SXSW Sydney Unveils 2024 Short Films Slate

Finding Jia
Finding Jia Credit: Courtesy of SXSW Sydney

SXSW Sydney has unveiled its short films program for this year.

The diverse slate is set to showcase an incredible collection of stories by filmmakers from around the world, including films by creators from Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and the US.

Highlights include “ILY, Bye,” which follows Siobhan (Meg Stalter), a quirky, socially anxious person who can’t seem to keep a job. Thanks to the help of her best friend Gary (Kanoa Goo), she scores an interview with his boss, Mr. Litchfield (played by “The Office” star Rainn Wilson). When her call to schedule the interview goes to voicemail, Siobhan panics and leaves a series of unhinged messages. Not wanting to lose the interview, she embarks on a chaotic mission to delete the voicemails herself.

From New Zealand, “The Red Room” looks at the unravelling of a shy office worker’s life after he fails to read the terms and conditions at a pseudo-health clinic.

Alice Yang directs “Finding Jia,” a film about Mei, a young immigrant, who yearns for the type of Western way of living she sees on TV, while the Canadian film “Wildmen of the Greater Toronto Area” sees citizens of Toronto begin to renounce their “personhood” en masse to legally become animals, forming a society of Wildmen in the city’s vast ravine network.

Check out the full short films program below. Find more information about SXSW Sydney 2024 here.

NameCountryDirectorProducer
“A Lovely Place”AustraliaJessica DiCostaAmanda Browne, Ashlee Russel
“Bath Bomb”CanadaColin G. CooperColin G. Cooper, Misty Hand, Deirdre Mccarrick, Jeff So
“Blood Sisters”AustraliaMuraya MooreLondon Hawk, Taylah Cate
“Cowboys Doing Laundry”AustraliaCurtis HillWill Storr
“Don’t Talk to Strangers”SpainImanol OrtizImanol Ortiz López, David Pérez Sañudo
“Finding Jia”AustraliaAlice YangMaisie Fabry
“Fishmonger”United StatesNeil FerronValerie Steinberg, Jordan Willcox, Neil Ferron
“Fishtank”ChinaWendi TangPhilip Yuzhong Ge, Wendi Tang
“Gooners”AustraliaNick MurcottNick Murcott
“Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded”United StatesAnna Maguire, Kyle GreenbergChristina Campagnola, Anna Maguire, Kyle Greenberg
“Hidari”JapanMasashi Kawamura, Iku OgawaNoriko Matsumoto, Sachie Aihara, Masaaki Oikawa, Masami Ouchi
“ILY, Bye”United StatesTaylor JamesGabriela Ledesma, Callie Schuttera, Katie White
“I’ve Got You”AustraliaDuncan RaggDianna La Grassa
“Luna & the Brain Tuna”AustraliaAaron LucasHugo Koehne, Henry Koehne, Jayden Rathsam Hua
“Make Me a Pizza”United StatesTalia Shea LevinKara Grace Miller, Talia Shea Levin
“Meat Puppet”United KingdomEros VMasha Thorpe Leah Draws
“Nepotism, Baby!”United StatesTij D’oyenCameron Morton, Rachel Walden
“O.C.D.”United StatesLuca PizzoleoLuca Pizzoleo and Bridget Sonobe
“Puncture”AustraliaEvan Elbeaini-DixonClaudia Rose Holmes
“See Me Living”AustraliaJessica DiCostaEstephania Bonnett
“She and Her Good Vibrations”SingaporeOlivia GriseldaJerrold Chong, Olivia Griselda
“She Stays”MexicoMarinthia Gutiérrez VelazcoMarinthia Gutiérrez
“Silent Panorama”BelgiumNicolas PiretDelphine Renard, William Henne
“That Day I Jumped Off the Pier”United StatesJai LoveBasia Stefaniak, Leah Moth, Wyatt Weymouth
“The Eaters”AustraliaGemma SalomonAdam Camporeale & Gemma Salomon
“The Old Young Crow”JapanLiam LoPintoLiam LoPinto
“The Red Room”New ZealandAlex LiuJacob Vale
“The Scatterer”AustraliaFelix LovellEleanor Somerville
“The Shadow Wrangler”United StatesGrace RexBre Thomas, Anne Troup
“Thirstygirl”United StatesAlexandra QinAlexandra Qin, Brooke Goldman, Esteban Pedraza
“Try to Remember, Please”AustraliaMaria DudkoMaria Dudko
“Vivie”New ZealandHewiling OwSara Chen, Mia Maramara
“Wildmen of the Greater Toronto Area”CanadaSolmund MacPhersonSolmund MacPherson, Jesse Padveen, Giran Findlay