Most people (rightfully) associate the annual South by Southwest with music, but film has been an integral component of the festivities since 1994. This year's event kicks off in March, with the film portion running from March 12 through March 20. And the lineup is now officially announced.

There are a smattering of Sundance 2010 favorites here, including the Jonah Hill-starring comedy "Cyrus," the Bill Murray/Robert Duvall/Lucas Black-led indie "Get Low" and the Kristen Stewart/Dakota Fanning-led music biopic "The Runaways." There are also a bunch of world premieres, including several which are sure to be popular across a wide range of viewers. The most noteworthy of those is probably the documentary "Saturday Night," which marks the directorial debut for former "Spider-Man" star and recent "General Hospital" guest James Franco." More details after the break. Read more...

In what might have been the strangest development of 2009, James Franco agreed to do a guest star stint on daytime TV soap opera "General Hospital." It wasn't a put-on either... he really did it!!! So when MTV's Josh Horowitz spoke to Franco at Sundance recently, he of course had to ask for a status update on the appearance.

"There will be one more very special episode that we will film in May, in New York," he said. What about after that? Any chance we'll see Franco doing more daytime TV? "Other soaps have not called," he said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. And who can blame him? That "General Hospital" stuff isn't going to realign the universe, but it sure is fun!

by Lindsay Soll

They're wrapped up in cozy jackets, knit scarves and most likely covered in remnants of snow, but that hasn't stopped the celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival from taking a seat in MTV's Sundance Photo Booth. Remember when stars used to take self portraits when they stopped by "TRL"? Well we're keeping that tradition alive with a booth set up in Park City.

So many big names have already come through (including Ben Affleck, Malin Akerman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but below are two of MTV's personal favorites: "Welcome to the Rileys" and "The Runaways" star Kristen Stewart and "Howl" star James Franco. The booth allowed these two to show off their personality, so check out their full contribution to our virtual scrapbook by clicking on the image to browse through our ever-growing Sundance Photo Booth flipbook.

It's another day at Sundance, and you know what that means. That's right! More celebs passing through our photo booth. We already gave you Jon Hamm, Ben Affleck, and Amanda Peet, and now we have James Franco, who portrays the beat poet Alan Ginsburg in "Howl."

Check out his contribution below, and then click here or on the photo to browse the rest of our ever-growing Sundance Photo Booth.

If you're even a casual observer of viral videos, you've probably seen James Franco and Mila Kunis' hilarious take on the cast of MTV's "The Hills." So naturally, with "Jersey Shore" now firmly entrenched in the pop culture zeitgeist, we were curious whether Franco would next turn his attention to the antics of Snooki and friends.

While admitting he has yet to catch an episode, Franco's curiosity has been piqued. Read more...

The beats are alive and well thanks to a soaring performance by James Franco in the Sundance opener, "Howl." Debuting to a predictably packed house at the Eccles theater in Park City, writer/directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman unveiled their ode to the late Allen Ginsberg in a 90-minute mash-up of black and white, color, cartoon, and archival footage.

While not a standard issue biopic, "Howl" ably traverses some of the key points in the poet's life--namely the 1957 obscenity trial surrounding his most famous work. Zigzagging through time, the film is essentially narrated by Ginsberg himself through recreations of interviews, court transcripts, and most notably his powerful reading of "Howl." Read more...

And so we reach the end of 2009. It's been quite a year for movies, hasn't it? Records were broken, vampires continued to sparkle and the game was presumably changed. James Cameron showed the world that he still knows how to tell a tale. Neill Blomkamp and Oren Peli both proved that there are still fresh, original ways of presenting familiar fare. And folks like Joel and Ethan Coen, Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino, J.J. Abrams, Spike Jonze and the entire Pixar team continued to define themselves as some of our favorite storytellers.

Here on the MTV Movies team, everyone has a different idea about what made 2009 a fantastic one for film. I'm here to share some of those highlight moments and favorite movies with you now. The entire team isn't represented here -- busy end-of-year schedules and all that jazz -- but you get a good sampling of what moved us and why. Happy New Year, y'all! See you in 2010! Read more...

Okay... several things are going on right now, so let's get right to the break down.

Maxie and James Franco do a flirty dance of words in his studio, where he tells lie after lie and suddenly she grows a brain and believes none of it. Maxie kind of "gets" Franco's creepy facade, and is even turned on by it. There's more kinky blindfold action, and then there's action of a different sort. You know, the kind that will cause Spinelli's heart to break into a million shards like the glass Maxie dramatically throws to the floor. Read more...

Let's start by saying that nothing good ever comes out of all of Port Charles congregating in the same place at the same time. Through the recent carnival calamity, hospital fire and Metro Court hotel hostage crisis (just to name some of the more recent mega-disasters) you'd think that our PC friends would have learned this by now.

(As an aside, I was just recalling some of the fiascos the writers have introduced for sweeps over the years, and the time that half the town got monkey virus doesn't seem so ridiculous now that we have problems like swine flu. But I digress.)

Friends, welcome to the Crimson gallery opening! Literally every major character will find a reason to attend. Read more...

Today's the day! James Franco made his soap debut on "General Hospital" as Franco.

Franco appears to be, on the one hand, an elusive but promising photographer who will show his work at a Crimson magazine gallery event. On the other hand, he makes his first appearance on the show dressed like a homeless person, lurking in the shadows as mobster Sonny Corinthos and his right-hand man Jason Morgan walk into a mob trap that turns violent on Front Street in Port Charles.

Franco witnesses the entire shootout, which leaves Sonny victorious and his rivals down for the count. As Sonny and Jason drive away from the scene of the crime, Franco, with a hoodie hiding his face, waves at the limo, taunting Jason. Read more...