We Bury the Dead selected to make world premiere at SXSW 2025
Screenwest is pleased to announce Western Australian survival thriller, We Bury the Dead has been selected to make its world premiere at the iconic South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas in March 2025.
Starring Daisy Ridley, (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens), Brenton Thwaites (Titans) and Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), We Bury the Dead is a gripping and emotional thriller set after a military experiment decimates the people of Tasmania.
Production took place across Albany and the Great Southern region in Western Australia last year.
Writer/director Zak Hilditch (1922, These Final Hours, Rattlesnake) has delivered a chilling, survival thriller that breathes new life into the apocalyptic zombie genre.
“It’s an absolute honour to have the film selected to SXSW this year. It’s such a cool festival and the perfect place to help launch We Bury the Dead in 2025. I also can’t wait to showcase Albany on the big screen over there in Austin. The town went out of their way to welcome us during the shoot, and this is such an awesome way to pay homage to everyone who helped us along the way.” said Zak Hilditch, Writer/Director.
Western Australian film, The Surfer starring Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario, Leaving Las Vegas) will also make its North American premiere at SXSW 2025, following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024.
Cage spent several weeks filming in Yallingup, known for its iconic beaches, in the South West of WA in 2023.
Nicolas Cage in The Surfer. Image: Radek Ladczuk.
The psychological thriller was made possible thanks to the State Government’s WA Production Attraction Incentive – Australia’s most competitive incentive, which is designed to attract high profile, market driven screen productions to the State.
“We are thrilled to see two Western Australian productions selected for such an iconic international festival. Both films were filmed entirely in WA with a majority WA crew, and We Bury the Dead was also written and directed by a WA writer/director, Zak Hilditch. Congratulations to both teams!” said Rikki Lea Bestall, Screenwest CEO.
We Bury the Dead and The Surfer will screen at SXSW in Austin, Texas during the festival which runs from 7-15 March 2025.
We Bury the Dead Production credit: We Bury the Dead is a Penguin Empire production in partnership with Campfire Studios. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screenwest, Lotterywest and the WA Regional Screen Fund. Local distribution by Umbrella Entertainment. International sales by NEON. Produced by Kelvin Munro and Grant Sputore of WA production company, The Penguin Empire (I Am Mother, The Furnace), alongside Hilditch’s frequent collaborator Ross Dinerstein (1922, Rattlesnake) of Campfire Studios in the US and Gramercy Park’s Joshua Harris and Mark Fasano. Nathan Klingher and Ford Corbett from Gramercy Park and Nicholas Erickson, Sean Fannan and D.J. Jiang from Giant Leap Media serve as executive producers. Ari Harrison and Jeff Harrison of Umbrella Entertainment are also executive producers.
The Surfer Production credit: The Surfer is an Australian-Irish Co-Production and is an Arenamedia, Lovely Productions and Tea Shop production with support from Screenwest through the Western Australian Production Attraction Incentive. The Surfer is a Stan Original Film, in partnership with Madman and CinemaPlus who will be releasing the film theatrically in Australia.
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