A24’s David Lowery fantasy adventure movie The Green Knight is making its world premiere at SXSW in Austin, TX on Monday, March 16 at 5:30pm at the Paramount Theatre.

Despite industry panic about the coronavirus, SXSW is indeed moving forward. Today’s news follows this morning’s announcement from SXSW about their “Conversations About America’s Future” political panel lineup which includes such speakers as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Anita Hill, Gretchen Carlson, Andrew Yang, among others.

Yesterday SXSW continued to back-up their statement from late last week, that the fest is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event. “As a result of their dialogue and the recommendations of Austin Public Health, the 2020 event is proceeding with safety as a top priority,” said the fest yesterday.

Green Knight is a bold and fresh spin on the timeless Arthurian legend and follows Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. The movie opens stateside on May 29. Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, and Ralph Ineson also star. Lowery wrote, directed, edited and produced the movie.

“We are thrilled to world premiere The Green Knight at SXSW,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film. “David Lowery is a singular artist with a filmmaking vision that’s both epic and intimate. It’s been beyond exciting to watch his growth as an artist. His newest film is an extraordinary achievement, delivering superlative performances, suspense, and magic with cinematic grandeur which we know our SXSW audience will love.”

Lowery’s has a long record with SXSW. Back in 2005, he attended with the short Deadroom which he worked on as an editor. The filmmaker made the world premiere of his feature St. Nick at SXSW in 2009. The following year, he created all of the fest’s bumpers, and in 2011, his pic Pioneer won Best Narrative Short. On the conference side, he has served as a mentor in 2013, and in 2016 Lowery participated in a conversation with fellow filmmaker Andrew Bujalski. Lowery’s other SXSW premieres as an editor include It Was Great, but I Was Ready to Come Home; Bad Fever, and Sun Don’t Shine.

SXSW runs from March 13-22.