Had a great time at the Hooligans Party. SxSW volunteer Dave Dart and I played "isn't that guy in some film I once saw". People we unambiguously recognized included Elijah Wood (who spend much of the night DJing, Claire Forlani and Chris Masterson (who seemed like a really nice guy). I recognized David Krumholtz too but had to ask someone what his name was and what he'd been in. I didn't remember him from the films the person listed but a quick check of IMDb when I got back to the hotel revealed I know him from Freaks and Geeks.
Many of the people I talked to have films at the festival. Again it was nice to follow "no I don't have a film at SxSW" with "but I did make the XYZ film festival next month" and generally get the response "oh cool, that's a great festival".
It's always easy to ask filmmakers about their film. I never know what to say to an actor, especially a well known one. What would I have said to Elijah Wood? Maybe I'm not giving him enough credit. Chris Masterson was certainly approachable.
There may be broken links to media on this page. I'm still in the process of migrating them over.