Is the Austin-set SXSW Film Festival getting too big for its chaps?

As far as problems go, excessive demand is a good one to have for a film festival. It means programmers are making strong choices, the venues are attractive and the regional vibe welcoming.

But as of the 2010 edition, which featured crowds of badge and ticket holders turned away from nearly every screening, the festival’s organizers have some hard decisions to make. Take over more venues to increase the screening count and you risk angering the locals, limit badge and ticket sales to cap demand and you risk undercutting SXSW’s populist credibility.

The SXSW Film Conference and Festival unleashed its complete feature lineup late Wednesday night, and it’s got some must-see world premieres (”Kick-Ass,” “MacGruber,” “Elektra Luxx“) and thus-far-unseen gems. Running in ecstatic overlap with SXSW’s voluminous music and interactive fests — from March 12-20 — the film festival has developed its own distinct Texas flavor (separate from the great Austin Film Festival’s screenwriter-centric identity).

Fest producer Janet Pierson with Seth Rogen in 2009.

Industry vet Janet Pierson took over the job of festival producer in 2008 and here discusses her year-two approach to organizing the event.

What’s your background? You were a producer for a long time?

I came up through distribution and exhibition in the late ’70s. I was the assistant director of the Film Forum ‘81 to ‘86. John Pierson and I hooked up in ‘82, married in ‘83. After “She’s Gotta Have It” opened, I quit the Film Forum and just worked with John for a couple decades as a producer’s rep, co-creator and executive producer of “Split Screen,” which was our filmmaker-friendly magazine format television show. It’s funny, because the filmmakers who passed through that show, so many of them are still working and have features all over the place. We moved here in 2004 and I was asked to take over the festival in April ‘08 for the ‘09 festival.