Swanberg, on-hand at the panel to discuss why he feels it's the best choice for his film, talked about his own frustration as the director and producer of films including Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends of feeling that his films play well on their fest premieres and get lots of people talking about them, but by the time they get around to release six months or so after their big debut, interest tends to wane. He spoke about primarily being concerned with taking advantage of fest buzz to drive interest, and making his film available immediately to people far removed from the fest scene who develop an interest in seeing it after reading fest reviews; he noted that he was surprised at how many people saw his films on VOD as opposed to in theaters.

Asked whether he was at all concerned that a same-day release in on-demand might hurt his films' fest circuit play, Swanberg replied that he doesn't really have control over whether festival programmers choose not to program his film because it's already been released in that platform, but that he hopes to continue to show his films on the fest circuit, which he considers to largely be the "theatrical run" for his work. SXSW director Janet Pierson spoke about the fest's involvement with IFC on the deal, saying that the films that will show under this joint initiative at SXSW were all films she was very interested in having at the fest anyhow, which made it an easy decision to agree to partner with IFC to make it happen.

The initiative will be an interesting way to test the waters for what could become a viable alternative to help break the barrier of getting festival films to wider audiences, something IFC already does with its IFC Festival Direct program, which offers viewers the opportunity each month to see six new films that have played major film festivals. Interestingly, the initiative somewhat answers the issues Robert Redford and Geoff Gilmore addressed at the opening day press conference around the role film festivals can play in helping filmmakers reach a wider audience outside the fest circuit, but we'll have to see how it will play out. It's good at any rate to see IFC thinking creatively around indie film distribution and helping films reach wider audiences, particularly in an economic climate that has some indie filmmakers nervous about being able to distribute their work.

IFC also announced today the addition of a new genre label, IFC Midnight, which will put horror, sci-fi-, thriller, erotic arthouse and other edgier fare in front of a nationwide audience through on-demand. New titles offered at the launch of IFC Midnight include Wild Man of Navidad, The Protocol, Still Waters, Hush, The Kreutzer Sonata, Dark Mirror, and Group Sex.