By Jay A. Fernandez

The SXSW Film Conference and Festival unleashed its complete feature lineup late Wednesday night, and it’s got some must-see world premieres (”Kick-Ass,” “MacGruber,” “Elektra Luxx“) and thus-far-unseen gems. Running in ecstatic overlap with SXSW’s voluminous music and interactive fests — from March 12-20 — the film festival has developed its own distinct Texas flavor (separate from the great Austin Film Festival’s screenwriter-centric identity).

Fest producer Janet Pierson with Seth Rogen in 2009.

Industry vet Janet Pierson took over the job of festival producer in 2008 and here discusses her year-two approach to organizing the event.

What’s your background? You were a producer for a long time?

I came up through distribution and exhibition in the late ’70s. I was the assistant director of the Film Forum ‘81 to ‘86. John Pierson and I hooked up in ‘82, married in ‘83. After “She’s Gotta Have It” opened, I quit the Film Forum and just worked with John for a couple decades as a producer’s rep, co-creator and executive producer of “Split Screen,” which was our filmmaker-friendly magazine format television show. It’s funny, because the filmmakers who passed through that show, so many of them are still working and have features all over the place. We moved here in 2004 and I was asked to take over the festival in April ‘08 for the ‘09 festival.

What’s the most useful thing you learned through doing it last year that you’ve put to use this year?

That is was great last year. [laughs] So as much as I can relax — I’m not the most relaxed person in the world — but it worked so well last year, that was both comforting and frightening because I thought, How am I going to maintain it? How am I going to surpass it? But at least there was the relief of, Wow, this is a really good fit. I’ve had this long history that comes into play every day. My life with John was fascinating and I was really heavily involved being a filmmaker champion, but I’m kind of a shadow, kind of a quiet figure, so I wasn’t necessarily as conscious of how deep the ties went, how good the relations were. And that’s something that’s been reinforced all year long, how much meaning that has as I do this job.

Given how the business has been shifting in recent years, what’s the biggest challenge in programming and putting a festival together these days?

Well, you want to be relevant, you want to be vital. We put on a really great event. We’re completely unique in terms of, we’re joined at the hip with our music and interactive conferences, as well. There’s nothing like us in the world, there’s a lot of excitement and people want to be here. So we are in a position of strength that way. We’ve just gotten more attention and more accolades every single year, more registrants. So you don’t want to betray that, you want to keep it going. You want to make sure that, particularly in a time when the business is so dicey for filmmakers and it’s so hard for them to connect with an audience and money, you want to make sure that this is worth their investment. We don’t bring filmmakers in, so they have to get here on their own. We invite them, but we’re not paying for them. So it’s another investment, it’s another cost. We want to make sure not to betray that trust. Because for a lot of the films it’s their world premiere, and we want to make sure it’s something that’s very valuable for them. And in terms of the business, I see at core that my job is to help talent connect with an audience. I don’t know the answer of exactly how to do that. But if we have this great event where everybody who’s working in that world is coming to figure it out, then I feel good about that.

Presumably, these shifts create opportunities, too. Have you seen anything change recently that has intrigued you or improved things? Is there a positive for the festival?

We’ve been known as forward thinking on the whole DIY thing. For a number of years that was gaining, and filmmakers were very aggressively taking their futures into their own hands. One of the things we really feel great about is we have an environment where filmmakers are watching each others’ films, and filmmakers are meeting each other and being inspired by each other, and filmmakers are connecting and collaborating. It’s something that some of the other more heated-up, crazy climates — Cannes is insane! And even Sundance, too. I started going to Sundance in ‘87, I know what it’s like to be there on the film side, it’s super-hard work, you’re wrapped up in your own thing. And here the weather’s better, everything’s more convenient, and the pressure feels different, so that filmmakers reach each other and they interrelate.

That’s where the whole Mumblecore thing came from. The Duplasses had premiered “The Puffy Chair” at Sundance [in 2005], but it was here that they connected with [Andrew] Bujalski [("Mutual Appreciation")], [Joe] Swanberg [("Kissing on the Mouth")] and [Susan Buice and Arin Crumley's] “Four Eyed Monsters.” It wasn’t that it started here, it was that this is where they made these connections that then have still served them. It’s funny, speaking of the Duplasses, we’re excited we’re going to be showing “Cyrus,” it’s been great to see their evolution, but we’re also going to be showing two films that they executive produced, and also Mark stars in a film we’re world premiering, a low-budget animated feature that he’s one of the stars of, one of the three leads.

The fact that it’s supportive and collaborative — I was talking about one of our films in the narrative competition, this really young filmmaker, a woman who’s about 22, and last year she came in with a tiny little movie, a writer-director-star, this one person. And here she met this DP and they’ve since gone on to make another, and she met another actor, so she’s come back with a feature this year that’s just such a great step forward, how much more accomplished. And it’s very exciting for us that we’re sort of an incubator or melting pot — you just see the cross-collaborations all over the place.

For filmmakers working today, because the market is so slim, erratic, non-lucrative, filmmakers have to figure out ways to work within amounts of money that they can afford to lose, or that they can risk. They have to be comfortable with the risk, because there never was a sure thing, but it’s really so competitive now that there’s really no sure thing. So we have a lot of filmmakers who are in this environment who are being more and more creative about how do they work within these limited means.

What kind of experience are you hoping to provide for viewers?

An entertaining and satisfying one. We’re a highlight of a lot of people’s year, locally and people travel in for it. The feedback we got from last year was that people loved the program. It’s a wide variety of films, “Kick-Ass” is a great opening night. But we want discovery, we want a real range of films across the board. One thing that distinguishes us as well is we’re not elitist. There’s great access, we have these wonderful venues that are very egalitarian. We don’t have separate press and industry screenings, everybody’s at the same screenings together. It’s convenient and friendly, accessible, for sure.

Are there other film festivals that you feel are doing things right?

I have admiration for a lot of film festivals. I wasn’t somebody who lived on the film festival circuit. In my life, I’ve certainly been to a lot of different film festivals over the years. And in this last year since I got this job I’ve actually been traveling a lot, and I really like film festivals. I love them as a form, because I love films, and it’s a great way to kind of immerse in that experience. I love meeting people who are there for the same reasons I am. When you go to a film festival, you can talk to anybody. You may not agree with them, but they’re all there because they share the same thing as you. I find it a really electric atmosphere. When I was just at Sundance, I was there working, I’m finishing up my program — we show a limited number of films from Sundance, so I’m making key decisions of which ones — but I’m also there as a fan. So when I sit there, like Lisa Cholodenko, I love her films, she doesn’t make very many, and I’m sitting in that room and James Schamus is sitting behind me, and my whole life is going in front of my eyes, everybody I’ve ever met. But then the dark came up and we were all just totally in the movie. So it’s very exciting and it makes it all worth while.

Is there a film that you’re most psyched about having at SXSW this year?

I’m not that reductivist. I love all my children. Last year we showed “Drag Me to Hell,” and I know that was a peak experience for everybody. But I can say that after the fact. I really am excited about the program, but I can’t single out one film in particular. Although I am delighted with how we’re opening it up [with "Kick-Ass"]. It’ll be a really fun, communal experience.

Thanks, it was nice to talk to you.

Can I do one little tiny shout-out? We’re so beating a drum here for Kathryn Bigelow because we were the U.S. premiere for that film ["The Hurt Locker"] last year. So when we get a chance we like to add our good wishes and hopes for her, because we’re totally excited about it.