When the South by Southwest Film Festival announced it would screen a selection of its movies on Amazon Prime Video, we asked two critics who are veterans of the event to recommend some highlights and reflect on their past SXSW experience. Here are excerpts from their conversation.

AMY NICHOLSON: We film critics use festivals to mark time. Sundance hails a fresh year of movies, Cannes ignites controversies that burn all summer, and Toronto’s autumnal red carpets usher in Oscar season. It’s paganesque, particularly the spring migration to Austin, Tex. for SXSW, the puckish fest that’s as apt to premiere an indie upstart (it’s where Greta Gerwig, Lena Dunham and Joe Swanberg made major debuts) as it is a risky studio flick that needs exuberant buzz, like “Bridesmaids,” “Sausage Party” and “Us.” Dazed and amused attendees can feel like they’ve partied the length of Sixth Street without even cracking a beer. (Though at most theaters, you can do that, too.)

This March, however, when SXSW became the first high-profile North American event to cancel because of the pandemic, it had the misfortune of time-stamping the moment Covid-19 scrambled the calendar. With festivals on pause until at least fall, what’s next for movies that were about to make their big bow? I’m curious to see the filmmaker and audience response to Amazon’s partnership with SXSW to stream a selection of their scuttled picks for free from now until May 6 — a trial balloon, it turns out, for YouTube’s 10-day showcase We Are One: A Global Film Festival, which will feature movies programmed by Berlin, Cannes, Tribeca and others later next month. Are online film festivals the first sprouts of our new normal?