The Hollywood Outsider – Film and Television Podcast | Reviews An award-winning film and television podcast for the fan in all of us
The South by Southwest Festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world. In a typical year, thousands of fans arrive in downtown Austin, TX to partake in a couple of weeks of great music, technology, and film. For this special episode of The Hollywood Outsider, we take you along for our annual deep dive into SXSW 2021, the heart of the South by Southwest film festival portion, and even further into the films themselves. 2021 was an exclusively online event – we discuss this process as well – and yet SXSW still managed to exceed our expectations.
Over the course of several days, the 2021 SXSW Film Festival screened over numerous features, many from first-time filmmakers (consisting of World Premieres, North American Premieres, and US Premieres), shorts, virtual reality exhibits, title design, and other works. These films were selected from thousands of overall submissions, and – while we can’t see them all – we have a nice sample to share with you of what came out of this stellar lineup of independent films. Over 30 films are on our docket this year, and we review them all.
So sit back and relax. You’re about to experience South by Southwest from the comfort of your own home.
Discussed on this episode of The Hollywood Outsider Movie and TV Podcast:
- Thoughts on the South by Southwest festival
- Reviews of over 30 films and episodic premieres screened at the festival, titles listed below along with the SXSW 2021 Award winners
- Our personal awards on the film
- Please support The Hollywood Outsider and gain immediate access to bonus content, including Patreon exclusive podcast content like our monthly Bad Movie Night, by visiting Patreon.com/ TheHollywoodOutsider
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| Title | Description |
| Broadcast Signal Intrusion | In the late 90s, a video archivist unearths a series of sinister pirate broadcasts and becomes obsessed with uncovering the dark conspiracy behind them. Cast: Harry Shum Jr., Kelley Mack, Chris Sullivan, Jennifer Jelsema, Arif Yampolsky, Justin Welborn, Michael B. Woods, Steve Pringle |
| Chad | An awkward 14-year-old Persian-American boy navigates his first year of high school on a mission to become popular. Cast List: Nasim Pedrad, Jake Ryan, Ella Mika, Saba Homayoon, Paul Chahidi, Alexa Loo, Thomas Barbusca (World Premiere) (Episodic) |
| Clerk | A documentary on the career and life of filmmaker and raconteur Kevin Smith. |
| Confronting A Serial Killer | Confronting a Serial Killer tells the story of the unprecedented relationship between author Jillian Lauren and serial killer Sam Little while investigating the devastating impact of bias against marginalized women in the criminal justice system. |
| Cruel Summer | From Exec Producer Jessica Biel, Freeform’s Cruel Summer is a psychological thriller taking place over three summers when a popular girl goes missing and an awkward outlier transforms to queen bee and eventually, the most despised person in America. Cast: Olivia Holt, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, Brooklyn Sudano |
| Dale’s House | Dale’s House is a horror comedy about two estranged best friends, both at rock bottom in their careers and personal lives, who end up house sitting together in a demonic house that grants them all the success they desire, in exchange for their souls. Cast List: Julie Lake, Matt Kirsch, Sandi McCree, Jeff Cahn (World Premiere) |
| Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil | Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil is a powerful YouTube Originals documentary event, exploring every aspect that led to Lovato’s nearly fatal overdose in 2018, and her awakenings in the aftermath. (World Premiere) (Opening Night Film) |
| Gaia | In the depths of an ancient forest, something has been growing. Something older than humanity itself, and perhaps greater too. When a park ranger discovers a man and his son living wild, she stumbles onto a secret that is about to change the world. Cast: Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk, Anthony Oseyemi |
| Here Before | After new neighbours move in next door, a bereaved mother begins to question her reality in this unsettling psychological thriller. Cast: Andrea Riseborough, Martin McCann, Jonjo O’Neill, Eileen O’Higgins |
| I’m Fine, Thanks for Asking | When a recently widowed mother becomes houseless, she convinces her 8-year-old daughter that they are only camping for fun while working to get them off the streets. Cast: Kelley Kali, Wesley Moss, Deon Cole, Brooklynn Marie, Steven Ira Scipio, Andrew Galvan, Lamar Usher, Brian Brooks II, Jacolyn Holmes, Xing-Mai Deng |
| Introducing, Selma Blair | Introducing, Selma Blair is a deeply intimate and raw portrait of the actress after she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and makes a valiant, risky effort to try to slow the progression of her disease. For the acclaimed, yet often supporting actress, her starring role has finally arrived – she just has to show up and fully embrace herself. (World Premiere) |
| Kid Candidate | Kid Candidate tells the story of Hayden Pedigo, an 24-year old experimental musician and his unlikely run for Amarillo city council after his Harmony Korine inspired spoof campaign video went viral. |
| Ludi | Ludi, a hardworking and exhausted nurse, battles coworkers, clients and one impatient bus driver to learn her self worth as she chases the American Dream in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. Cast: Shein Mompremier, Alan Myles Heyman, Madelin Marchant, Success St. Fleur Jr., Kerline Alce, Plus Pierre, Patrice DeGraff Arenas, Farah Larrieux |
| Ninjababy | When Rakel (23), way too late, finds out she’s six months pregnant after a not-so-romantic one-night stand, her world changes. |
| Offseason | After receiving a mysterious letter, a woman travels to a desolate island town and soon becomes trapped in a nightmare. Cast: Joe Swanberg, Jocelin Donahue, Melora Walters, Richard Brake, Jeremy Gardner |
| Our Father | In a last ditch attempt to foster a meaningful bond, estranged sisters Beta and Zelda go in search of their mysterious Uncle Jerry. Cast: Baize Buzan, Allison Torem, Austin Pendleton, Corey Hendrix, Tim Hopper, Ann Whitney, Keith Kupferer, Guy Massey, Lance Baker, D’Wayne Taylor |
| Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break | A weedy charity-shop worker is set on winning the big national talent show. But when the actions of 5 selfish people cause him to miss his audition, he sets out to seek deathly revenge. It’s 1 lunch break, 5 spectacular murders. |
| Recovery | Two directionless sisters brave a cross-country road trip to rescue their grandmother from a COVID outbreak at her nursing home. Cast List: Whitney Call, Mallory Everton, Anne Sward Hansen, Julia Jolley, Baylee Thornock, Jessica Drolet, Stephen Meek, Tyler Andrew Jones, Noah Kershisnik, Justin Call (World Premiere) |
| Sasquatch | Hulu Series: Sasquatch is a true crime doc series following investigative journalist David Holthouse as he attempts to solve a bizarre twenty-five year old triple homicide that was said to be the work of a mythical creature. Cast: David Holthouse Showrunner: Joshua Rofé,Director: Joshua Rofé, |
| Sound of Violence | A young girl recovers her hearing and gains synesthetic abilities during the brutal murder of her family. Finding solace in the sounds of bodily harm, as an adult, she pursues a career in music composing her masterpiece through gruesome murders. Cast List: Jasmin Savoy Brown, Lili Simmons, James Jagger, Tessa Munro (World Premiere) |
| Swan Song | An aging hairdresser (Udo Kier) escapes his nursing home and embarks on an odyssey across his small town to style a dead woman’s hair for her funeral, rediscovering his sparkle along the way. Cast: Udo Kier, Jennifer Coolidge, Linda Evans, Michael Urie, Ira Hawkins, Stephanie McVay |
| The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson | The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson is a reimagining of Leah Purcell’s acclaimed play and Henry Lawson’s classic short story. A searing Australian western thriller asking the question: how far do you go to protect your loved ones? Cast: Leah Purcell, Rob Collins, Sam Reid, Jessica De Gouw, Malachi Dower-Roberts Country: Australia |
| The Fabulous Filipino Brothers | From Northern California to The Philippines, four brothers confront their issues with love, family, and culture, surrounding a highly controversial Filipino wedding. Told in four vignettes with cockfights, adultery, romance, food, and family. Cast: Dante Basco, Derek Basco, Dionysio Basco, Darion Basco, Solenn Heussaff, Liza Lapira, Tirso Cruz III, Cheryl Tsai, Arriana Basco, Joe Jitsukawa |
| The Fallout | High schooler Vada navigates the emotional fallout she experiences in the wake of a school tragedy. Relationships with her family, friends and view of the world are forever altered. Cast List: Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Niles Fitch, Will Ropp, Lumi Pollack, John Ortiz, Julie Bowen, Shailene Woodley |
| The Feast | Over an evening a wealthy family gathers for a sumptuous dinner with guests in their ostentatious house in the Welsh mountains. Served by a mysteriously disturbing young woman, the assembled party do not realise they are about to eat their last supper. Cast List: Anne Elwy, Nia Roberts, Julian Lewis Jones, Steffan Cennydd, Sion Alun Davies, Lisa Palfrey, Rhodri Meilir (World Premiere) |
| The Oxy Kingpins | The Oxy Kingpins covers the untold story of how a network of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and retailers worked together to orchestrate and perpetuate the opioid crisis that has killed over half a million people in America. (World Premiere) |
| Them | Set in 1953, Them, a co-production from Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television, centers on a Black family who move from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood. The family’s idyllic home becomes ground zero where malevolent forces, next door and otherworldly, threaten to taunt, ravage & destroy them. Cast List: Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Alison Pill, Melody Hurd, Shahadi Wright Joseph |
| Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free | Drawn from a newly discovered archive of 16mm film showing Tom Petty at work on his 1994 record Wildflowers, considered by many including Rolling Stone to be his greatest album ever, Somewhere You Feel Free is an intimate view of a musical icon. (World Premiere) (Centerpiece Film) |
| Violet | A film development executive realizes that “guiding voice” inside her head has been lying to her about everything. Cast List: Olivia Munn, Luke Bracey, Justin Theroux (World Premiere) |
| Witch Hunt | In a modern America where witches are real and witchcraft is illegal, a sheltered teenager must face her own demons and prejudices as she helps two young witches avoid law enforcement and cross the southern border to asylum in Mexico. Cast List: Gideon Adlon, Elizabeth Mitchell, Abigail Cowen, Nicholas and Cameron Crovetti, Christian Camargo (World Premiere) |
| Women is Losers | In 1960s San Francisco, a once-promising catholic school girl, Celina Guerrera (Lorenza Izzo), sets out to rise above the oppression of poverty and invest in a future for herself that sets new precedents for the time. Cast List: Lorenza Izzo, Bryan Craig, Chrissie Fit, Simu Liu, Steven Bauer, Liza Weil, Cranston Johnson, Alejandra Miranda, Shalim Ortiz, Lincoln Bonilla (World Premiere) |
| 2021 SXSW Award Winners | |
| Headliners | |
| Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free | |
| Director: Mary Wharton | |
| Narrative Feature Competition | |
| The Fallout | |
| Director: Megan Park | |
| Documentary Feature Competition | |
| Not Going Quietly | |
| Director: Nicholas Bruckman | |
| Narrative Spotlight | |
| Language Lessons | |
| Director: Natalie Morales | |
| Documentary Spotlight | |
| Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America | |
| Directors: Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler | |
| Visions | |
| Inbetween Girl | |
| Director: Mei Makino | |
| Midnighters | |
| Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror | |
| Director: Kier-La Janisse | |
| Global | |
| Ninjababy | |
| Director: Yngvild Sve Flikke | |
| 24 Beats Per Second | |
| Soy Cubana | |
| Directors: Jeremy Ungar and Ivaylo Getov | |
| Festival Favorites | |
| In The Same Breath | |
| Director: Nanfu Wang | |
| 2020 Spotlight | |
| We Are The Thousand | |
| Director: Anita Rivaroli | |
| Narrative Shorts Competition | |
| Play It Safe | |
| Director: Mitch Kalisa | |
| Documentary Shorts Competition | |
| Joe Buffalo | |
| Director: Amar Chebib | |
| Animated Shorts Competition | |
| Opera | |
| Director: Erick Oh | |
| Midnight Shorts Competition | |
| Stuffed | |
| Director: Theo Rhys | |
| Texas Shorts Competition | |
| Learning Tagalog with Kayla | |
| Director: Kayla Abuda Galang | |
| Texas High School Shorts Competition | |
| Beyond the Model | |
| Director: Jessica Lin | |
| Music Videos Competition | |
| Kuricorder Quartet – ‘Southpaw’ | |
| Director: Sawako Kabuki | |
| Episodic Premieres | |
| Them | |
| Showrunner: Little Marvin | |
| Episodic Pilot Competition | |
| 4 Feet High | |
| Directors: Maria Belen Poncio and Rosario Perazolo Masjoan | |
| Virtual Cinema Competition | |
| Biolum | |
| Director: Abel Kohen | |
| Virtual Cinema Spotlight | |
| Finding Pandora X | |
| Director: Kiira Benzing | |
| Excellence in Title Design | |
| Birds Of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Title Sequence | |
| Creative Director and Illustrator: Michael Riley |