SXSW Sydney 2024: Nightbitch and Saturday Night Premieres to Feature Film Program

SXSW Sydney has revealed the stars of its film program.

Leading the cast is Nightbitch , directed by Marielle Heller ( Can You Ever Forgive Me? ), which is already generating Oscar buzz for its lead star, Amy Adams, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.

Nightbitch is about a frustrated suburban stay-at-home mom who occasionally transforms into a dog. It also stars Scoot McNairy and Zoe Chao.

The festival will also feature the Australian premiere of Saturday Night, a film from director Jason Reitman (Away We Go, Juno) based on the backstage drama from the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

The cast includes Gabriel LaBelle as menacing SNL boss Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner.

If horror is more your thing, Smile 2 starring Naomi Scott will premiere at SXSW in Sydney, as will The Front Room, Brandy’s return to the big screen.

The headliner’s program is complemented by Pavements, an experimental concert film/biographical film by Alex Ross Perry, who previously directed Her Smell. It has been described as a hybrid of “narrative, script, documentary, musical and metatext.”

The festival had previously announced highlights from its programming, including Sing Sing, a drama about a wrongly imprisoned man starring Colman Domingo (also making an Oscar splash), and Didi, a coming-of-age story from Taiwanese-American filmmaker Sean Wang.

There is also Never Look Away, the directorial debut of New Zealander Lucy Lawless, a documentary about war photojournalist Margaret Moth and Azrael, in which Samara Weaving plays a woman escaping from a cult in a post-apocalyptic world.

Speakers will include Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton, composer Jed Kurzel and producer Josey McNamara, a partner in Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap.

SXSW Sydney will take place from October 14-20.