- Next on "Austin InSight," as South By Southwest evolves with a major leadership shakeup and a temporary new home, what's the future of Austin's signature global event?

And we'll have a look back at the sights, sounds, and innovations from this year's South By.

"Austin InSight" starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hi there.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

It's Austin's premier global event and it may never be the same.

Having recovered from the pandemic, South By Southwest is undergoing another major transformation, including the ousting last week of co-president and longtime South By key figure, Hugh Forrest.

In a statement, Forrest said in part, quote, "I put my heart and soul into this event for more than 35 years and I was looking forward to leading several more editions," end quote.

Joining us now with more on the unexpected leadership shakeup is Richard Whittaker, senior staff writer at the "Austin Chronicle."

And full disclosure, you may know the "Chronicles" co-founder is one of the co-founders and still a co-owner of South By.

Richard, thanks so much for joining us.

- Absolutely my pleasure.

- So Richard, first, can we talk about, how significant is the sudden departure of Hugh Forrest?

He certainly had a major role throughout most of the existence of South By.

- After the departure a couple of years ago over Roland Swenson, I think this is by far the biggest departure we could have heard about.

Hugh has been part of South By since 1989, so really.

- Since the beginning, almost.

- Yeah, yeah, the third festival, but really the second year of the existence of the company, he's been part of the team.

But he really stepped up in '94 when they added film and interactive and he really took over programming at that point.

So to, when you think of modern South By, much of the creation is down to Hugh's vision, Hugh's idea for what it should be, Hugh's idea of how it could expand to include interactive, to include technology, to really become a convergence festival, this comes back to Hugh, and he's been the guy for over 20, over 30 years now.

So you take that out and that is a huge change in the leadership.

You know, at the end of the day, when people wanted to call South By, they wanted to call Hugh, and it's not to say that there's not people capable of making decisions at South By, but for the last few years, they would've been run past Hugh, at least, if they hadn't come from Hugh in the first place.

So this is a huge change.

- Undoubtedly a monumental loss.

And what else though do you know about potentially others being forced out or let go?

- Well this is a weird time.

There were a few people who I know were planning to head out anyway, particularly on the music side, and they were just looking at retirement or looking at doing something else 'cause they'd been there for so long.

However, I haven't heard precise numbers, but what I've heard is somewhere between 10 and 11 people, some of them in very senior leadership positions, a lot of behind the scenes people, rather than necessarily people who, you know, people may even know from being interviewed about their section of the festival.

The big thing was this seems to be very much out of the blue.

People did not see this coming.

- And last year, there were layoffs as well last summer, over 20 employees laid off, and we know and you brought this up, but the festival's ownership has changed amid financial troubles due to the pandemic and then the layoffs last summer.

Can you shed light on why you believe these changes are being made and what's happening to South By?

- I think you are dealing with a handful of things.

You've gotta look at the three different sub-brands, effectively, South By.

Film is doing fantastic.

Claudette took over from Janet Pierson, she's changed the direction a little bit, but it's still South By, it's still arguably the most important American film festival the first half of the year.

Tribeca's putting a bit of competition in this year up in New York, but that's gonna be interesting to see how that shakes out.

At the same time, music has been faltering.

Music was the big dog for the longest time and the music industry's just changed.

They've had trouble retaining kind of the venues down on Red River and 6th Street.

It's much more moved out to 7th Street.

That's been an issue for them and that's been undeniable.

On the interactive side, the tech industry just isn't throwing money around like it used to.

And you could see that this year, there were fewer interactive badges being sold, which is mainly what the tech people are going for.

There were fewer popups and venues for tech stuff.

So they're facing a lot of challenges.

The market's shifting, the resources they've depended upon are shifting.

So I think those decisions are being made in that light.

Are they for the best is the big question because when you're getting rid of somebody like Hugh, everybody who talks to South By talks to Hugh, people who make big decisions.

When the word came out, one of the first responses was, "Well, I hope Hugh left his contact list behind," because there's gonna be so many people who are used to dealing directly with him and his team.

You take them out of the equation, you've gotta ask who's gonna be stepping up to replace them.

- And while South By Southwest has, of course, seen changes over the years, these certainly seem like the most pressing and definitely the biggest ones to watch.

And we will be watching as next year's festival takes shape.

Richard Whittaker with "The Austin Chronicle," thank you so much for sharing your insight with us.

- Thank you so much for having me, Laura.

(mellow upbeat music) (mellow upbeat music continues) - We'll have more about the future and the changes next year later in the show.

But first, we have a special report looking back on the best of South By Southwest 2025.

Aliens, government coverups, chocolate from Dubai, innovations in women's health, Texas film incentives, and the return of Matthew McConaughey on the big screen.

These are just some of the most memorable moments that we found at the festival.

Here's a look at the highlights.

(upbeat country music) From movie stars, music, Matthew McConaughey, maybe some UFOs.

- And I think this is the most important documentary that not only will happen this year but could happen ever.

- And more.

- Ah!

Hello everybody!

Ah, my name is Peelander Yellow.

- [Laura] Once again, South By Southwest made a Texas sized name for itself.

Just ask this husband and wife visiting from England.

- Probably about 20 years I've been following South By Southwest and always wanted to go.

- [Laura] First, the 25th Texas Film Awards honored action star, Michelle Rodriguez.

- I'm like, "Are you kidding me?"

With the likes of Sissy Spacek, Willie Nelson.

I'm like, dude, these guys are legends.

Like surely I can't be in the same category.

- [Laura] Along with Alamo Drafthouse founders, Tim and Karrie League.

- I've always thought of the show as people on the other side of the screen, so it was a shock and it's a huge honor.

- Yeah, we are in very grand company.

- [Laura] Writer/director Noah Hawley was also honored.

- It's humbling to be recognized by your peers and by the entire state of Texas, which last time I checked is pretty big.

- [Laura] Hawley, an Austin transplant, is the creator of the new FX show, "Alien: Earth."

- How fast are you guys?

- [Laura] And fans got a sneak peek at this activation.

We got a crash course and a crash landing.

Ah!

I'm stressed.

And an up close encounter with an alien.

- It might be a little bit scary.

That's all I can tell you.

- [Laura] The series comes to Hulu this summer.

But maybe some real life aliens landed at this next premiere.

- The American people are ready to receive the truth.

- [Laura] That's the new documentary, "The Age of Disclosure."

It sets out to prove aliens, or now UAPs, unidentified anomalous phenomena, are in fact real and the government's covered it up for eight decades.

- Well it's the story of the century.

I know from firsthand evidence I've seen video of Navy classified systems and all the people on this film have as well.

- This can be a national security threat, the likes of which we've never faced as a nation.

- [Laura] The film features interviews with 34 high level government, military, and intelligence officials, some saying at great personal risk, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

- My promise to everyone that trusted me to do an interview is that I was not gonna make anything sensational.

There was gonna be no BS in there and every single person who speaks on camera will be someone who has direct knowledge of this topic as a result of their work for the US government.

- [Laura] The documentary has been making headlines around the world, but there's no release date yet.

Speaking of out of this world, here's superstar Nicole Kidman at the premiere of "Holland" on Amazon Prime, directed by Mimi Cave.

- I think this is the best festival.

(laughs) It means a lot to me and this festival has supported me for a very long time.

- [Nancy] Every day, I get to wake up in the best place on earth, Holland, Michigan.

- [Laura] The thriller follows Kidman as Nancy Vandergroot, a homemaker and teacher whose life seems perfect, until she discovers a sinister secret.

(bright music) - [Nancy] It may seem like we have everything all together, but right under the surface, it's like we're being strangled.

- [Laura] The film also stars Gael Garcia Bernal.

- It's a little fable on how perfection doesn't exist.

- [Laura] And "Succession's" Matthew Macfadyen.

- I was a sort of mid-westerner in "Succession."

So I've played a few crazed mid-westerners now.

I should probably do something else.

- [Laura] The film is part of Kidman's mission to work with a female director every 18 months.

- I'm in the position to be able to share what I do and to be able to get things made for women passion projects or give them chances that they would not necessarily get.

Happy to be in the trenches doing it.

- I think that the ripple effect is huge.

- And now we're on the red carpet talking with the singer-songwriter H.E.R., who's making her directorial debut this South By with a new documentary, "The Makings of Curtis Mayfield."

- I'm grateful to even have someone's legacy kind of in my hands, you know?

But honestly, I feel like it's even more special when an artist and a storyteller gets to tell the story of another artist and how they were directly, you know, impacted by that person.

- [Laura] The Grammy and Oscar winning artist introducing the next generation to the singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and cultural legend that was Curtis Mayfield.

♪ This is our last and only chance ♪ - So it's a privilege for me, but it was just time to pay homage and give him the credit that he deserves.

- [Laura] She also got to experience some real Texas cuisine while in town.

- Yeah, I was at Terry Black's.

I will definitely be getting some more barbecue.

- [Laura] Meanwhile, across from The Paramount, these fans from all over the country waited in line.

- Six-ish hours, got here at 9:30 and we were right at the cutoff.

- [Laura] For The Criterion Closet of classic films.

- Three minutes where you're basically surrounded by this array of movies that's organized in a way that no computer could decode it.

- [Laura] This was the Mobile Criterion Closet's first stop outside of its New York City home, but romance found its way off the shelf.

- The last two people in line got engaged in the truck.

They drove all the way down from Oklahoma City.

They almost didn't get in.

- While I didn't find love myself, I did get to do my own closet picks video on Texas filmmakers.

You can't be doing a story on The Criterion Closet in Austin and not get "Dazed and Confused."

Speaking of, what's more Texan than Whataburger?

If I spill a little mustard on my outfit, you won't even know.

Here's a look inside the Whataburger Museum of Art, all made from Whataburger's super fans.

- I like to think of myself as one of the biggest super fans for Whataburger.

Everything revolves around Whataburger for me and my family.

That's where we celebrated graduations, that's where I would go after I would perform with my band and just like after football games, you know?

- [Laura] All in honor of the fast food chain's 75th anniversary.

- It's our 75th birthday, so I can say that the love has been building for 75 years since 1950.

- And you get to create this sort of Jackson Pollock of Whataburger stickers on this white wall.

So here we go.

I think this spot calls to me.

What's your go-to Whataburger order?

- Okay, that's, whenever I need to eat my feelings, and that's happy feeling, sad feelings.

It's a patty melt for sure.

- [Laura] And it wouldn't be South By without the music.

Showcasing artists from around the world, like Yndling from Oslo, Norway.

- South By Southwest is a kind of festival that I've heard about basically ever since I started making music.

It's kind of like a big one for Europeans to get to go here and play music.

My music is a little bit out there, and from what I've understood, the audience at South By Southwest, they're quite open and into new things.

- [Laura] She's also checking some stuff off the Texas bucket list.

- Me and my boys, the band over there, are all waiting for a barbecue.

(laughs) - [Laura] Plus we caught up with local artists, like Chief Cleopatra, performing at Austin PBS's own showcase called "Bloody Mary Morning."

- Really surreal (laughs) just because there's so many amazing artists on this lineup and there has been in the past.

So to be a part of that has just been like a dream come true.

South By is very important to local artists and what it does for them and their careers.

Being a part of the community during this time of the year, I think that's why I always come back.

- [Laura] And of course, it's always a wild time with the Japanese American action comic punk band, Peelander-Z.

- We just want to make smile, we just want to make you happy, that's our project.

- [Laura] They've been performing at the festival for over 20 years.

(upbeat music) - Hey!

I love (indistinct).

Bye bye!

- [Laura] Over on the tech side, women's healthcare was a major topic, bringing in figures like Sarah O'Leary, CEO of Willow Innovations that revolutionized breast pump technology.

- We put everything that happens in a breast pump inside of a woman's bra so that she can actually go about her day pumping, while also living her life.

It literally is like adding so much time back into a women's life.

And I also feel like it's adding dignity.

- [Laura] According to O'Leary, women spend about 1,800 hours a year breastfeeding or pumping.

And now women all over the country are using their technology.

- We are very proud to have fundamentally transformed the breast pump category.

There is still so much to solve in terms of making the postpartum experience better.

- [Laura] Tech attendees also got a trip through time at the immersive experience from Dubai's Museum of the Future.

- It was really important for us to bring a taste of the soul and the spirit of Dubai to the people of Austin, to the community of South By Southwest.

- With some viral sweet treats for visitors.

I hate to say it, this is worth the TikTok hype.

But it was the Texas film scene that took the starring role outside the Capitol.

- David Blue Garcia, the director of "Bulgarian Chainsaw Massacre."

That's actually a typo.

It should be "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

But the problem is, without proper Texas film incentives, we had to shoot my movie in Bulgaria in Eastern Europe instead of here in Texas.

- [Laura] That's exactly why Media For Texas hosted the Texas Film Experience.

- Our ultimate goal is to do our part in what we can to help increase and enhance our film incentives to bring our production back home.

- Visitors could see everything, from a live set to costumes to this robotic camera.

Coming in hot.

- But what I think people don't understand is those incentives support Texas.

Like you only get them if you hire Texas.

You only get them if you work here at a certain percentage that is above my pay grade.

But it really puts money back into the state.

- [Laura] The bill would increase funding to bring film and TV projects to the state to the tune of $500 million every two years until 2035.

- It's not about celebrities.

This is not a Hollywood handout, this is not corporate welfare.

An incentive bill affects the crew and it affects Texans.

And this is our job.

This is us doing our part to showcase all the crew who will be affected by this bill.

- [Laura] The Texas Senate has since passed the bill and now it's being discussed in the house.

Texas directors, Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez, are also on board.

- You know, unfortunately our neighbors, New Mexico and Louisiana, have pretty aggressive programs.

If we can come up to even near them, we'll do well.

- Whenever I have actors come here, they go, "I'd much rather be coming here than Atlanta or New Orleans or Canada or Bulgaria."

- [Laura] Austin actors, Jared and Genevieve Padalecki, agree.

- So many people come in from California or New York or Atlanta or whatever, and they'll be like, "Y'all are all so nice here."

- And no, I'm not- - I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, we're nice."

- I'm not born here, like Jared is, but I will say, it is the friendliest community and the nicest humans.

- And a bonus at this year's South By Southwest, the premiere of the Minister of Culture himself's first movie in six years.

Here's Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of his new movie, "The Rivals of Amziah King" at The Paramount.

And we had a little catching up to do.

What does it mean to you to get to premiere your first movie in six years for your hometown audience?

- Yeah, the last one was "Beach Bum."

- Yeah, and I was on that carpet as a student and now I'm grown.

- Look at you!

- So I have a picture of you- - Where were you a student?

- At UT Austin, of course!

- Look at you.

This is what we're talking about and now you're here doing it.

- And you were so nice to me.

- Good.

- And I was so nervous and you were so nice and it's like, it was like my screensaver, the picture of you throwing a hook 'em at me, I wanted to tell you.

- Come on.

All right, well, here we go again.

- [Laura] While details are limited, McConaughey plays the titular character Amziah in the crime thriller where he reunites with his former foster child, Kateri.

But this movie was shot in Alabama and McConaughey hopes to bring more stories like it to Texas.

- On just a selfish level, I want to shoot in my backyard.

I've enjoyed shooting here.

We have great talent here.

Why not?

- [Laura] McConaughey's son, Levi, also worked on the film and made his official red carpet debut.

- It's pretty cool to come out here and be able to support my dad in Austin, where I grew up, where I live and where we call home, and it's just kind of a little full circle moment, I guess.

- [Laura] It was also the red carpet debut for Angelina LookingGlass in her first big acting role.

And she talked about the importance of Indigenous representation on screen.

- Back when I was like nine or 10, I didn't have kind of like a role model in media that was an Indigenous woman, you know?

And so I'm just kind of proud that this film kind of showcases a really strong Indigenous girl.

- [Laura] On set, her co-star, Tony Revolori, a frequent collaborator of another famous Texan, Wes Anderson, offered her some career advice.

- She can tell you, were we kind?

Were we nice?

- No.

- Oh, no!

- [Laura] But at least he took McConaughey's advice.

- I would wanna work with more Texans.

So Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, hit me up.

- Finally, as PBS, we did have to ask the Minister of Culture one final question.

PBS pick one, real fast, Big Bird or Elmo?

- The Incredible Hulk.

- Got it.

Thank you so much.

And for the record, The Incredible Hulk is not an official PBS character, but could may well be a distant cousin, perhaps, of Oscar the Grouch, and it was certainly a lot of hard work, but it was so fun to be out there for all those days and to meet so many amazing and passionate people from all over the world.

But with fewer days and the convention center under construction until 2029, big changes were already on the horizon for South By Southwest.

In an interview recorded before the leadership shakeup was announced, we spoke with the Vice President of Film and TV for South By Southwest, Claudette Godfrey, about what you can expect.

(upbeat music) Definitely the last few years, the film aspect has really grown into this juggernaut, which has been great to see.

All that being said, can you talk about, in your words, the changes coming next year?

The convention center being closed, for one, as well as the dates being reduced from the historic nine days to seven days.

Can you talk about that?

- Yeah, so the convention center, obviously that's a big change for us and so many events that utilize that space.

But I think it's, you know, change is hard and sometimes can be a little scary.

But I think for us it's actually a really good opportunity to have an exciting, like re-envisioning of the event.

Instead of using the same spaces that we always have, we're gonna really lean into kind of the community aspect of things.

So for us, our film and TV focus panels and sessions have been in the convention center and now this will give the opportunity to move them into a hotel that's a little closer to The Paramount and our street closure and we have happy hour events and a filmmaker's lounge that are in The SFA Hotel and like sort of creating a nice hub for our audience instead of, you know, obviously theater spaces are a little different, they're spread out all over.

So we are no stranger to that and I think it's kind of given that opportunity for each of the discreet communities that are part of South By to kind of have a space that is their space.

But that's our summer project, so we're not totally done just yet.

(laughs) - And let's talk a little more about the dates, going from nine days to seven days, and now over the years, South By Southwest has changed dates to note, but so, because of that, the three big events, conferences, film, and music will be happening concurrently, right?

- Yes, definitely.

So, you know, nine days is a big commitment for anyone and it's also a big commitment for our staff.

So I think it's sort of a way for us to consolidate a little bit and make it more vibrant for every day.

And that way we can have premieres every day, big showcases every day.

I mean we've never had music on those first days of the festival, so the music festival is actually getting longer 'cause it's adding a day from its previous schedule.

And I think it makes sense now.

I think also when Austin, when South By, you know, kind of started getting much larger, the city couldn't handle all of the people here at the same time.

I remember there were several times where that first weekend that was just film and TV and the interactive conference, that those dates, there was not a bed in the town left.

And that was a really big squeeze.

And so it kind of made sense to stagger things because the city's infrastructure couldn't handle it.

Now the city's much bigger.

- And now let's talk specifics about the music side of things.

I know with some of the changes, some people have made some comments online concerned about, well one, fewer overall bands this past year and downsizing of the music side in general.

And now next year, with the consolidation of dates, there's no singular date devoted to music.

So what would you wanna say to those people who might be concerned about that?

- Well first, I would correct that there's actually never been a singular date devoted only to music because the film and TV festival has been the full nine days.

So even on the last day of the festival, we had screenings.

More is not always more.

Sometimes when you have that many events, then they're not all as great as they could be.

And I think we went through this period of like rocket ship growth and we added, added, added, added.

And then now it kind of makes sense to be like, "How can we make the most number of events that are at the highest possible caliber?"

We'll still be able to, you know, the way we're designing it, I think we'll be able to preserve our international audience that comes, our US audience, but also the audience of locals where, if you don't know, you can buy a ticket at every door of a music venue if there's space and at every screening if there's space.

So we of course always wanna continue to involve our local community too.

- And speaking of that inclusivity, y'all announced that this year you're actually reducing some of the badge prices.

- Yes.

- So can you talk and elaborate on that?

How much are they being reduced by and just what you hope that does?

- All of our audiences, it's forever evolving, and we wanted to make sure that we could be more accessible to all of those groups and also just sort of be able to target, if you just wanna go to the film and TV screenings, there's a badge that's more affordable and accessible to you.

And we've really been working, also, on our ticketing strategy.

We had more tickets available to general public and locals than we ever have before.

So we're continuing to kind of work on that and improve on that.

- Well, we have a few months out, but we will keep our eyes peeled for those badges when they become available.

South By Southwest 2026 runs March 12th through March 18th.

Claudette Godfrey, VP of film and TV at South By, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - That's our show.

Thanks so much for watching.

For more "Austin InSight" segments, you can check out the Austin PBS YouTube Channel and you can always watch full episodes anytime for free in the PBS app.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(bright music)