Céline Roustan
If you’re a fan of film festivals, then you’ll know that the early weeks of March means it’s SXSW time. Held in Austin, Texas, South By is one of the most prominent film events in the world, combining work from both established filmmakers and established talent in their eclectic program.
For us here at S/W, SXSW is also a favorite for the number of our alums that feature in its line-up on an annual basis. With that in mind, we took a deep dive into the 2024 program and highlighted the films from our previously featured filmmakers, that we recommend checking out if you’re attending the event.
SHORTS
One of our favorite short programmes delivers once again with an eclectic mix featuring 11 of our previously featured filmmakers.
A toi les oreilles by Alexandre Isabelle
Synopsis: While the townsfolk are celebrating the village’s anniversary parade, Étienne tries the impossible: to show them how beautiful his family’s cacophony really is.
Built around an effective screenplay and some infectious music this clever shorts presents a universal feeling from a creative and fresh perspective. It’s the type of film designed to make an audience happy
Beautiful Men by Nicolas Keppens
Synopsis: Three bald brothers travel to Istanbul to have a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair.
Featured on our site twice before, with Wildebeest and Easter Eggs, Keppens hits the festival circuit with his most impressive short to date. Through meticulous stop-motion animation, this story follows three siblings embarking on a journey to Europe for hair treatments, delivering a blend of humor, emotional depth, and stunning visuals.
Call Number Nine! by Sandy Honig
Synopsis: A telemarketer accidentally calls into a radio show and wins a radio contest.
Not content with screening at the festival last year, with Pennies from Heaven, Honig returns with another comedic short film. Fun, entertaining and weird, it’s the perfect fit for SXSW.
Synopsis: On the day he promised his girlfriend he’d grow up, a man-child inadvertently traps his soul inside a puppet.
Featured on our pages twice before, with Right place, Wrong Tim and Double Tap, Vlahos has become a festival favorite in midnight screenings, with his mix of dark-comedy and horror – a combination he returns to with his latest short Meat Puppet.
Synopsis: When pressures mount on a tightly wound violinist in a London youth orchestra, her internal monsters take external form.
A regular at SXSW and on S/W, Zhan is known for her boundary pushing animated shorts, but returns to the festival this year with her first foray into live-action filmmaking (although she sneaks a little stop-motion into the film). Set in the world of a talented young musician who finds the expectations start to get too much, Zhan’s short goes to some wild places and keeps the tension simmering throughout.
The Last Brunch by Jim Cummings
Synopsis: Sometimes you don’t realize how thirsty you are until it’s right in front of you.
The name Jim Cummings should need no introduction to regulars of SXSW, having won awards at the 2016, 2017 & 2018 editions of the festival. Making his name in short film, before tackling a series of feature projects, Cummings returns to the short format with this awkward comedy.
The Passing by Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan
Synopsis: In the latest true-life portrait by the Austin team of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Xavier Bresnan, a veterinarian’s series of home visits culminates in a painful but very kind-hearted experience with a special patient.
Regulars of SXSW and the winners of the 2016 Texas Short Award, the masters of the observational documentary return with this heartfelt examination of a veterinarian’s day and how he has to help his neighbor through one of the toughest decisions of her life. Strong in the edit, this is a deeply moving short.
Trapped by Sam Cutler-Kreutz, David Cutler-Kreutz
Synopsis: Trapped follows the story of Joaquin, a highschool janitor at the prestigious Hallston Academy, finishing up his rounds in the early morning hours. Investigating voices echoing through the empty halls, he’s drawn to the gymnasium, where he stumbles into a group of boys in the middle of a senior prank. Tensions arise when his attempts to shut down the prank take an unexpected direction and he is caught between the boys, the head custodian and his own moral compass.
Following on from the tense viewing experience of 2022 short Flounder, the Cutler-Kreutz’s return with another high pressure scenario featuring a custodian and a group of rich, obnoxious students. A complex piece tackling of themes of class and privilege, Trapped is another gripping watch.
Wander to Wonder by Nina Gantz
Synopsis: Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are three miniature, human actors who perform in an eighties kids TV series called Wander to Wonder. After the creator of the series has died, they are left alone in the studio. With their slowly decaying costumes.
Eight years after we featured her BAFTA-winning short, Edmond, on our pages, Gantz is back with one of the standout shorts of the festival, Wander to Wonder. A dark and twisted tale of the miniature people who inhabit the costumes of characters in a children’s TV show, the concept carries a lot of emotional weight, as viewers find themselves rooting for these tiny thespians.
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Features
Black holes, nuns and Nicholas Cage all feature in this round-up of our previously featured filmmakers making the transition from short film to something longer.
Synopsis: After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.
Lead visual effects artist on The DANIELS’ Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, Brewer impressed as director in 2023 with his FX short centered around a loved-up couple who are far too into each other. With his debut feature an ‘end-of-the-world’ narrative featuring Nicolas Cage, this already has the feel of a cult film about it. Get ready to see Cage under a new light.
Synopsis: In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
Fresh from its Sundance premiere, Didi is heading to SXSW, just a year after Wang won the jury and audience awards of the documentary shorts program at the festival with Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó. Wang will be attending the Oscars on Sunday night hoping to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film with that film, and will head to Austin after the ceremony to present his charming coming of age story.
Gasoline Rainbow by Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross
Synopsis: Five small-town teenagers embark on one last adventure by van, boat, train, and foot, careening into the new frontier of adulthood as they search for the mysterious Party at the End of the World.
An immersive film that transports its viewers back to their youth, Gasoline Rainbow isn’t the first time that the Ross Brothers have played with the codes of documentary and fiction. After premiering in Venice, the film is screening in the Festival Favorite section at SXSW.
Synopsis: Nina, a young, tempestuous woman, is taken in by a group of hunters in a remote cabin. In the midst of this tough, yet endearing, male microsociety, she feels like she finally belongs. A mysterious stranger’s arrival disrupts her newfound haven.
For her debut feature, Blanc takes us to the far North, inviting us on a bachelor hunting trip, where casual toxic masculinity quickly takes a turn and introduces a genre dimension to the film. Working with frequent collaborator, DP Vincent Gonneville, the pair have crafted a visual aesthetic that makes the experience all the more captivating.
Synopsis: A devout American nun embarks on a new journey in a remote convent in the picturesque Italian countryside. Her warm welcome quickly devolves into a nightmare as it becomes clear her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors.
Since Mohan featured on our site, back in 2017 with Pink Grapefruit, the director has been busy directing seven episodes of Netflix show Everything Sucks!, before releasing his debut feature, erotic thriller The Voyeurs. Distributed by NEON, his latest film sees him team up with Sydney Sweeney once again as she plays an American nun whose trip to Italy turns out not to be the peaceful one she hoped for.
I Saw The TV Glow by Jane Schoenbrun
Synopsis: Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
A film bursting with originality and creativity, between the strong performances, the score and music, I Saw the TV Glow is a distinctly original piece that will stay with you long after watching.
It’s What’s Inside by Greg Jardin
Synopsis: A pre-wedding party descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend shows up with a mysterious suitcase.
With its cast of celebrities, It’s What’s Inside is the perfect example of an ensemble film. Funny, clever, and thrilling, the film has deep undertones making it not only entertaining, but engaging as well.
Synopsis: Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest, a woman from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to be.
No stranger to SXSW, as a regular of the animated shorts program, Britto is back at the festival with feature Omni Loop, starring Mary Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri. This dramedy starts with a crazy premise that allows Britto to explore the meaning of time and what could have been, through a compelling lens.
The Black Sea by Crystal Moselle
Synopsis: Khalid, from Brooklyn, gets stuck in a small resort town on the Black Sea after chasing a money opportunity that goes wrong. Being the only black guy in the town, he quickly becomes the center of attention and finds an unexpected connection with a local.
For her latest film Moselle teams up with rapper/actor/filmmaker Derrick B. Harden to craft a film that blurs the lines between fiction and documentary. Inspired by Harden’s own experiences of traveling in Bulgaria, and starring Harden himself, the film has a unique energy and lots of heart.
The Trouble with Mr Doodle by Ed Perkins (and Jaimie D’Cruz)
Synopsis: This is the story of an extraordinary boy born into an ordinary family in an unremarkable English town and how a childhood passion threatened to take over his life, his home and his mind.
Oscar-nominated director Perkins joins forces with producer/director Jaimie D’Cruz to bring to the screen this powerful and incredibly charming documentary that blends themes of art and mental health.
Synopsis: Suellen, a toll booth attendant, realizes she can use her job to raise some extra money illegally. But this is only for a so-called noble cause: to send her son to an expensive gay conversion workshop led by a renowned foreign priest.
Winner of a at SXSW back in 2019, Markowicz finds herself back at the Austin event in the Festival Favorite section with Toll. A compelling drama and a striking lead performance make this film an emotionally effective watch.
Synopsis: Rayelle Martin, a commercial cleaning woman in Gary, Indiana, stumbles into a new job cleaning the homes of several rich suburban families. While working, she tells one small lie that spins out of control.
Since her 2017 short, Lucia, Before and After, which was also at SXSW, Valia has made a name for herself working in TV. Back at the festival with her feature debut, We Strangers starring Kirby Howell-Baptiste, the film is a captivating exploration of evolving power dynamics.
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TV Premiere
Synopsis: When the ailing king of America’s largest renaissance festival declares his retirement, an epic power struggle ensues between an actor, a former elephant trainer, and a kettle-corn kingpin to claim his throne.
You’d think that at a Ren Faire the drama would center around period costumes, but instead Oppenheim’s series takes a note straight out of the Succession playbook. Suprising in its structure and approach, it’s unlike anything we’ve probably ever seen.