Just In: SXSW Sydney Announces Its Eclectic Film Program

South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney is returning for round two this October, with a mega line-up of events across tech, culture, music and gaming. It also incorporates a film festival within the festival – which has just announced its program. SXSW Sydney Screen will feature more than 20 films, spanning Australian and world premieres, a slew of documentaries, plenty of horrors and a good dose of comedy.

Making its world premiere is A Grand Mockery, a comedic tribute to underground filmmaking of years past, that sees a man transformed by his “psychic ills” roaming the Queensland rainforest. Slice of Life: The American Dream will have its international premiere at the festival; the doco offers a snapshot of contemporary USA, as seen through the current lives of former Pizza Huts.

Australian premieres are aplenty. There’s French horror flick Xoftex, which sees a group of Syrian youths in a refugee camp set out to make a zombie movie, as well as Japanese horror Visitors: Complete Edition, in which a band opens a door to another world. Witches, a UK documentary about the history and portrayal of witches, also has its Aussie premiere, as does The Thicket, a US film starring Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets) that sees a group of outcasts, led by a bounty hunter, track a kidnapped girl. Other Aussie premieres are local: a documentary about Sydney band the Hard-Ons; horror film Salt Along the Tongue; and slasher flick Carnage for Christmas.

Other highlights include Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara, a doco about a Māori thrash metal band; pregnancy documentary Babes, starring Ilana Glazer (Broad City); My First Film, a drama following a young filmmaker on the journey to make her first film; and Teaches of Peaches, a documentary following Canadian musician Peaches. There’s also Never Look Away, a documentary about CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth who ventured into war zones – including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon and Iraq – to capture what was happening. Director Lucy Lawless (aka Xena) will attend the film’s Australian premiere at SXSW Sydney.

SXSW runs from October 14–20. Tickets now on sale.

sxswsydney.com