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So you wanna rake in the indie cred in Austin at next year's South by Southwest Festival? You have a skootch more than a week left to submit proposals for panels and/or rate the ones that have already been submitted for SXSW. But lucky for you, the SXSW Panel Picker is at your fingertips any time of the day or night. This cool new tool allows for everyone to have a say in what panels get okay'd for the festival.

According to the official site, "SXSW thrives on the creative intersection that takes place when great minds get together, and we feel the Panel Picker truly celebrates that. We believe that the real experts at SXSW are the people who bring the event to life - you, the thousands of people who attend every year. You know what you want to see, so this is your chance to help make that happen."

Previous panels include "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession," which featured Cinematical's very own Scott Weinberg, "From Script to Screen," a Stanley Kubrick discussion, and much more. Get on your horse and head over 'cause the Panel Picker closes its doors on July 10th.

You can also stay up to date on all the latest SXSW-related film news and reviews over at the official blog. They gave Erik Davis' earlier post on the real girl behind SXSW's indie hit 500 Days of Summer a nice shout out, too. Even if you don't get your very own panel, you should do yourself a favor and hit up the festival since it's filled to the gills with enough media to burn your retinas and pop your eardrums. Plus, you can eat some BBQ with the peeps you Tweet at. Hey, just sayin'.

Today (3/14)is my first full day at SXSW 2009, and I've seen practically nothing. This day was spent doing some special stuff: This morning I was fortunate to sit on a panel discussion with a bunch of film critics like Shawn Levy, Marjorie Baumgarten, Gerald Peary, and Karina Longworth. The topic was "the shrinking (expanding?) profession of film criticism," and it certainly seemed like the attendees enjoyed what we had to say. One of the main topics was online "vs." print film criticism (the former is better for column space, but the latter brings a certain credibility that's also very important, etc.), but we also discussed various approaches to the craft, why we do what we do, and why it's so important to approach the job for the right reasons.

If I know the hardcore tech-heads who shuffle around behind the SXSW scenes, then this panel discussion should pop up online sooner or later, but be forwarned: I'm kinda loud.

Later in the day I sat it on a very well-attended Actor's Workshop that was run by longtime character actor Jeffrey Tambor, and it was an absolute blast. I actually sat down with Mr. Tambor after the event -- that piece will have to wait for later in the week -- but the man is a natural speaker and mentor: Brisk, quick, honest, and very funny, he spoke before hundreds of people (mostly people who are actors) and I suspect that most of 'em would have stayed if the workshop had run four hours instead of only two.

Tonight I get to introduce a few films (Best Worst Movie and Grace), which means a lot of running to different theaters and not having much time to watch anything NEW to me, but I have a whole week to get through and TONS of flicks at my disposal. As always, the Cine staff will be bringing you a lot more stuff as the week marches on. Thanks for reading!

Click here to view our complete coverage of SXSW 2009

It's pretty cool in New York to be cynical about the Tribeca Film Festival: from its more-commercial-than-expected nature to the questionable choice of Paul Greengrass' United 93 as this year's opening film, the fest comes in for a lot of (sometimes deserved) hatred from the vaguely intellectual side of the city's film community. So, maybe I'm naive (or a simpleton, which is a distinct possibility), but after having spent several hours the other night going through the list of press screenings, and then reading the list of panelist we'll be hearing from this year, I find it impossible not to be excited about what's in store.

Starting April 26, in addition to some fantastic films ( I'm particularly looking forward to Hammer and Tickle, Hanging Garden and Crime Novel; the full list is here), festival attendees will also get to see panels featuring Steven Soderbergh, Harold Ramis, T-Bone Burnett, and Bob Balaban, among others, speaking on topics ranging from "Candid Cameras & the Secret Lives of Soldiers" to "What Would Jesus...Direct?". Honestly, if you love film, how can you resist any of this?