South by Southwest Sydney (SXSW Sydney) has wrapped up for another year and from all reports it was yet another booming success. If you were able to attend I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as I missed out this year through other commitments and some much needed family time.
As it has been since its inception, SXSW has dedicated itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conferences and festivals that celebrate the convergence of tech, film and television, music, education, and culture. An essential destination for global professionals, the annual event features music, and comedy showcases, film and television screenings, exhibitions, professional development, and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together.
Being one of the biggest conferences on the planet SXSW recently made the move outside of Texas and for the last two years has shown Sydneysiders just how an international meeting of minds is done.
This year a stacked program was showcased with awards handed out to some very varied content. Check out the below list directly from the SXSW team.
Best Feature Film
A Grand Mockery
Directed by Samuel Dixon and Adam C. Briggs, A Grand Mockery follows Josie (Dixon) who leads a life of passive mundane displeasure before his psychic ills deform him and see him roaming the rainforest hinterlands of Queensland. A Grand Mockery is simultaneously singular and a flashback to underground filmmaking before it became codified. Filmed on soft luminous super-8, tonally playful and structured as a diptych, A Grand Mockery begins as a work of morbid comic realism before the film transforms along with Josie.
The SXSW Sydney 2024 Audience Award
Pools
The debut feature film of Sam Hayes. Starring a raft of rising stars including Odessa A’zion (recently cast opposite Timothée Chalamet in A24’s Marty Supreme) and Mason Gooding (Scream VI, Love, Victor) alongside Modern Family’s Ariel Winter, Pools follows Kennedy (A’zion), who is stuck at summer school after flunking her sophomore year of college. Amidst a heat wave, she rallies a ragtag crew for a pool-hopping adventure through the wealthy estates of Lake Forest, on the north shore of Chicago. But as the secrets spill, a wild night of fun becomes a cathartic journey of self-discovery.
Best Episodic
Thou Shalt Not Steal
An eight-episode road series set in Central and South Australia in the 1980s, Thou Shalt Not Steal follows Robyn (Sherry-Lee Watson), a young Aboriginal delinquent, who, on a search to find the truth behind a family secret, escapes from detention and reluctantly teams up with awkward teenager Gidge (Will McDonald). Together they flee her small central desert community on a perilous journey across the outback, finding answers and learning some hard life lessons along the way. Hot on their heels are Maxine (Miranda Otto), a sex worker whose taxi Robyn stole, and Gidge’s domineering father Robert (Noah Taylor), a fraudulent preacher. You can watch it now in Australia on Stan.
Best Short Film
Tied: Fishtank (dir. Wendi Tang, China/USA) and Try to Remember, Please (dir. Maria Dudko, Australia).
In Fishtank, Jules (Tiffany Chu) has been sober for a year but can’t stop vomiting goldfish. Striving to put her life back on track, she must preserve control when a fish enthusiast unexpectedly enters her life. Try to Remember, Please offers a visceral first-person account of how violence is erased from memory, and how that can be weaponized by those trying to contest its very existence.
Best Music Video
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ Pillhouse
Directed by Ollie Jones (United Kingdom), this one is best seen to be believed….
Best Student Film
Ruby and Tom Take a Cake to a Wedding
Directed by Australian filmmaker Jack McTaggart. The short follows determined and aspiring cake-maker Ruby and her aloof partner Tom, who must deliver a wedding cake out of town, forcing them to rely on their family and friends who consistently can’t seem to spare a second thought to anything beyond their own self-involved lives.
There you have it. A plethora of new and upcoming titles showcasing both local and abroad talents on the world stage. Be sure to keep an eye out for them as they become available to watch in the future.
SXSW Sydney will be back in October 2025.
