The SXSW Sydney inaugural Screen Festival announced today 33 Shorts in four programs that will join the growing line-up of local and international screen content in a collision of creativity and culture at the week-long event in the Harbour city.
The four programs represent key festival themes and include:
Short Visions: Future Present Perfectly Wrong
A mix of genres from hybrid documentary to creative animation, experimental work to psychedelic visual artistry. Through various subjects and filmmaking styles, this Shorts program re-evaluates the purpose and meaning of technology and how it shapes our future, for better or worse.
Short Visions: Crazy Fun
Filmmaking is taken to another level of creativity with this collection’s twists and turns. Free from boundaries and traditional storytelling expectations, it features films that are absurdly chaotic and hilariously bent.
Short Visions: Tell Me A Story
This program of story-first films covers intimate teenage relationships, a hybrid documentary about space objects and powerful queer animation.
Short Nightmares
Imagined from the other side of Midnight, this program moves between gruesome crime scenes, creepy thrillers, explosive secretions and a mysterious doll romance. This selection will keep your eyes wide open.
Of the 33 films, 26 showcase the Asia-Pacific region, with 17 from Australia, 6 from First Nations creators and 5 directors identifying as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
An additional Bush Shorts program, curated by Pauline Clague, the founder of Winda Film Festival, will be announced in September.
This diverse showcase of short films form part of the first SXSW Sydney Screen Festival which aims to ignite the city through visual story and showcase the best screen talent of the APAC region.
From red carpet premieres, including The Royal Hotel and previously announced Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles, expect features, shorts, series, music videos and an XR showcase at the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival, accessible with a SXSW Sydney Platinum or Screen, Games, Music and Tech badges, or Screen Festival wristband. The SXSW Sydney 2023 Screen Festival offers a chance to catch unlimited screenings, including these short films, over six days and seven nights.
Discover your new favourite show, witness the breakout of the next generation of creators before anyone else and immerse yourself in groundbreaking XR experiences. Don’t miss out on the Early Bird pricing of $240 for SXSW Sydney 2023 Screen Festival wristbands, on sale now at SXSWSydney.com.
The 33 shorts premiering at SXSW Sydney’s Screen Festival include:
- Aikane (US), directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dean Hamer, Daniel Sousa and Joe Wilson
- Architect A (South Korea), directed by Jonghoon Lee
- Bald Future (AU), directed by Reilly Archer-Whelan and Michael Whyntie
- Basri & Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy (Indonesia), directed by Khozy Rizal
- Clown (AU), directed by Aarushi Chowdhury
- Compound Eyes of Tropical 熱帶複眼 (Taiwan), directed by Zhan Zhang Xu
- Dark (Singapore), directed by Alistair Quak
- Development (AU), directed by Rebecca Metcalf
- Eating Late (AU), directed by Lewis Attey
- Eid Mubarak (Pakistan), directed by Mahnoor Euceph
- Epicenter (South Korea), directed by Hee-yoon Hahm
- Eyestring (US), directed by Javier Devitt
- F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (US), directed by Fox Maxy
- False As A Beach (AU), directed by Stephanie Jane Day
- Fix Anything (Vietnam), directed by Lê Lâm Viên
- Fuck Me Richard (AU/US), directed by Lucy McKendrick
- Hyperconnect (AU), directed by Jim Muntisov
- I Have No Legs, and I Must Run (China), directed by Li Yue
- IMOAN (AU), directed by Catherine Kelleher
- Memorabilia (AU), directed by Ceridwen Dovey and Rowena Pott, voiced by Matilda Ridgway
- On Film (AU), directed by Emma Hough Hobbs
- Pairing (AU), directed by Matthew Burns
- Pasifika Drift (AU), directed by Alana Hicks
- Pixels of the Orient (Canada), directed by Warren Chan
- Record. Play. Stop. (India), directed by Neeraj Bhattacharjee
- Rival Dealer (AU), directed by John Angus Stewart, starring Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers
- Someday All This Will Be Yours (US), directed by and starring Cricket Arrison
- Sugarag (US/AU), directed by Jai Love LaPan
- Sweet Juices (AU), directed by Seion Im and Will Suen, starring Shirong Wu and Cat Văn-Davies
- The Krewd Party (AU), directed by Alice Taylor
- This Is Not Here (AU), directed by Charlotte Mungomery
- Tongue (Canada/Japan), directed by Yoshida Kaho
- We Used To Own Houses (AU), directed by David Robinson-Smith, starring Thom Green
