10 Hotly Anticipated SXSW Movies You Need To See In 2014

1. Veronica Mars

And speaking of fan-salvaged television, back almost a year ago the beloved cult TV show, Veronica Mars, started its return journey to the screen by launching a fundraising campaign on that little site called Kickstarter. The film, written and directed by series creator Rob Thomas, was crafted to close out the storyline following the show's much-maligned cancellation, but Warner Bros declined to finance the film adaptation, so Thomas and star Kristen Bell went to the fans. What happened next, as strange as it may sound, literally made history: the campaign raised its 2 million dollar goal in less than 10 hours, and after a month of fundraising, the project saw 91,585 donors give more than 5.7 million dollars to the film. With that kind of money, WB was (conveniently) back on board to distribute. SXSW 2014 saw the film's world premiere and just yesterday (March 14th 2014) the film was released to theatres as well as VOD and online platforms, making it the first film from a "Big 6" studio to have a simultaneous theatrical and home release. Throughout its journey, Veronica Mars raised all kinds of questions about the legitimacy and ethics of crowd-sourced movies distributed by gigantic studios, and some backers have even begun to complain about the "digital download" formatting of their copy of the film. But whether or not you donated, or have any stake in the future of film financing, it certainly was interesting to watch. And so is the film, apparently, amassing a 75% score on RottenTomatoes and receiving overall high praise from audiences. So what about you? Have any standouts or suggestions for SXSW films we might have missed? Join the conversation in our comments section.