The Midnighters section at this year’s South By Southwest will have a healthy Australian contingent, including the world premiere of the Cairnes brothers’ Late Night with the Devil.
Also screening is the international premiere of Matt Vesely’s debut feature, Monolith, as well as a fresh-from-Sundance screening of Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me.
Elsewhere at the Austin festival, Lucy McKendrick and Charles Polinger’s Fuck Me, Richard will also play the Narrative Shorts Competition.
This year marks the 30th edition of the SXSW Film & TV Festival, with the line-up for the Opening Night (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Feature and Short Competitions, Midnighters and XR Experience announced today. The complete line-up will be announced early February.
Shot in Melbourne and written and directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, Late Night With The Devil stars David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad) as Jack Delroy, the host of a late-night talk show that goes horribly wrong during a live broadcast in 1977, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.
Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss and Fayssal Bazzi also lead the cast, alongside Ingrid Torelli, Rhys Auteri, Josh Quong Tart, Christopher Kirby and Georgina Haig.
“We are thrilled that our nightmarish ode to the 70s talk show will have its world premiere at SXSW, a festival that has long championed distinctive genre films,” the Cairnes brothers told IF.
“We are also delighted to be in such good Aussie filmmaking company. This country’s international reputation for making unique and entertaining horror movies is as strong as ever… long may it continue to be supported!”
Late Night with the Devil is produced via Image Nation Abu Dhabi, one of the the production companies behind the Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo, and US-based low-budget genre label Spooky Pictures.
Spooky Pictures co-founders Roy Lee (It) and Steven Schneider (Pet Sematary) and Derek Dauchy (Al Kameen) produce with Future Pictures’ Mat Govoni, Adam White and John Molloy.
Vesely’s Monolith first premiered at Adelaide Film Festival last October; the first produced project from the South Australian Film Corporation and AFF’s Film Lab: New Voices development program. It was shot in just three weeks in one location in the Adelaide Hills.
The sci-fi thriller stars Lily Sullivan as a disgraced journalist who turns to podcasting to try and rebuild her career. Her rush to generate headlines soon uncovers a strange artifact, an alien conspiracy, and the lies at the heart of her own story. Lucy Campbell penned the screenplay, with Bettina Hamilton the producer.
The film has also recently secured XYZ Films for North America, with Bonsai Films to handle distribution in ANZ. Blue Finch Films have boarded for international sales.
In a statement, Vesely said: “When we started developing Monolith, we quite literally said to ourselves in one of our very first meetings – wouldn’t it be great to take an indie sci-fi to SXSW? This is a dream come true for this project, our team, and especially for me – I’ve been wanting to go to this festival since I was 15. We can’t wait to show the film to a US audience and for people the world over to realise what a star Lily Sullivan is.”
Monolith marks Sullivan’s second in the program, with the actress also starring in Evil Dead Rise, due to screen in the Headliners section.
Talk to Me also premiered at Adelaide in October, and will screen at Sundance later this month.
Sophie Wilde stars as lonely teenager Mia, who gets hooked on the thrills of conjuring spirits through a ceramic hand. When she is confronted by a soul claiming to be her dead mother, she unleashes a plague of supernatural forces. Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Zoe Terakes and Chris Alosio also star.
The feature is produced by Causeway Films’ Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings. Danny Philippou wrote the script with Bill Hinzman.
Short film Fuck Me, Richard follows Sally, a romance-obsessed loner who, while recovering from a broken leg, finds herself swept up in a passionate long-distance love affair. Richard is perfect in every way, except that he may be a scammer.
Australian McKendrick wrote the script and directs with Pollinger. Both produce with Jenna Grossano.
SXSW runs March 10-19 in Austin, Texas, US.