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The next wave of films added to the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival, presented by IHG Hotels & Resorts, has just dropped!
Packed with a mix of bold and inspiring mix of local and international features showcasing the best across drama, horror, comedy and documentaries, the 2024 event is sure to be one of the most buzzed about festivals of the year.
You won’t want to miss Lucy Lawless attending the Australian premiere of her directorial debut, Never Look Away, a documentary about the astonishing life of war zone photojournalist Margaret Moth. Lawless, famous for her role as “Xena the Warrior Princess”, will also take the SXSW Sydney Conference stage for an In Conversation to discuss the making of the film.
Also featured is the highly anticipated Pavements, directed by Alex Ross Perry, an experimental hybrid of narrative, scripted, documentary, musical, and metatextual elements about the indie rock outfit, Pavement. Azrael, starring Samara Weaving, tells the story of a woman’s breathless (and speechless) escape from a cult of mute zealots in a horrific, post-apocalyptic world. The feature directorial debut for comedian Conner O’Malley and co-director Danny Scharar, Rap World is a hilarious mockumentary set in 2009 as four friends in Pennsylvania attempt to record a rap album over one eventful night.
Other highlights for this year’s Screen program include A24’s Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo as a wrongly imprisoned man who finds purpose through a theatre group with fellow inmates; Pamela Adlon’s Babes, a raucous ‘mom-com’ offering a humorous and sometimes gross take on pregnancy, motherhood, and female friendship; the double-Sundance-award-winning DiDi, the semi-autobiographical feature debut from Sean Wang, providing an honest look at growing up in the internet age; and recipient of the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s SXSW Austin Grand Theft Hamlet, in which two in locked-down actors take the world of Shakespere to an unlikely stage.
Local feature film highlights include, Carnage for Christmas, an Australian ode to the Christmas slasher movie, the dark comedy A Grand Mockery and music documentary, Hard-Ons: The Most Australian Band Ever!
These join previously announced titles such as Damon Gameau’s Future Council, a film that combines the energy of ‘School of Rock’ with the urgency of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as we follow Damon and eight school kids on a road trip across Europe as they search for solutions to the climate crisis; and the world premiere of Slice of Life: The American Dream, where Australian documentary filmmakers, Matthew Salleh and Rose Tucker collect stories of the American Dream in former Pizza Huts.
This sits alongside the list of trailblazing speakers confirmed across the program, including Warwick Thornton (The New Boy, Samson and Delilah, Sweet Country), Jed Kurzel (Monkey Man, The Babadook, Alien: Covenant) LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara (Barbie, Saltburn) and Simon McQuoid (Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2).
Catch you on the red carpet at 2024 SXSW Sydney Screen Festival, October 14–20.
IHG Hotels & Resorts is honoured to be the Major Presenting Partner of the SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen Festival. With a family of 19 hotel brands, over 6,300 hotels in more than 100 countries and an industry leading loyalty program, IHG One Rewards, IHG Hotels & Resorts has a rich heritage of supporting the global arts community and is delighted to help spotlight the extraordinary creative talent emerging from the Asia Pacific region.
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