The SXSW Sydney Screen Festival offering
Film and TV Festival including red carpet premieres at the ICC’s Darling Theatre and cinemas across the inner city; an XR showcase, conference sessions, activations, parties and meet-ups, mentoring sessions and ‘Minimart’, a SXSW Sydney-flavoured Screen market for investors, buyers, producers, creatives and industry; a casual way to cut deals.
Get excited about
– Red carpet premieres, Features, Shorts, TV premieres, music videos and a competition.
– An XR showcase encompassing VR, AR, Mixed Reality, SR, immersive experiences and interactive AI.
– Free outdoor screenings and immersive experiences.
– First Nations Screen Festival programming by Pauline Clague, (founder of Winda Film Festival).
What makes SXSW Sydney’s Screen Festival unique:
With a spotlight on the Asia-Pacific region, but inclusive of all corners of the globe, the SXSW Sydney 2023 Screen Festival brings together screen creatives to deliver an experience at the forefront of discovery, creativity and innovation.
SXSW Sydney will embrace the current democratisation of screen storytelling and moving-image creativity. Traditional screen venues and future-focused technology and platforms will converge, driven by a culturally rich, ideas-led curatorial vision.
Our aim is to platform, showcase and support the most exciting new voices, new forms and new ways of creating on Screen, as well as celebrate established creators who are challenging the form in the APAC region and beyond.
A first taste of films screening at SXSW Sydney this October, aligning with the broader event’s themes of Music, Games and Tech & Innovation:
Anita (US), about Rolling Stones Muse Anita Pallenberg
Cypher (US), a fictional pseudo- music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack
Gagaland (CN) A rags-to-riches, boy-meets-girl story, set against a viral Chinese dance craze flooding streets and social media feeds.
Jamojaya (US), Indonesian rap star Brian Imanuel (Rich Brian) stars as an up-and-coming musician.
Plastic (JP), teenagers Juna and Ibuki set out to find the psychedelic rock band Exne Kedy.
Knit’s Island (FR) ‘DayZ’ is survivalist fiction in the form a videogame. Knit’s Island documents some of the 963 hours the directors spent in there in an at times unsettling blurring of the real and the virtual.
The Last Year of Darkness (US/CN) Bass-heavy and neon-coloured portrait of alternative Chinese youth.
You’ll Never Find Me (AU) A lonely mobile home resident has an unexpected visitor on the night of a relentless thunderstorm.
Tokyo Uber Blues (JP), an in-debt graduate Film Student turns to Uber driving to make ends meet.
Unmissable speakers and industry leaders, including
Alana Hicks, Alison Hurbert-Burns, Amy Webb, Bec Smith, Brooke Boney, Bruna Papandrea, Charles Rivkin, Kyas Hepworth, Larissa Behrendt, Joff Bush (Bluey), Jub Clerc, Kodie Bedford, Leah Purcell, Lenore Taylor, Marc Fennell, Osher Günsberg, Paul Tollett, Que Minh Luu, Sung Eun Youn, Tan France, Yoomin Yang.
Panels and sessions to keep you at the forefront, covering topics including
The next generation of blak storytellers, when music videos meet AI, brain-computer interfaces, the future of lab-grown meat, ethical living with robots, where NFTs are really at now, trademarking ideas in a rapidly changing world, the future of love and more.
Brands participating in the Screen Festival include
Prime Video, Seven.
Venues for the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival include
The ICC’s Darling Theatre, Palace Cinemas Central, and more to be announced.
