Big news @ SXSW.

The Austin American-Statesman's Chris Garcia cuts to the chase, then passes along the press release.

Updated through 4/15.

Major congrats to Janet, whom I had the pleasure of (finally!) meeting in March. Many of us became a bit acquainted with her first via her husband John Pierson's book, Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes, then got to know her a little better with the release of Reel Paradise, chronicling the family's year programming a movie theater in Fiji. Jonathan Marlow interviewed the Piersons in September 05.

Congrats, too, to Matt, who's moving to New York City to head up the marketing and programming operations of Cinetic Media's new digital rights management unit. As I've said here in the past, any history of American independent cinema in the 00s is going to have to include a passage on the impact of Matt's smarts, instincts and sheer guts as a programmer. Not just for the selections he's made in his years as a producer of the festival, and not just for the guiding hand he's offered to many of the filmmakers SXSW has hosted, but also for creating an environment that's allowed a pretty unique community of filmmakers and film lovers to flourish each spring in Austin.

For more news and initial commentary for now, turn to indieWIRE's Brian Brooks and Eugene Hernandez.

Updates, 4/15: More from Brian and Eugene at indieWIRE as they talk with both Janet Pierson and Matt Dentler about their respective futures. Nice bit here: "Asked to summarize CRM for iW, Matt Dentler explained simply, 'It's taking what I consider to be the gold standard of indie film representation and creating an extra aspect that is going to explore avenues that [filmmakers] think about and know about, but don't know how to explore.' 20 years ago it was the Piersons... who emerged to shepherd indie films into distribution." Janet: "I've seen festivals change and grow, replacing the old art film world that I came of age with. So, it's particularly fascinating to be a part of that evolution. My work both before John and with John has been championing work and connecting film with audiences."

Scott Kirsner is a bit skeptical about Cinetic's plans.

Posted by dwhudson at April 14, 2008 1:10 PM