SXSW

The world premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Faraway Downs, an inspiring epic adventure and reimagined extended version of his 2008 film Australia, will be presented by the celebrated filmmaker in person, on closing night of the inaugural SXSW Sydney Screen Festival on October 21st, 2023. The film, told in six chapters, will premiere all at once…

Australians in Film (AiF), the Los Angeles based artist development organization, and their new presenting partner, Screen Australia, have just announced that they are adding two stand out conference sessions to the Festival line-up for SXSW Sydney 2023. Thursday 19th October: “A Spotlight on Blossom Films” Go inside the workings of Blossom Films with Australian screen…

Announcing its House of Music Discovery at the inaugural this year’s event, SXSW Sydney invites locals and international guests to enter into a world of music rediscovery as TikTok Australia takes over the eccentric cultural hub, Pleasures Playhouse, on Wednesday, 18 October. TikTok’s House of Music Discovery will bring the magic of music exploration to life by transcending the digital realm…

Multi-Grammy award-winning Chance the Rapper will be speaking at this year’s inaugural Sydney SXSW this October. He joins a stacked program of over 1,000 ground-breaking events and sessions on Tech and Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture. Chance has won the respect of both his industry peers and former President Barack Obama, who described him…

Screen creatives of all stripes will gather for the inaugural SXSW Sydney Screen Festival this October (15th – 21st) as a collection of compelling and next generation screen content from across the Asia-Pacific region is highlighted at the renowned festival. Following the announcement of the first wave of premiere titles (you can read about them…

For the first time in its history, the renowned futurist conference and festival, South by Southwest (SXSW), is expanding beyond its Texan roots to Sydney, Australia. Taking place from October 15 to October 22, 2023, SXSW Sydney promises to be an extraordinary event, bringing together the world’s most inspired thinkers, creators, and innovators right here…

The inaugural SXSW Sydney has just revealed an unmissable line-up of headline speakers. Initially an annual event in Austin Texas famous for launching the careers of the likes of Billie Eilish and Uber, this year the “festival of festivals” has been expanded to Sydney, and will comprise of 1000+ events, speakers and music acts. Coachella…

With a spotlight on the Asia-Pacific region, but inclusive of all corners of the globe, the SXSW Sydney 2023 Screen Festival will bring together screen creatives to deliver an experience at the forefront of discovery, creativity and innovation.  With an aim to platform, showcase and support the most exciting new voices, new forms and new…

“A film festival is a gathering of diverse perspectives that offers a collective snapshot of the global zeitgeist, allowing us to delve deeper into our present reality,” said Sydney Film Festival Director Nashen Moodley as he unveiled this year’s stellar line-up of programming, running from June 7th – 18th. “For 70 years, Sydney Film Festival has…

Described as a “traumedy” and navigating a narrative I have no personal connection to – or even a right to comment on in all honesty – Molly McGlynn‘s Bloody Hell has the same footprints as a coming-of-age comedy, but laces such with a queer mentality and the potential dehumanising reality of when your body “rejects”…

The parallels between an invasive parasite and an unwanted pregnancy are navigated with intricate delicacy and subtle terror throughout Until Branches Bend, Sophie Jarvis‘s disturbing drama that offsets its small physicality with a growingly unnerving mentality. At the centre of both converging narratives is Robin (Grace Glowicki, incredible), a fruit packing plant line worker who…

Whilst there’s no doubt that Megan Stalter is a talented comedienne (“Hi Gay!”, anyone?), the type of social-media-sketch-performer-turned-feature-actress trajectory isn’t always a guaranteed translation for both their respective humour and an audience’s positive reaction.  Thankfully, her starring role in Cora Bora is a more dramatic transition for the actress, displaying a more vulnerable, shaded, even…

Supernatural terror and deep-seated personal revelations come to light in the tonally unbalanced, but no less interesting Brooklyn 45. Written and directed by Ted Geoghegan, Brooklyn 45 gradually unravels over the course of its 90 minutes as it centres around a group of battle-hardened friends and their overdue rendezvous in a Brooklyn brownstone.  Set between…

Even though one of the experts interviewed in Satan Wants You expresses that the 1980’s phenomenon known as “Satanic Panic” is seen as something of a joke through the eyes of today, there’s nothing particularly funny about the accusations that were being thrown around at the time.  Perhaps it’s something of an absurdity when looking…

“Before we continue I’d like to apologize to anyone who might be upset or offended by what you saw before the break. It’s not every day you see a demonic possession on live television.” Not the most typical sentence you’d expect to hear from a late night host, but such is the statement made by…

There’s a moment in the first half of Luke Gilford‘s exquisite looking drama National Anthem where 21-year-old construction worker Dylan (Charlie Plummer) seems perplexed that an outside group of queer rodeo performers and ranchers would find him interesting; “You haven’t met your people yet”, is the open, telling response from the captivating Sky (Eve Lindley),…

Only the Good Survive is the type of film that delights in the fact that it never follows the genre path you think it should.  At one point the question is even asked if the story being relayed is “a horror or a comedy?”, and writer/director Dutch Southern, in the most nonsensical, unpredictable fashion, makes…

Quickly earning the title of “new generation scream queen” is something that Brianne Tju seems to be wholeheartedly embracing, and her continued foray into the darker subsects of the genre are only further cementing her status. Having slashed and screamed her way through the streaming series’ of both Scream and I Know What You Did…

SXSW have announced an annual Asia-Pacific installment, with Sydney set to host in October 2023. It’s the first time the iconic conference and festival of creativity has expanded beyond North America since its inception in 1987. A joint collaboration between the NSW Government, Destination NSW, TEG, and SXSW, SXSW Sydney will bring together the world’s…

To call Homesick bizarre would be a colossal understatement.  And that’s meant in the most complimentary of fashions. Born – and that’s quite the fitting term when the film’s narrative is uncovered – from director Will Seefried‘s fascination with society’s urgency in recreating their childhood, Homesick takes a unique look at how one could submit…

Having premiered at SXSW to rave reviews (including our own here) the horror/adventure film Slash/Back has more than announced filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk as a talent to take note of.  Talking with Peter Gray during her time at the festival, the two spoke about the origins of the film’s story, the importance of incorporating her indigenous…

Weaving together both historical and current events, how those events pertain to the savagery of racism over the years, and the juxtaposition of his own calming musicality, Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi is a stunning documentary about Kishi Bashi‘s own personal journey in exploring his past as he looks for inspiration for his…

After missing out on the SXSW screening experience in 2020 with her feature The Golden Arm, director Maureen Bharoocha is even more grateful to be screening her latest film, The Prank, in person this year.  As the dark comedic thriller premiered (you can read our festival review here) our Peter Gray spoke to both Maureen…

For such a scrappy little feature, Eli Horowitz‘s The Cow has some impressive calibre that will no doubt help earn it some extra eyes beyond the unique indie crowd this seems tailor made for. Headlined by Winona Ryder (always a treat to see taking charge these days) and a suitably disarming Dermot Mulroney, The Cow…

A somewhat standard high-school comedy and a campy dark mystery are fused together in Maureen Bharoocha‘s ambitious offering The Prank.  Whilst much of the film rides on the fact you have to root for unlikeable archetypes – either outcast students Ben (Connor Kalopsis) and his feisty bestie Tanner (Ramona Young) or their evil-incarnate teacher (a…

A pandemic story without exclusively being as such, Everything Will Be Alright has an everyman-type quality to it in how it presents the dilemmas the Coronavirus inflicted upon the world.  Director Farhard Pakdel fuses his narrative with a heightened sense of drama though, injecting a potentially triggering additive that further highlights how people’s realities were…

When watching Kestrin Pantera‘s Pretty Problems, if such titles as This Is 40, Wanderlust, The Invitation, White Lotus, and/or Schitt’s Creek come to mind, you can sit comfortably knowing that was somewhat deliberate.  Though there’s evident inspiration from such vast titles, Pretty Problems is still very much its own being; it just helps it has…

Whether we like them (or follow them) or not, influencers – sorry, “content creators” – are a cultural mainstay in our society that often extends beyond the environment of social media.  In Australian horror effort Sissy, co-writers/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes seem all too aware of the faux importance influencers place upon themselves, a…

Unless you’re already an established name in the industry – and even then, to some degree, getting a film off the ground can have its challenges – the process of seeing a film through its production stages is never without its hurdles.  So you can only imagine how it was for a first-time director like…

Premiering at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, Radical Honesty is a new short feature from director/photographer Bianca Poletti.  In the lead-up to the film’s premiere, our own Peter Gray spoke with her about the inspiration behind its unconventional take on relationships, her own personal attachment to the idea of non-monogamy, and which filmmakers she personally…