South by Southwest

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual set of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987, and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. In 2011, the conference lasted for 10 days with SXSW Interactive lasting for 5 days, Music for 6 days, and Film running concurrently for 9 days.

South by Southwest is run by the company SXSW, Inc. which plans and executes conferences, trade shows, festivals, and other events. In addition to the three main South by Southwest festivals, the company runs three other conferences, two in Austin: SXSWedu, a conference on educational innovation, and SXSW Eco, an environmental conference; and one in Las Vegas: SXSW V2V, a conference focused on innovative startups.

Overview

SXSW Music

SXSW Music is the largest music festival of its kind in the world, with more than 2,000 acts as of 2014. SXSW Music offers artist-provided music and video samples of featured artists at each festival via their official YouTube channel.

Rose Byrne

Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. Byrne made her screen debut in 1992 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll. In 2000, she played a leading role in the Australian film The Goddess of 1967, which brought her a Venice Film Festival award for Best Actress. From 2007 to 2012, she played Ellen Parsons in the cable television series Damages, which earned her two Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations. Along with co-star Glenn Close, she appeared in all of the show's fifty-nine episodes. Byrne has also starred in the films Troy, 28 Weeks Later, Insidious, X-Men: First Class, as well as the comedies Bridesmaids, Neighbors and Spy.

Early life

Byrne was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, and is of Irish and Scottish descent. She is the daughter of Jane, a primary school administrator, and Robin Byrne, a semi-retired statistician and market researcher. She is the youngest of their four children; she has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Alice and Lucy. In a 2009 interview, Byrne stated that her mother is an atheist, while both she and her father are agnostics.

Anna Faris

Anna Kay Faris (/ˈɑːnə ˈfærᵻs/; born November 29, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She has been mainly recognized as a comedic performer for her appearances in numerous comedy films throughout her career.

Her breakthrough came with the role of Cindy Campbell in Scary Movie (2000), which spawned a film franchise and established Faris as a notable comedic actress. She appeared in the subsequent three sequels of the movie, with her last appearance being in the fourth installment, released in 2006. During the early-mid 2000s, she played supporting roles in dramatic pictures such as Lost in Translation (2003) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), and appeared in various comedies, including The Hot Chick (2002), Waiting... (2005), Just Friends (2005), and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006). She received critical praise for her role in the indie black comedy Smiley Face (2007) and then starred in the Playboy-themed movie The House Bunny (2008) which was billed as her star vehicle and earned her a MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Comedic Performance.

Minnie Driver

Amelia Fiona "Minnie" J. Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress and singer-songwriter.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, and an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the 2007–2008 television series The Riches.

Early life

Driver was born in St. Marylebone, London. Her mother, Gaynor Churchward (née Millington), is a fabric designer and former couture model. Her father, Charles Ronald Driver (1921–2009), was born in Swansea, Wales, to English and Scottish parents; he received the Distinguished Flying Medal for his role in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and was a director of London United Investments.

Her parents never married, as her father was married to someone else throughout the relationship with her mother. They separated when Minnie was six years old. She was sent to Bedales School, Hampshire as a boarder. Ronnie Driver moved to Barbados, where Minnie Driver spent her school holidays. She later attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Minnie has an older sister, Kate, who is a film producer and manager, and 2 younger half-brothers – Charlie Driver from her father's subsequent marriage, and Ed Churchward from her mother's subsequent marriage to polo playing vet Patrick Churchward.