’m not gonna be setting foot in Austin, Texas over the next few days. I can’t begin to tell you how many folks who historically chose to go to markets like NATPE, MIP and CES eschewed this year’s iterations for wide-ranging reasons ranging from cost to weather to conflict who booknoted South by Southwest as the one they “had, had, HAD” to be at. Judging by all of the previews from practically every discipline I’ve ever touched that have proliferated over the past few days, I can now clearly see why.
A quick scan of the schedule for what is lovingly acronymed SXSW reveals a Frankenfest that brings together talent from all of those worlds, combining the best parts of Cannes, Coachella, Pasadena and San Diego into one massive opportunity for pretty much every company wanting to get out in front of its skis to hype what they hope will define pop culture 2026. DEADLINE’s Anthony D’Alessandro effusively dropped this teaser yesterday:
Similar to last year, the 40th edition of SXSW won’t be short on talent, with everyone from Steven Spielberg (his second time at the fest after 2018’s Ready Player One) and Jane Fonda to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer and Andy Cohen walking the BBQ-filled, line-dancing streets of hipsterville Austin.
And that’s with the Oscars in the way Sunday, and the festival’s main haunt, the Austin Convention Center, in the midst of a three-year, $1.6 billion renovation. That Oscars conflict, it’s a biggie; we understand that SXSW first called dibs on this weekend before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences scheduled its 98th Academy Awards. Oy, what does that mean? It means a break-up of the event cinema programming, tricky travel schedules for stars and filmmakers (Spielberg, a Best Picture nominee for Hamnet, is on a panel Friday), as well as feature distribution buyers opting to screen movies back in L.A. and New York City as they monitor the noise from afar. Well, that’s their bad: There is plenty of star power to choose from this year in Austin with pics starring Charlie Day, Adam Scott, Kevin Bacon, Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos, Lizzy Caplan and more.
So how does SXSW deal with this (because clearly, the SXSW faithful aren’t at home watching the Dolby Theatre’s dog-and-pony show)? The fest books a high-octane title that electrifies the 18-34 core. On Oscar night 2023, Austin’s own Robert Rodriguez’s $65 million Ben Affleck noir Hypnotic had lines around the block with turnaways. This year, Magnolia is looking to make waves with Ben Wheatley’s Bob Odenkirk shoot ’em up Normal (on 35MM) following its world premiere at TIFF.
In another side of the Oscar coin, SXSW made its mark as a potential awards springboard with its post–Covid return to an in-person edition in 2022 with opening-night pic Everything Everywhere All at Once…Can SXSX emulate that again this year? Quite possibly, with the timely Campeón Gabacho from BAFTA-winning filmmaker Jonás Cuarón. The WME Independent sales title centers on a young Mexican migrant who boxes his way through challenges and discrimination in New York City. Early word is that the movie rivals Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
And that’s just movies. For the musically inclined, VARIETY’s Leia Mendoza teed up back in November a partial list of the dizzying number of folks one step removed from AMERICAN IDOL and THE VOICE seeking to make their mark:
Programming highlights from the first 100 Showcasing Artists for the SXSW Music Festival include masked lo-fi art-pop musician Milo Korbenski from Brighton, England, Mexico City-based post-punk project La Texana, Brooklyn-based alt-folk songwriter Hudson Freeman, Indonesian trio Grrrl Gang, and Austin-based musician Bayonne. Additional programming will showcase the electro-pop project from Roger Sellers, Irish post-punks Chalk, punk-pop buzz band The Sophs from Los Angeles, hip-hop and Bollywood-influenced rapper, producer, and songwriter Koad from the West Coast, Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter runo plum, Grammy-nominated rapper and Tully founder Joyner Lucas, and experimental electropop DJ_Dave from Los Angeles.
Gotta admit, that’s a hang I sure wish I had an expense account to tap into to savor. And could very well be life-changing for the kind of crowd that will be drawn to what CNET’s Macy Mayer, Jon Reed and Scott Stein highlighted in their own pre-show hype yesterday:
Executives from companies such as Spotify, Nothing, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Signal, Cloudflare and more will also be there. Artificial intelligence will naturally be the talk of the town, with panels delving into how it shapes the way we work, play and live on a daily basis. We expect to hear a lot about how AI is changing the internet, this massive digital web of connections we’re all tangled in. And we’ll see new ways to experience the world through virtual and augmented reality, immersive tech experiences and physical intelligence.
The PALM BEACH POST dropped a particularly geeky dime yesterday detailing one of today’s kickoff events:
Soundcheck Live, the platform built to coordinate and manage the real workflows behind live performances, will host the “Made in Austin” showcase on March 12, 2026 at Zilker Brewing (3:00PM–11PM) during SXSW 2026. At this year’s event, the company will preview a major evolution of the platform: Custom User Interfaces, a new system that transforms how live-event teams interact with software.
Rather than forcing every organization into a one-size-fits-all dashboard, Soundcheck Live now generates interfaces tailored to each organization’s workflows, roles, and responsibilities. Event companies, agencies, venues, and production teams all operate differently — yet most technology tools require them to adapt to rigid systems.
And even the sports world has something significant to look forward to, as the FOX press room reminded earlier this month:
FOX Sports is counting down with a star-powered panel presentation at SXSW 2026 titled The World’s Game, Our Stage: FOX Sports Previews FIFA World Cup 2026™. You’ll hear from acclaimed FOX Sports voices who will be at the center of the network’s FIFA World Cup 2026™ coverage, including Alexi Lalas, Carli Lloyd, Stu Holden and Jenny Taft. This conversation will reflect on the growth of soccer in America and preview what’s in store for millions of viewers when FOX Sports presents the biggest FIFA World Cup™ ever and its largest production in history
I for one envy the Uber drivers, bartenders and escorts that all seem to have a yuge opportunity to personally profit from this bacchanal. They could easily make enough bank to afford to attend one of those other gatherings themselves down the road, or possibly even help fund a project that might later be worthy of being showcased. Take a look at the site’s massive website for yourself. Allow yourself ample time to explore it, too. The Cheesecake Factory menu can’t even compare to it.
If you’re as envious as I am, you’ll at least be able to vicariously savor some of the more significant events via the extensive coverage both mainstream journos and influencers will be providing, especially over the long weekend. We may no longer be cool enough to actually be on the invite list, but at least we can still be cool enough to wish we were.
Until next time…