Kitty Green’s South Australian-filmed social thriller The Royal Hotel will open the screen portion of October’s SXSW Sydney, with a red carpet premiere to be held at the ICC on October 15.
Inspired by the 2017 observational documentary Hotel Coolgardie by filmmaker Pete Gleeson, the See-Saw Films feature stars Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick as Hanna and Liv, two best friends backpacking around Australia.
After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job in a pub called ‘The Royal Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar Owner Billy, played by Hugo Weaving, and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Down Under drinking culture but things turn nasty when their jokes and behaviour cross the line. Soon Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.
Producing are Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Liz Watts with Scarlett Pictures’ Kath Shelper. Green co-wrote the script with Oscar Redding.
The film will come to SXSW Sydney from the Toronto International Film Festival, where it will screen alongside fellow Australian titles The New Boy and The Convert.
Green will attend the Sydney premiere, but the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike may prevent cast members from promoting the film at the event.
SXSW Sydney head of Ghita Loebenstein said The Royal Hotel was the “perfect opener” for a festival that sought to amplify and celebrate bold voices in film.
“Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel is a deft reworking of the ‘Aussie outback thriller,’ reoriented with a female gaze and we could not be more thrilled to open the inaugural SXSW Sydney Screen Festival with Kitty in attendance,” she said.
“The film takes deliberate stabs at the more toxic shadows of the genre, and our culture, in sophisticated but ever-entertaining ways.”
Earlier this week, SXSW Sydney announced that Sally Aitken’s Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles would have its world premiere at the Screen Festival, which is also set to include a First Nations Screen Festival and an XR Showcase.
SXSW Sydney will be held from Sunday, October 15 to Sunday, October 22 primarily across The University of Technology, Sydney; The Powerhouse Museum, and The International Convention Centre.