Short Cuts

Get 'em While They're Hot (and Available) Dept.: Roughly two weeks and counting until SXSW 2001, and film passes should be on sale as of the time you read this. Priced at $45 (maximum four/person, $2 handling fee for check or charge), passes allow holders to gain entry into any of the 160 films slated to be screened this year. Passes are available from Waterloo Records on a walk-up basis for as long as they last, and as usual, no reserving them in advance even if you are pals with most of the Waterloo crew. As in previous years -- and this is important to note -- passes do not guarantee admission to SXSW venues. Capacity limits, age policies, and the dreaded film-fan crush will all conspire against you and leave you standing out in the lobby holding a rapidly cooling bag o' popcorn. I can't stress this enough: Get there early, and don't budge once you're in. There's nothing worse than planning your afternoon/evening around catching that much-hyped indie supa-bomb and then losing your cool with the gatecrew when you walk up five minutes to showtime only to find you're S.O.L. Trust me on this. More info than you'll ever presumably need is available at www.sxsw.com. Also in SXSW news, the fine folks over at the Interactive portion of SXSW 2001 (March 9-13) urge you to get out the vote for the 2001 SXSW Web Awards People's Choice Award. Each year the People's Choice Award is given to the public's favorite finalist in the SXSW Web site competition (last year's winner: Ana Voog's www.anacam.com). This year's winner will be announced Sunday, March 11, at the SXSW Web Awards Show. Info on how to enter and vote is available at www.sxsw.com/2001/interactive/webawards/peopleschoice/… It's probably not the type of "bomb" that first comes to mind when discussing cinema (thankfully), but maybe it should be. This Saturday, Feb. 24, from 2-4pm in Jones Auditorium at St. Edward's University, the Austin Adopt-a-Minefield Film Festival will showcase "the latest films dealing with the crisis of over 60 million landmines in 70 countries that kill 26,000 civilians a year, of which 8--10,000 are children. The festival is continuing toward the goal of raising $50,000 to clear a (single) minefield in Praca, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Good cause, good films. More info? Call 472-4023 or check out their Web site at. www.austinlandmines.org… Cine las Americas and Austin Children's Museum will host a pair of Museum Youth Digital Video Workshops Saturday, Feb. 24, noon-3pm, and Saturday, March 3, noon-3pm, at the Austin Children's Museum (201 Colorado St.). Designed to teach kids the rudiments of basic filming, editing, and interviewing techniques, projects completed over the two courses will later be screened as part of Cine las Americas' Youth Day, April 14, noon-6pm, at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex (1156 Hargrave St.). For more information call Trey Lopez at 416-0986 or send e-mail to t.lopez@cinelasamericas.org… Wondering what happened to former Austinite and Pixel Perfect honcho Chip Mosher? Yeah, me too. Mosher, who moved to Los Angeles in August, has been working with Big Blast Entertainment, a company he co-founded with chums Joe Nozemack, of www.graphittidesigns.com, and Bob Chapman of www.onipress.com. According to Mosher, Big Blast was set up "as a venture to take comic book properties and get them produced in Hollywood." Apparently it worked, as the company has just optioned Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston's The Coffin to James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, via Fox. As if that weren't enough of a coup, Lightstorm is currently in talks with Austinite Guillermo del Toro to direct. Who's king of the world now?