2020 SXSW Festival | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Amazon Prime Video is joining forces with the SXSW Festival!

The Amazon streaming service is teaming up with the festival to launch “Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection,” after all events were canceled amid the ongoing world health crisis.

The tech company is inviting filmmakers to take part in this online film festival, which will play exclusively on Prime Video in the U.S. The event will be available in front of the Prime Video paywall and free to all audiences around the country, according to Variety, with or without an Amazon Prime membership.

SXSW was originally slated to take place in March, but the city government in Austin cancelled the event due to public health concerns. SXSW laid off a third of its staff following the cancellation.

“We’re honored to be able to provide a space for the SXSW filmmakers to share their hard work and passion with audiences for the first time,” said Jennifer Salke, bead of Amazon Studios, in a statement. “It’s been a privilege collaborating with Janet Pierson and the SXSW team to bring these diverse and inspiring films to viewers around the country. We are supporters of SXSW and other independent film festivals, and hope this online film festival can help give back some of that experience, and showcase artists and films that audiences might otherwise not have had the chance to see.”

Many festivals, tours and events are being postponed or outright canceled due to coronavirus. Find out what else…

The 2020 SXSW Festival is no longer taking place after the City of Austin made the decision to pull the plug on the event amid Coronavirus fears.

Now, the organizers of the festival have revealed that they are not covered by insurance for the cancellation due to a disease outbreak.

“We have a lot of insurance (terrorism, injury, property destruction, weather). However, bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics are not covered,” SXSW co-founder and Managing Director Roland Swenson told the Austin Chronicle.

The festival has made it known that they believe “the show must go on,” but they are being forced to cancel the event by the city. It sounds like they will be losing a lot of money because of it!

For the first time in the history of the SXSW Festival, all events have been canceled amid the outbreak of Coronavirus.

The festival organizers say that it was the City of Austin that made the final call to cancel next week’s events, even though the Austin Public Health office said just days ago that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.”

Over the past week, several companies started pulling out of the festival and talent also began dropping out of appearances. The festival was supposed to take place from March 13 through March 22.

“This situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites,” the festival said in a statement. “We are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants, starting with SXSW EDU.”

It’s worth noting that the official statement from the SXSW team does not mention Coronavirus at all, though it’s clear that this is the reason for the cancellation.

Click inside to read the full statement… More Here! »

Sony, Universal and Warner Music are asking their employees not to attend the upcoming 2020 South By Southwest Festival.

The three major music groups advised employees not to go to the annual music festival and conference held in Austin, Texas due to coronavirus concerns, Variety reported on Friday (March 6).

“Given the event draws in many people from around the world, we’ve decided to cancel [our company’s] attendance at SXSW this year. … Please note, this is a precautionary measure. Many of our partners are reaching similar conclusions, which also means the benefits of attending would be much reduced…SXSW is an important and productive event for our industry and we expect to be back there next year as usual,” one company’s internal memo reads.

This is far from the first sign of companies pulling out of SXSW – find out who else is no longer going.

SXSW, which takes place from March 13 to 22, is so far still scheduled to go forward in Austin, Texas.

Apple is the latest to pull out of the upcoming SXSW Festival amid coronavirus concerns.

Multiple outlets are reporting that the company will skip the annual festival, which means cancelling the premieres of Beastie Boys Story, series Central Park, Home, and the screening of Boys State.

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon‘s conversation about their show, Little America, has also been cancelled.

Amazon Studios, Twitter, and Facebook have all cancelled their appearances at the festival.

However, as of today, the 2020 SXSW Festival is still scheduled to take place.

If you missed it, the Ultra Music Festival was just cancelled because of the virus that is spreading across the world.

Amazon Studios will not be in attendance at 2020 South By Southwest Festival.

All Amazon-related activities at the festival, including world premieres, will be pulled due to coronavirus concerns, according to Deadline on Wednesday (March 4).

The music and technology festival is still scheduled to kick off on March 13 in Austin, Texas.

Amazon was also planning to have an activation on-site with Entertainment Weekly, which will also be scrapped.

“Due to health concerns Amazon Prime Video has decided to pull back from the festival and will be cancelling all activities including the Blue Room Photo/Video Studio over the weekend and the Entertainment Weekly party on Sat evening. We regret any inconvenience this may cause. The health of our team members and guests is our priority. Thank you for your understanding, Entertainment Weekly,” a note from EW to press reads.

Amazon is not the only company holding back on traveling during the ongoing outbreak: Twitter, Facebook and Intel are among the others. IMDB is reportedly also canceling its video studio presence at the festival.

The latest from the festival states that it will go on: “Regarding the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event. As a result of this dialogue and the recommendations of Austin Public Health, we are proceeding with the 2020 event with the health and safety of our attendees, staff, and volunteers as our top priority.”

This major fashion brand just canceled a show amid the ongoing coronavirus concerns.