This post was published more than a few years ago (on 2008-03-21) and may contain inaccurate technical information, outmoded thoughts, or cringe takes. Proceed at your own risk.
It took me a while to get the hang of the SXSW Gold Pass, but it seems the best way to deal with the massive overlap between Film and Interactive is to go to films during the day, and party with the Interactive peeps at night. If there was an important panel, they’ll chat with you about it— most everything else you can catch up on later with the audio podcasts. Also, try to hit the smaller films that you know don’t have distribution, then if you don’t catch some of the bigger films, you’ll know you can at least catch them later when they get a wider release. That said, it is an awful lot of fun to go to the bigger films and hear the Q&A or chat with a director/writer/producer whose work you already enjoy.