by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Okay, Lockdown Folks, here's a fun thing to do with your endless free time - watch SXSW 2020 Pilot Showcase on Vimeo!

Los Angeles, CA: In the wake of the cancelled 2020 SXSW Film Festival, a fascinating group of nominated filmmakers from the Episodic Pilot Competition are launching a ‘SXSW 2020 Pilot Showcase’ on Vimeo, a streaming event to preview a diversity led (more than half LGBT content and creators) select number of pilots from the festival for free to global audiences beginning now in April.

This innovative line-up will introduce six exclusive online premieres, including two documentaries, hailing from all over the world — from the US to Australia to Japan to the UK — introducing audiences to the uniquely clever voices behind edgy comedies Bored, Cooper’s Bar, The Dream and This Isn’t Me, and engaging documentaries Bananas and Homecoming: The Journey of Cardboard.

After last month’s SXSW cancellation people across the industry are struggling to find ways to adapt, but episodic filmmakers whose work was set to debut there are now facing a particularly tricky challenge. With no festival premiere, these creators — many of them early in their careers — have suddenly found themselves without a platform to launch or promote their potential breakout series. 

Coral Amiga and Nicole Hartley of the pilot Bored reached out to Vimeo and set out to create a special showcase of the nominated pilots available to the public, which perhaps in normal circumstances wouldn’t be. They saw a need to pivot on the cancellation of SXSW and open up conversations with online platforms about how to now connect with an audience — at a time when connection feels more important than ever.

“Vimeo is proud to offer creators of all kinds a platform to share their stories, now and always,” said Courtney Horwitz, Head of Brand and Content at Vimeo.

So with Vimeo providing a digital home for this exciting slate of pilots, now you can sit back and enjoy them from wherever you are. Whilst the unique SXSW experience cannot be recreated, by watching the pilots you are supporting the artists and, in turn, helping them along their journey during these uncertain times.

Please enjoy a selection of the SXSW 2020 Official Episodic Pilot Competition. The pilots will remain available for at least one month. Below are the select titles:

Bananas

Documentary, LGBTQ

Director: Rachel Anderson; Screenwriter: Rachel Anderson, Mary Duong

Bored

Comedy, LGBTQ

Director: Georgia Oakley; Screenwriter: Coral Amiga & Nicole Hartley

Cooper’s Bar

Comedy

Director:

Alfredo de Villa; Screenwriter: Nick Morton, David Conolly

The Dream

Comedy

Director: Ron Najor; Screenwriter: Trevor Fernando, Ron Najor

Homecoming: The Journey of Cardboard

Documentary

Director: Yuko Shiomaki, Anna Thorson Mayer

This Isn’t Me

Comedy, LGBTQ

Director: Adrian Rojas Elliot; Screenwriter: Ben Kawaller

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