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‘We Bury the Dead’, ‘The Surfer’, ‘Mix Tape’ lead strong Aus contingent for SXSW

Daisy Ridley in 'We Bury the Dead'.

March’s SXSW Festival will again carry a decent dose of Australian storytelling, with eight titles featuring local creatives selected in the line-up announced yesterday US time.

Taking place March 7-15, the Film & TV program for the 32nd edition of the Texas event comprises 96 Features – including 82 World Premieres – 57 Short Films, 18 Music Videos, and 16 TV projects, five of which are premieres. There are also 31 projects in the XR Experience Program, including 15 in XR Experience Competition and 16 in XR Experience Spotlight.

Zak Hilditch’s We Bury the Dead will have its world premiere in the Narrative Spotlight section, joining titles from Germany, Cyprus, the US, and the UK.

Shot across Albany and the Great Southern Region at the beginning of last year, the survival thriller stars Daisy Ridley as Ava, a desperate woman whose husband is missing in the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment. Hoping to find him alive, Ava joins a ‘body retrieval unit’, but her search takes a chilling turn when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life. The cast also includes Marks Coles Smith and Brenton Thwaites.  Kelvin Munro and Grant Sputore of WA production company The Penguin Empire produced the film alongside Ross Dinerstein of Campfire Studios in the US.

Hilditch, who wrote the script, described the selection as an “absolute honour”.

It’s such a cool festival and the perfect place to help launch We Bury the Dead in 2025,” he said.

“I also can’t wait to showcase Albany on the big screen over there in Austin. The town went out of its way to welcome us during the shoot, and this is such an awesome way to pay homage to everyone who helped us along the way.”

It’s not the only WA-filmed feature in the line-up, with Lorcan Finnigan’s Australian-Irish co-production The Surfer to have its North American premiere as part of the Festival Favourite section, after debuting in the Midnight Screenings section at Cannes last year.

Written by Thomas Martin, the film stars Nicolas Cage stars as a man who returns to Australia to buy back his family home after many years in the US only to be humiliated in front of his teenage son by a group of local surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. It was produced by Tea Shop Productions, Arenamedia, Lovely Productions, and Gramercy Park Media with support from Screenwest through the WA Production Attraction Incentive.

Another Australian-Irish collaboration, the TV series Mix Tape, will have its world premiere in TV Spotlight thread. The adaptation of Jane Sanderson’s romantic novel stars Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgess as a couple who reconnect from opposite sides of the world through a song from their shared past. Adapted for the screen by Jo Spain and directed by Australian director Lucy Gaffy, the Binge series was produced by Aquarius Films’ Angie Fielder and Polly Staniford, and Subotica’s Aoife O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch.

A trio of Australian documentaries will be showcased in the Documentary Spotlight thread, two of which will have their world premieres.

Screening for the first time will be Jennifer Peedom’s Deeper, about a reluctant hero who explores a dangerous obsession within the world’s deepest, darkest cold-water cave system; and Kristina Kraskov’s Spreadsheet Champions, produced by Anna Charalambous, Charlotte Wheaton, Nick Batzias, in which students from around the world give it their all in ‘the greatest competition you’ve never heard of’.

There is also the international premiere of Make it Look Real from director/screenwriter Kate Blackmore and producers Bethany Bruce and Daniel Joyce. Supported by Screen Australia, Screen NSW, and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, the film follows Intimacy coordinator Claire Warden as she guides actors through sex scenes for new film Tightrope, negotiating the vision of a director, the physical and psychological needs of the actors, and a documentary crew filming her every move.

‘Make it Look Real’

Speaking about the SXSW selection, Blackmore hoped the film would spark some meaningful discussions.

In our film, Claire not only sheds light on how actors tell these stories through their bodies and the pressure that comes with that, she also shows how conversations about boundaries and consent can benefit everyone,” she said.

Fresh from having animated feature Lesbian Space Princess selected for next month’s Berlinale, writer/director Leela Varghese’s I’m The Most Racist Person I Know will have its world premiere in SXSW’s Narrative Short Competition. Produced by Suriyna Sivashanker, the story centres on Lali, who unexpectedly ends up on a date with another woman of color for the first time, unravelling prejudices she has long ignored.

Australia also has representation in the Animated Short competition via the international premiere of Lucy Davidson’s Australia-UK co-production Baggage, produced by Vanessa Batten and Amy Upchurch, about anthropomorphic suitcase best friends bring their emotional baggage on holidays; and in the Midnight Shorts competition through Winnie Cheung’s Last Call, a co-production between the US, Australia, and Hong Kong that follows a motorcycle rebel spirals deeper into her erotic hallucinations to escape the grip of a sultry serpent woman.

Written by the Andujar Twins, and produced by Weston Auburn, Travis Wood, Celia Au, and Amanda Kreuger, Last Call will have its world premiere at the festival.

Speaking about this year’s line-up, SXSW VP of film and TV Claudette Godfrey said the selections celebrated the “fearless storytellers who make SXSW so unique”.

“We love to discover and elevate filmmakers who make bold statements, push boundaries, spark important conversations, and challenge our perspectives in ways we never expected,” she said.

“When our incredible SXSW community gathers in March to experience these stories, the energy and inspiration is going to be absolutely transformative.”

Find out more about this year’s line-up here.