Read an interview with Adam Sandler and director Mike Binder about Reign Over Me.

The SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, has put together a blend of documentaries, indie genre films, and distinctive studio fare for its 2007 edition that has made the fest as unique as the city where it takes place. Previously, SXSW has launched such films as the acclaimed documentary Spellbound and hosted North American premieres like that of Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion last year. The 2007 festival began Friday with the premiere of Out of Sight and screenwriter Scott Frank's directorial debut The Lookout, and it ends on March 17 with the stateside debut of Oldboy director Chan Wook Park's I'm a Cyborg, But That's Ok.

"The whole thread of the festival from a programming perspective is stuff that pops and maybe not everything at the festival is going to appeal to the widest audience," says SXSW festival director Matt Dentler. "But at the same time, just about everything at the festival has something really entertaining and fun to offer."

He's not kidding. Instead of the heavy dramas that dominate Sundance and the awards contenders that start their Oscar runs in Toronto, SXSW is debuting Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's pregnancy-themed follow up to The 40 Year Old Virgin three months before it arrives in multiplexes. Likewise, the festival's panels include early looks at Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse segment, Planet Terror, and Eli Roth's Hostel II. It also only seems natural that a film festival that was born out of a successful music fest is premiering the Adam Sandler/Don Cheadle drama Reign Over Me (named after a song by The Who) on the same night that Who legend Pete Townshend will be giving the keynote address to the SXSW Music Festival. "It was just kind of kismet," says Dentler.

But Reign Over Me isn't the only film at the festival with musical ties. As is tradition, the festival features a section called "24 Beats Per Second," which includes documentaries from a wide array of musicians — from alt songsmiths Robyn Hitchcock (Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death, and Insects) and Scott Walker (Scott Walker: 30 Century Man) to mainstreamers James Blunt (James Blunt: Return to Kosovo) and the late TLC member Left Eye (The Last Days of Left Eye). The section also includes the world premieres of Companeras, about the first all-female mariachi band in Los Angeles, Dirty Country, which chronicles the low key life of the raunchy country singer Larry Pierce, and 1 More Hit, a film detailing the life of a formerly successful rap producer who succumbed to crack addiction.