Lee Daniels
Lee Daniels

Director Lee Daniels has been announced as the Film Keynote speaker for the 2017 SXSW Festival.

“We are particularly excited to announce Lee Daniels as Film Keynote, for his unparalleled talent, passion, continued experimentation, and career evolution. He’s been the driving force behind so much extraordinary work in a number of ways. His creative leaps and risk-taking are exactly what we love to celebrate at SXSW,” says Janet Pierson, Head of Film at SXSW.

Also president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, has been announced as a featured speaker for the Entertainment Influencers Track.

Cheryl Boone Isaacs
Cheryl Boone Isaacs

Featured Speaker sessions spotlight some of the industry’s most inspired thinkers and diverse visionaries, cutting a wide swath across the tech, film, music, television, business, sports, and journalism fields, as well as emerging talent working across industries and platforms.

SXSW 2017 will include 13 total Keynote speakers announced throughout the season, along with a plethora of Featured Speakers. In addition to Daniels and Isaacs, the 2017 Featured Speakers thus far announced also include:



— Kate Crawford (Sports Track) – Leading researcher, academic, and author who works on the social implications of data, machine learning, and AI. In 2016, she co-chaired the White House symposium AI Now, and wrote about AI and discrimination in The New York Times.

— Bill Ford & Doug Newcomb (Intelligent Future Track) – As Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, William Clay Ford Jr. is leading the company that put the world on wheels into the 21st century. He joined the Board of Directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since January 1999. In August, Ford Motor Company announced plans to mass produce a line of self-driving vehicles by 2021. Ford will be in conversation with C3 Group President and Co-founder Doug Newcomb, a respected journalist who has covered automotive technology for nearly three decades (Forbes, Wired, Popular Mechanics, Automotive, etc. ) and is a leading authority on connected car and mobility.

— Parag Khanna (Intelligent Future Track) – Leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author (Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization). He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

— Kimbal Musk (Food Track) – Musk is on the boards of Chipotle, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX. His personal mission is to strengthen communities through food. Musk is a cofounder of The Kitchen, a growing family of restaurants that sources directly from local farmers.

— Peggy Orenstein (Social Impact Track) – Author of The New York Times best-sellers Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, and Waiting for Daisy among others. She has written for dozens of prestigious magazines and newspapers, with her articles anthologies many times.

— Randall Poster (Making Film & Episodics Track) – Renowned music supervisor, perhaps best known for his long-term collaboration with director Wes Anderson, as well as directors including Harmony Korine, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese, and Sam Mendes.

— Vivek Ranadivé (Sports Track) – Entrepreneur, technology visionary, The New York Times best-selling author (The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future–Just Enough) and philanthropist, Ranadivé is recognized for his outside-the-box thinking. He is the owner and chairman of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

— Rachael Ray (Music Influencers Track) – Television host, best-selling author and Austin enthusiast, Rachael Ray, has hosted two annual Feedback food and music events in Austin during SXSW for the last 9 years which have played host to the likes of The Districts, J. Roddy Walston & The Business, Shovels & Rope, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blondie, Raekwon, and over 150 others.

The 2017 SXSW festival is set to take place from March 10-19, 2017.