SXSW and The Status of Documentary Film
Plus - Latest News and An Update on the Future of Mid-Week Newsletter
Welcome to this week’s Wednesday edition of The Backlot. Usually, the mid-week newsletters are reserved for deep dives of the latest industry news, interviews with filmmakers, and series on major issues affecting filmmaking.
NOTE - The mid-week version of the newsletter will be free for a few months before moving to a paid subscription in May…
Here are our topics this week…
🎞️ The Latest News and Films coming out of SWSX
🎬 The State of Documentary Film
🗞️ Latest News and Updates from the Industry
The Latest from SWSX
Last week, from March 8th to 16th, thousands of filmmakers, industry members, media professionals, and audiences gathered in Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival.
Over the years, the film festival has become known for its mix of indie films and traditional blockbusters. Last year, films and series such as Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Beef premiered at the event.
This year, the festival, which came right on the heels of the Oscars ceremony, promised some major premieres, including Alex Garland’s Civil War, Micheal Showalter’s The Idea of You, and David Leitch’s The Fall Guy.
Outside of these major titles, a number of indie movies made their debuts, highlighting a diverse catalog for the week-long event and giving us a preview of the year in movies to come.
Now, this post could go on for hours sharing all the SXSW news and films that made headlines, but for the sake of time, let’s narrow down on a couple of really interesting projects coming out of this year’s festival.
A24’s Big Swing
Two major titles headlined the festival, Alex Garland’s Civil War and David Leitch’s The Fall Guy, which garnered widespread critical acclaim and audience appreciation. From an industry standpoint, let's focus on Civil War because it's quite an intriguing film.
The film is directed by Garland, whose other projects include Men, Annihilation, and Ex Machina. He has a track record of exciting and unnerving films that drive the audience to question their perspective on life. I mean, just think about the Ex Machina scene where Domhall Gleeson cuts his skin as he questions his reality when confronted with human-like artificial intelligence. Garland knows how to make you think.
This new film seems to be no different, centering around a team of journalists traversing the nation during a futuristic second American Civil War.
Outside of its terrifyingly relevant premise in an election year, the reception and future release of the film is notable for another major reason - it’s A24’s biggest budget film to date.
The $50 million budget surpasses their second biggest budgeted film, Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, by roughly $15 million.
It’s also a notable change in style for the arthouse company that has made a name for itself by producing and distributing edgy and auteur cinema. Garland’s action epic is a lot more blockbuster-esque and highlights A24’s growing interest in branching out and expanding its horizons as a company.
At SXSW, Civil War was met with pretty positive reviews, with many claiming the film delivers on its budget and is led by some powerhouse performances, including Kristen Dunst. Others said it didn’t quite soar to the heights necessary to justify the company’s big swing.
This is why it’ll be interesting to see how the film does next month when it releases wide in IMAX on April 12th. We’ll surely be keeping an eye on it and how its success (or lack of) influences A24's tactics moving forward.
Sweeney Stealing the Show
Another film that has been the topic of recent conversation is Micheal Mohan’s Immaculate, which releases wide on Friday.
The psychological horror film follows Cecilia, a woman of faith who joins a convent in the Italian countryside which holds horrifying secrets. The premise is intriguing, but the real reason the film is garnering so much press is that it is produced by and stars Sydney Sweeney.
Now, I’m not sure there is anyone else on the planet whose stardom has risen more than Sydney Sweeney in the past six months. The Euphoria star has appeared in several films, including the surprisingly massive hit Anyone But You with Glen Powell.
Now, I truly believe that Sweeney is a certified movie star in the making. She’s obviously well-known for her stunningly good looks, but the star has proven her versatility time after time. In the last year, she’s played the lead in a romantic comedy, a superhero, a whistleblower, and now a possessed nun.
This decision with Immaculate really makes her career fascinating because it highlights how she continues to venture outside the mold that “bombshell” actresses are usually placed in during their early years.
In many ways, Sweeney is still “that” actress of this generation, but a more modern version of the traditional “bombshell” idea. This seems intentional on her part, as she has chosen to play very different characters that showcase her range while also proving her abilities as a power producer whose projects are making major splashes in the industry.
The other interesting thing about this film is that Sweeney apparently initially auditioned for the role ten years ago when she was sixteen. According to her interview with Variety, Sweeney and a few other producers decided to pick up the script and evolve the story to produce the horror film, bringing the project full circle.
It’s always interesting how these dormant projects find their way back to life years later.
As mentioned, there were a lot of other major events and news to come out of SXSW. Some other notable films included Grand Theft Hamlet, which one the documentary feature prize. Former SNL member Kyle Mooney’s premiered directorial debut in Y2k. For my personal favorite, Dev Patel made his directorial debut with the action-packed Monkey Man, which releases wide in April.
The State of Documentary Film
Okay, so let's talk about documentary film. Now, I’m going to break this down into two parts. The first part will give a quick glimpse at the current state of documentary film based on my conversations and quick research from the industry. The second part will explain the future of these mid-week newsletters, which I will explain when we get there.
Last year, I attended a few documentary filmmaker panels at the Bend Film Festival in Central Oregon. The panels were a great chance to talk with distribution companies, listen to documentary filmmakers, and hear about the state of the industry.
One thing was resoundingly clear at these events - there is a lot of uneasiness around documentary film.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen the documentary industry come to a slow and grinding halt as major studios have allocated less and less resources to non-fiction films. This financial movement away from documentaries has coincided with a change in how audiences see films and what types of films they want to see.
These issues have caused major problems for filmmakers because they’ve made it incredibly hard to finance a career in documentary filmmaking, let alone get a green light from studios for a single project.
In 2020, a report by the Center for Media and Social Impact found that 55% of documentary filmmakers and producers made less than $25,000 from their most recent film. The same report highlighted that less than a quarter of films made enough to cover production expenses or make a profit.
This slowing of documentary filmmaking seems to also coincide with the changing landscape of the journalism industry, where major companies such as Vice, National Geographic, Vox, and others have laid off major portions of their staff.
I mean, on journalism X (Twitter), it feels like every week, there is a new batch of layoffs in the industry.
All of this seems to paint a gloomy picture of an industry in crisis.
As a documentary filmmaker myself, I’ve often wondered about these trends and how emerging filmmakers, like many of us, are going to make a living and career telling these types of stories.
It’s scary to think about the industry's future because we need documentary filmmakers, maybe more now than ever. Nonfiction filmmaking is an immensely important way to shine a light on important social and political issues that have direct impacts on our world. These stories share beautiful real-world stories that draw us closer together, inspire us to take action on issues and teach us about the world around us.
Given this important work, why, then, are there so many people in our industry who feel uneasy about the future or struggle to make it through the present?
To be honest, I’m not quite sure at the moment. But over the next few months, I intend to find out. Which is where we circle back to the second part of this section—the future of the mid-week newsletter.
Starting on April 10th, I’ll be diving deep into the status of the documentary film industry. We’ll explore the latest research and commentary, discuss the latest news on acquisitions, and talk with other filmmakers about their experiences and perceptions of non-fiction filmmaking.
Through this series, I want to uncover the true status of nonfiction filmmaking and where our industry is going. This will hopefully help us better understand our careers, fields, and futures as documentary filmmakers.
This series will be released in an eight-episode (post) format over the course of a few months. It will be bi-weekly, offset with the other mid-week newsletters, which will continue to cover other current topics in the film industry.
If you’re interested in getting involved, feel free to send me a message via Substack. I would love to hear from fellow documentary filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals about your perspectives and knowledge of this topic.
Mid Week Updates
This week’s updates from the world of filmmaking…
Over 450 actors, producers, and industry members have signed an open letter condemning Jonathan Glazer’s speech about the Israel-Palestine conflict during his Zone of Interest Oscar acceptance speech.
Rumors are circulating that Aaron Taylor Johnson has been offered the role of the next James Bond, succeeding Daniel Craig.
OpenAI has announced that its text-to-video platform Sora will be publicly available later this year. Many experts indicate the programs need to have guardrails and regulations before public use.
The SXSW Festival came under criticism for airing a series of pro-AI commercials before a number of screenings at the event. In videos posted online, the screenings were filled with the sound of booing audience members during each commercial.
George Miller’s Furiousa released the second trailer for the film, showcasing the beloved director’s return to the Mad Max universe.
Egypt’s famous “Hollywood on the Nile” studio was caught in a mysterious fire in Cairo. According to officials, Al-Ahram Studio, which was founded in 1944, was burned to the ground nearly 24 hours after concluding production on a Ramadan TV series.
On Sunday evening, we’ll be back discussing topics that are helpful for both emerging filmmakers and other creatives, including…
🎞️ The Balancing Act Between Work and Mental Health
🎬 Finding Your Center - How To Work With Different Personalities
🗞️ A Few Films The Backlot Is Really Looking Forward to in 2024