South by Southwest Sydney (SXSW Sydney) is thrilled to roll out the purple carpet for its Headliners, announcing today five films that embrace the signature bold, genre-focused storytelling of the SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen Festival, presented by IHG Hotels & Resorts.
Colin Daniels, Managing Director, SXSW Sydney said: “We are incredibly excited to unveil our Screen Festival Headliners that capture the spirit of SXSW Sydney. These bold, hilarious, captivating and thrilling films lead a program not just for film fans, but the tech, music, and games audiences that form the rich tapestry of the SXSW Sydney audience.”
The SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen program Headliner line-up of not-to-be-missed Australian premieres will surprise and delight film lovers this year, with some of the world’s biggest stars and directorial talent bringing their hottest new properties Down Under.
Max & Sam Eggers’ new A24 horror The Front Room (premiering Tuesday, October 15th) starring pop star Brandy as a newly-pregnant woman facing hell as her diabolical mother-in-law (Kathryn Hunter) moves in will set the tone, before the premiere of Smile 2 (Wednesday, October 16th), the eagerly awaited sequel to the 2022 box office smash hit. Starring Aladdin’s Naomi Scott as a global pop who begins to experience increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events as she embarks on a world tour, director Parker Finn will attend SXSW Sydney to present the film.
On Thursday, October 17th, Pavements, an experimental hybrid of narrative, scripted, documentary, musical, and metatextual elements from director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell) about the indie rock outfit Pavement will debut. Co-written by Ross Perry and Stephen Malkmus from Pavement, this unique, not-to-be-missed piece of cinema comes direct to SXSW Sydney from Venice and New York film festivals.
Turning your Friday the 18th October into a real bitch of a night, Marielle Heller‘s darkly comedic fairy tale Nightbitch will preview. Starring Amy Adams, whose performance is receiving early Oscar buzz following its world premiere at TIFF, as a stay-at-home mother who, frustrated after leaving behind a career as an artist for a life consumed by parental duties, transforms into a dog, Nightbitch, adapted from Rachel Yoder‘s cult book of the same title, is sure to get SXSW audiences barking with intrigue.
Capping things off on an appropriate Saturday night – Saturday the 19th October, to be exact – hot from Telluride and TIFF comes Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Starring some of the world’s hottest young acting talent, including Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner franchise), Nicholas Braun (Succession), Kaia Gerber (Bottoms) and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), alongside industry legends Willem Dafoe and J.K Simmons, Saturday Night is full of humour, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t.
Every session in the SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen Festival (October 14th-20th, 2024) is open to anyone with a Screen Badge or Wristband, granting unlimited access to screenings during the event. For those itching to get their tickets now to individual Headliner or Featured sessions in the blockbuster line-up of films, Rush Tickets are now on sale for just $25. Guarantee your seat at the biggest films playing across the week, showing at the ICC Darling Harbour Theatre, Ritz Randwick and Dendy Newtown. Get your Badge, Wristband or Rush Tickets at sxswsydney.com.
More details on the broader line-up for the SXSW Sydney 2024 Screen Festival can be found here. The Opening Night film for the Screen Program will be announced at a later date.
SXSW Sydney is delivered in partnership with the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Plan your SXSW Sydney 2024 trip now, visit sydney.com
