SXSW

Exclusive: An Interview with Edwyn Collins and the directors of his film The Possibilities Are Endless

The Possibilities Are Endless is a film that explores Edwyn Collins’ slow recovery and return to the stage after suffering from a stroke in 2005, which debilitated his music career and his life. Film-makers James Hall and Edward Lovelace work intimately with Collins to produce a beautiful film – voiced over by Collins himself superimposed…

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SXSW Film Festival Announces 2015 Opening Night Film + Additional Films Confirmed To Premiere

Ahead of announcing the complete festival lineup on February 3rd, the 22nd South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival has started rolling out a list of the screenings which will be spread across Texas come March. This year, SXSW has announced their 2015 Opening Night Film, and world premiere BRAND: A Second Coming, by…

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Film Review: The Mule (MA15+) (Australia, 2014)

The Mule marks the Directoral debut of Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony, starring Sampson as Ray Jenkins alongside Leigh Wannell (Gavin) as “brothers in life”, with Gavin roping Ray into becoming a heroin mule following a trip to Bali. After getting nervous at Sydney Airport, he gets taken away by the police for suspicious behaviour and in…

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Podcast: Listen to our full, exclusive interview with Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell on The Mule (Australia, 2014)

If you were reading The Iris back in March of this year, you may remember we posted parts of an interview we conducted with Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell to talk about their new film The Mule, which premiered at SXSW 2014. Some eight months later and the film has finally had an Australian release,…

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Film Review: What We Do in the Shadows (New Zealand, 2014)

Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement has found himself with steady work since the series about a pair of quirky New Zealand musicians living in New York came to an end. It’s seen him garner roles in big budget films (Men in Black 3, Rio) and balance that with some projects of his own. Often,…

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Film Review: The Infinite Man (Australia, 2014)

As one of four Australian feature films at this year’s SXSW, The Infinite Man also had the pleasure of being one of the festival’s opening night presentations. The low budget film out of South Australia is the debut feature from Adelaide director Hugh Sullivan (watch our interview HERE), and in the spirit of films like…

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Exclusive Interview: Beth Harrington talks about her documentary The Winding Stream at SXSW!

Larry Heath sits down with director Beth Harrington to talk about her documentary film The Winding Stream, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival last month. She tells us about how and why she got interested in telling the story of “the Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music”. Find out more about the…

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Exclusive Interview: Director John Magary and Young Actor Cory Nichols talk about The Mend at SXSW.

The Iris meets director John Magary and young actor Cory Nichols to talk about their new film The Mend, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival 2014. The pair tell us about the film, how they got involved in the project and much more. The film also stars Josh Lucas (Red Dog, Stephen Plunkett, Mickey Sumner…

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Exclusive Interview: Simon Helberg & Jocelyn Towne We’ll Never Have Paris Co-Directors at SXSW.

The Big Bang Theory‘s Simon Helberg makes his directorial debut alongside his wife Jocelyn Towne in the film We’ll Never Have Paris. We talk to the co-directors about the film, which Helberg also wrote and stars in, as it premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas last month. ———- This content has recently been ported from…

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Exclusive Interview: Director Andy Landen talks about his feature film Sequoia at SXSW.

We interviewed director Andy Landen about his film Sequoia at the SXSW Film Festival last month. We talk about how he got involved in the project, the soundtrack featuring one of the members of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, working with Aly Michalka and Dustin Milligan, filming in the famous National Park and more!…

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Exclusive Interview: Melanie Lynskey, Maggie Grace and Jason Ritter on We’ll Never Have Paris at SXSW 2014.

The Iris had the opportunity to sit down with New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures , The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Maggie Grace (Lost) and Jason Ritter (Parenthood) at SXSW last month to talk about their roles in the film We’ll Never Have Paris, which premiered at the festival. Watch the full chat…

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Australian Focus: In Conversation with The Infinite Man director Hugh Sullivan at SXSW!

One of our favourite films of this year’s SXSW Film Festival was an low budget, high concept Adelaide film called The Infinite Man. The clever narrative revolves around one man’s quest to relive the perfect day by way of a time machine. We took some time to catch up with the film’s director Hugh Sullivan…

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Exclusive Interview: Director Florian Habicht talks Pulp at SXSW 2014

While he was at SXSW, we caught up with New Zealand born director Florian Habicht to talk about his new film Pulp, a documentary about the band of the same name, and their farewell performance at home in Sheffield. And now the film has been announced to premiere in Australia at the Sydney Film Festival!…

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Exclusive Interview: Nicholas McCarthy – Director of the horror film Home at SXSW 2014

The Iris meets Nicholas McCarthy, director of the horror film Home at SXSW 2014 to talk about the film, how it compares to his debut The Pact, what inspired him to make the sorts of films he does and much more… ———- This content has recently been ported from its original home on The Iris…

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Interview: Aly Michalka and Dustin Milligan talk Sequoia at SXSW Film Festival 2014

The Iris had the opportunity to sit down with Aly Michalka and Dustin Milligan, the stars of the indie film Sequoia at SXSW to talk about the film. The go into detail about what it was like filming in Sequoia, dealing with the heavier subject material in the story and much more… Part One: Part…

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The Iris Interview at SXSW: John Feige, Director of Documentary Above All Else.

Taken straight from the film’s official website, Above All Else is an intimate portrait of a group of landowners and activists in East Texas who tried to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion dollar project slated to carry tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Risking…

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The Iris Interview: The Cast of David Gordon Green’s latest film Joe at SXSW.

Just announced to be a part of Sydney Film Festival in June, The Iris brings you this series of exclusive interviews with the stars of the new film Joe. In addition to the interviews below, you can also check out our chat with star Nicholas Cage and director David Gordon Green HERE. Tye Sheridan: Adriene…

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SXSW Film Review: Road to Austin (USA, 2014)

Concert movies are a rare breed. It goes without saying that if you’re not a fan of the music of that particular musician or band, then you’re probably not going to have a fun time. Road to Austin, however, is somewhat of an oddity – because even if you’re not familiar with any of the…

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Exclusive SXSW Interview: Cast and Crew of Two Step (USA, 2014)

While at SXSW earlier this month, The Iris’ Larry Heath sat down with the cast and crew of the “slow-burn thriller with rich Texas flavour” (Variety), Two Step. In part one, which you can listen to in full below, we meet Andrew Kenny, who scored the film, Director Alex R. Johnson and Actress Ashley Rae…

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The Iris at SXSW: Patrick’s Day director & cast open up about the film’s premiere; challenges of bringing it to the screen.

One of the strongly praised films of the 2014 SXSW Film program has been the Terry McMahon-directed Patrick’s Day. Centering around the turbulent relationship between 26 year old schizophrenic Patrick (Moe Dunford), his overprotective mother Maura (Kerry Fox) and the object of Patrick’s love, Karen (Catherine Walker), the film deals with lust, love, manipulation and…

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The Iris at SXSW: Jen McGowan on bringing ‘Kelly and Cal’ to SXSW, being an independent filmmaker and more.

Take a former punk rocker out of her comfort zone and place her in the suburbs with her husband and new baby and you’re bound to have some pretty entertaining scenarios eventuate as a result. This is the basis of Jen McGowan’s SXSW-showcased film Kelly & Cal – a story about the relationship between Juliette…

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The Iris at SXSW: Passion Pit’s Ian Hultquist talks about scoring Animals.

In this exclusive interview, The Iris meets Ian Hultquist from the band Passion Pit to talk about scoring the film Animals, which premiered at SXSW 2014. Part One: Part Two: From IMDB: Animals tells the story of Jude and Bobbie: a young couple that exist somewhere between homelessness and the fantasy of their imaginations. Though…

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The Iris at SXSW: Diego Luna and Rosario Dawson on the importance of Cesar Chavez within today’s film industry and audience.

Cesar Chavez comes as one of the more visually and emotionally striking films of the SXSW Film program for 2014. Set for US release on March 28th, the film documents the life of the famed American labour rights leader, Cesar Chavez. Directed by Diego Luna and starring the likes of Michael Pena, Rosario Dawson and…

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The Iris at SXSW: Lenny Abrahamson, director of Frank on influences, working with Fassbender, Gyllenhaal & Gleeson.

Having a full house premiere at the Stateside Theater in Austin on Monday was Frank, the Lenny Abrahamson directed offbeat comedy which takes inspiration from the Chris Sievey persona Frank Sidebottom. Starring Domnhall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Fassbender – as the papier mache head wearing ‘Frank’ – it’s a film that has prompted much…

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Full list of SXSW Film Awards winners for 2014!

The winners of Film Awards for the recently-completed SXSW festival have been announced, and it is a long and varied list, which you can see below. The festival is an awesome way to give recognition to these mostly unknown films, and 2014 presented an amazing selection of films. The Grand Jury award went to comedy For…

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Exclusive: Director Christian Larson and Manager Amy Thomson talk “Leave The World Behind” at SXSW

the AU review meets director Christian Larson and executive producer (and manager of Swedish House Mafia) Amy Thomson, to talk about the film Leave The World Behind: A Film Starring Swedish House Mafia, just as the film was premiering at SXSW 2014. The film is released no iTunes on April 15th. Get more details HERE…

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SXSW Comedy Review ft. Sinbad – Esther’s Follies (11.03.14)

You may have already read about some of my adventures earlier last week at the Hype Machine Party. I mentioned I snuck out during the set, and as it turns out, I actually ended up going to a SXSW comedy event for the first time, to catch “surprise” headliner Sinbad, in a showcase hosted by…

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Wes Anderson reveals he’d consider Rushmore and Darjeeling Limited sequels at SXSW.

Following the SXSW special screening of the new Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel, Austin was graced with the presence of Mr. Anderson himself, in conversation with director Richard Linklater and accompanied by the film’s music supervisor Randall Poster and actor/long-time collaborator Jason Schwartzman. During the Q&A, Anderson was asked by an audience member…

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Lena Dunham delivers inspiring and witty keynote speech at SXSW Film Festival

The third of four film keynote speakers at SXSW was performed by writer, actress and general voice for a huge portion of Gen X and Y, Lena Dunham. The creator and star of the successful Girls series shared her experiences of entering the film industry with a packed out Vimeo Theater, and held the attention…

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