Raimi, Demme To Debut Works At SXSW

A scene from Sam Raimi's "Drag Me To Hell." Image courtesy of SXSW.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has announced some major new additions to its 2009 Festival today. Director Sam Raimi will debut a work-in-progress version of "Drag Me to Hell," his return to the horror genre. The film, which stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long, is "an original tale of a young woman's desperate quest to break an evil curse." Raimi will be in attendance to introduce the screening at midnight, Sunday, March 15, at the Paramount Theatre.

Jonathan Demme will also premiere his new film at the fest, his Neil Young performance film, "Neil Young Trunk Show," on Saturday, March 21, at the Paramount Theatre. The film presents Young "in the middle of a stage full of personal icons, at times alone in the center of a circle of his beloved acoustic guitars, at others in the midst of a handful of much-beloved musicians Ben Keith, Rick Rosas, Ralph Molina, wife Pegi Young and Anthony Crawford."

"Both Sam Raimi and Jonathan Demme add tremendous weight to our program," said Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson in a statement, "and we are beyond privileged to screen films that are not only highly anticipated by fans and industry alike, but are truly inline with SXSW sensibilities."

The SXSW Film Conference and Festival runs March 13 - 21, 2009, in Austin, Texas.