Life to Get SXSW Premiere as Closing Night Film

South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals (March 10-19, 2017) today announced the World Premiere of Life, directed by Daniel Espinosa. Life is the Closing Night Film on Saturday, March 18 at the Zach Theatre. Columbia Pictures and Skydance’s Life is a terrifying sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station whose mission of discovery turns to one of primal fear when they find a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars, and now threatens the crew and all life on Earth.

“We are thrilled to close out the 2017 SXSW Film Festival with such a special film as ‘Life,’” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film. “Our audiences will love this taut space thriller’s twists and turns as well as its amazing cast.”

“I’m so honored that ‘Life’ has been chosen as the closing film at South by Southwest,” added Daniel Espinosa. “The people that flock to Austin each year are some of the most engaged and passionate fans of film out there and are the perfect audience to introduce our visceral sci-fi thriller. I hope that, with Life, we find new ways to entertain them, terrify them, and thrill them.”

Life features an ensemble cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya. The film is directed by Daniel Espinosa, written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bonnie Curtis, and Julie Lynn. Columbia Pictures and Skydance will release the film on March 24,

SXSW also announced several titles titles set to screen at the 2017 event, including world premieres for Atomic Blonde, directed by David Leitch and featuring an ensemble cast including Charlize Theron, James McAvoy and John Goodman, and Parker Smith’s Ramblin’ Freak. Another addition includes a celebratory 10th Anniversary screening of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica, plus VR projects Miyubi and The People’s House by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël.