SXSW 08: Opening Night Parties

On opening night, after the Texas Film Hall of Fame soiree, we headed back downtown for the SXSW Film Festival's opening night party at Buffalo Billiards. It's always a great night regardless of where it's help because like the opening of any other event where everyone's psyched to be there. Like the first night at summer camp, only with lots of booze.

See if you can spot the indieWIRE and SXSW staffers in this pic:

It's a great place to meet up with old friends as well as meet new ones, the ones you're going to be seeing at parties and screenings over the next 5 days. One of the films I really wanted to see but missed do to the influenza was Bi the Way, by Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker, the latter of which I met at the party, along with her mom who was in town to support the film (and her daughter, natch). Maybe if I'm nice, they'll sent me a screener!

After Buffalo Billiards it was off to the PureVolume Ranch, one of the many non-official week-long parties that turn downtown Austin into an artistic, booze-addled pub crawl. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

More from opening night after the jump....

Magnolia's Tom Quinn welcomes the Rabbi to Austin:

Philly/Woodstock programmer and co-director (along with Alex and Paul Cannon) of SXSW world premiere Natural Causes, Michael Lerman. No word on who the blond is. Cute, though.