The 26th annual South by Southwest Film Festival, which returns to Austin, Texas, March 8–16, has announced the works selected to premiere as part of its features and episodic lineup.
Several notable theatre actors and writers are on this year’s features slate.
Olympic Dreams, a new film from Nick Kroll (Oh, Hello! Broadway), Alexi Pappas, and Jeremy Teicher, is the first scripted film shot in an Athlete Village during the Olympic Games. Kroll, Pappas, and Gus Kenworthy also star.
Marchánt Davis, Anna Kendrick, Danielle Brooks, and Tony winner Denis O’Hare appear in The Day Shall Come, about an impoverished preacher who is offered cash to save his family from eviction. Meanwhile, he has no idea his sponsor works for the FBI who plan to turn him into a criminal by fueling his revolutionary dreams.
A Raisin in the Sun Tony winner Sophie Okonedo is featured alongside Jessie Buckley and Julie Walters in screenwriter Nicole Tailor’s Wild Rose, about a musician from Glasgow with dreams of becoming a Nashville star.
Dear Evan Hansen Tony winner Ben Platt is among the cast of director-screenwriter Ricky Tollman’s Run This Down, about a political aide and a newspaper researcher who find themselves sitting on top of a scandal that could make or break both of their careers.
On the episodic front is David Makes Man, a new work from Moonlight Oscar winner and Choir Boy playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. Inspired by events from McCraney’s own life, a 14-year-old prodigy from the projects is haunted by the death of his closest friend. The work also stars Akili McDowell, Nathaniel McIntyre, Isaiah Johnson, Ade Chike Torbert, Cayden Williams, Jordan Bolger, Travis Coles, Phylicia Rashad, and Alana Arenas.
Hedwig Tony winner John Cameron Mitchell is among the cast of Shrill, a new episodic from showrunner Alexandra Rushfield, and co-writers Kindy West and Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant, who stars as Annie. Shrill centers on a heavy young woman who wants to change her life—but not her body. Annie is trying to start her career while juggling bad boyfriends, a sick parent, and a perfectionist boss.
