From 'Ready Player One' to heartfelt raunch: The highlights of 2018's SXSW Film Festival

Held each year over 10 zany days in Austin, Texas, the South by Southwest festival has a bit of everything: film, technology, music, breakfast tacos and plenty of Texas barbecue. At the close of a 2018 edition that included the surprise premiere of Steven Spielberg's pop culture-packed "Ready Player One" and an interactive experience that brought HBO's "Westworld" to life, Times reporters Mark Olsen and Jen Yamato share their highlights.

MARK OLSEN: For me this has been a year of surprises at South by Southwest. Or, perhaps more accurately, a year in which the South by Southwest Film Festival served up a healthy reminder of what it has really been about all along. Which seems pretty right on for the 25th edition, the 10th under current director Janet Pierson.

JEN YAMATO: If the