SXSW 2024: 7 picks from this year’s film festival

SXSW 2024 is just around the corner and we’ll be on the ground in Austin covering the best of the film, TV, music, comedy, and conference components of this year’s stacked festival.

This year’s Film & TV Festival lineup features world premiers of major new releases including the horror film Immaculate (starring Sydney Sweeney), the action-comedy The Fall Guy (with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt), and the Roadhouse remake (starring Jake Gyllenhaal).

Setting aside the blockbusters (which you should definitely see if you can get in), we’ve combed through this year’s SXSW Film & TV  Festival lineup to recommend 7 titles that are well worth seeking out. Our highlights include music documentaries on soul legend Jackie Shane and Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (of At the Drive-In / The Mars Volta), a pair of head-spinning thrillers in Dead Mail and Things Will Be Different, the biting black comedy of Audrey, and more.

The SXSW Film & TV Festival runs from March 8-16 in Austin, Texas. The complete schedule is here.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

R+B singer Jackie Shane was primed for worldwide stardom in the 1960’s when she suddenly disappeared from public life. Born in Nashville, Shane came to prominence in Toronto, where her raucous nightclub performances became the talk of the town.

A Black transgender artist from the South, Jackie Shane broke down a number of societal barriers at the time, and is finally getting her proper due with the new documentary, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story.

Directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee and Executive Produced by Elliot Page, the moving film is narrated by Shane herself, who guides us through her rise to success and the reasons she ultimately decided to step away from it all.

Audrey

What if a family tragedy actually made your life…better? That premise lies at the heart of Audrey, a wickedly funny Australian black comedy from director Natalie Bailey.

Rosie (Jackie van Beek) is a suffering mother still dreaming of the acting life she left behind to raise her family, including her snotty and ungrateful daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier). When Audrey accidentally falls of the roof of their home and ends up in a coma, Natalie decides to re-ignite her passion for acting, allowing the entire family to re-examine their lives in unexpected ways.

With a smart script from Lou Sanz and featuring a stacked supporting cast including Hannah Diviney and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Audrey is sure to be one of the biggest crowd-pleasers at this year’s festival.

Dead Mail

A bloody note dropped off in the mail system leads to a dark and twisted chain of events in Dead Mail.

Co-written and directed by Kyle McConaghy and Joe DeBoer, this atmospheric horror-thriller feels like a Lynchian nightmare with a synth-heavy John Carpenter soundtrack, an instrument that coincidentally figures heavily in the film’s unexpected plot.

Starring Sterling Macer, Jr. and John Fleck, Dead Mail is a unique and often mesmerizing viewing experience with an almost tactile analogue vibe.

You’ll never look at a mail box the same way again.

Dickweed

In 2012, a California weed dispensary owner named Mike and a woman staying at his apartment were kidnapped in the middle of the night and brought out to the desert. The kidnappers were looking for a million dollars in cash that they mistakenly believed Mike had hidden. They ended up leaving empty handed, but in retaliation…cut Mike’s dick off.

If you’re already squirming from that premise, things get even darker in Dickweed, a new documentary from director Jonathan Ignatius Green (The Pez Outlaw). The film uncovers the mystery behind the horrific attack, which sends a local detective on an international manhunt in search of a violent criminal with a history of evading capture. 

A dark and twisted real-life tale, Dickweed is an intense look at a bizarre crime that only gets more incredible as the full story comes into focus. 

Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird

Charting the personal and musical evolution of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (of At the Drive-In / The Mars Volta fame), Nicolas Jack Davies’ new documentary is made up almost entirely of footage captured by Omar over the past four decades.

From themes of addiction to brotherhood, the film promises to offer an intimate and revealing look at the partnership that has produced some of the most vital rock records in recent memory.

For this year’s SXSW, Omar and Cedric are also resurrecting their dub/electronica project DE FACTO for a special show with Mogwai on Monday, March 11 at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater.

Resynator

Alison Tavel grew up with legendary stories of her father Don Tavel, a musician and inventor who developed a unique synthesizer he dubbed the “Resynator.” Don passed away when Alison was a baby, but decades later, Alison, who travels the world with musician Grace Potter, embarks on a mission to learn more about her father and his groundbreaking work in the new documentary, Resynator.

Directed by Tavel, the film documents her process of learning about her father and his quest to make a mark with the Resynator. Along the way she speaks with musicians like Peter Gabriel and John Anderson who were early supporters of her father’s work, as well as young musicians from around the globe as she exposes new artists to a working prototype of the Resynator Alison rescued from her grandmother’s closet. 

A moving look at a daughter’s drive to understand the father she never knew through his art and passions, Resynator is an inspiring documentary about how music ultimately unifies us all.

Things Will Be Different

Things Will Be Different, the directorial debut from Michael Felker, is the sort of twisty head-scratcher that you’ll need to discuss with fellow festival-goers as soon as the lights come up.

Essentially a two-hander, the film stars Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy as siblings who have access to a remote farmhouse that allows them to traverse time. On the run from the law, the pair are travelling through time for a set purpose that slowly reveals itself through the course of this unexpected thriller.

A film with big ideas set entirely on a farm, Things Will Be Different proves that you don’t need elaborate special effects to craft a memorable sci-fi tale. Felker (who also wrote the screenplay) is the longtime editor for the directing pair Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson (Something in the Dirt) and joins their ranks as a filmmaker capable of balancing intimate storytelling with explosive ideas..

The SXSW Film & TV Festival runs from March 8-16 in Austin, Texas. The complete schedule is here.