SXSW Film Festival To Open With Richard Linklater’s ‘Everybody Wants Some’

College-set comedy will kick off the festival on March 11, 2016

| November 17, 2015 @ 12:00 PM
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Richard Linklater‘s “Everybody Wants Some” will receive its world premiere in Linklater’s home town of Austin, Texas as the opening-night film at the 2016 South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival, SXSW organizers announced on Tuesday.

The film will screen on March 11 to kick off the 10-day film portion of SXSW’s music, film and interactive lineup.

“I call it a spiritual sequel to ‘Dazed and Confused,'” Linklater told TheWrap last year, comparing the film to his 1993 comedy about the final day of high school. The new film is set in the 1980s, as a group of college baseball players arrive at school just before classes begin.

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And in a way, Linklater added, the film is also tied to “Boyhood,” his acclaimed 2014 drama that followed a boy from childhood to his arrival at college.

“It’s strangely a continuation of ‘Boyhood,'” he said. “It begins right where ‘Boyhood’ ends: a guy arriving for the first weekend of college. It’s about members of a college baseball team arriving at college for the first time, and it all takes place in the weekend before college starts.

“It’s kind of a college baseball comedy – but with no college or baseball, really.”

“Everybody Wants Some,” said SWSW Film chief Janet Pierson in a statement, “is really funny, instantly quotable and filled with great new talent.” Actors in the film include Will Brittain, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Anthony Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Blake Jenner, Glen Powell and Wyatt Russell.

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The film was produced by Linklater, Megan Ellison and Ginger Sledge, and funded by Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures.

The bulk of SXSW’s film lineup will be announced in early February, 2016.

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