Olmo Schnabel's directorial debut PET SHOP DAYS screened as a Festival Favorite at SXSW 2024. The film stars Jack Irv and Darío Yazebek Bernal, alongside Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard and more.

Impulsive black sheep Alejandro (Bernal) and pet store employee Jack (Irv) enter a whirlwind romance that sends them down the rabbit hole of depravity in Manhattan’s underworld.

In an interview at SXSW with director Olmo Schnabel, actor Darío Yazebek Bernal, EP Jeremy O'Harris, here is what they had to say:

Can you tell us a little bit about the film? Was it difficult to get off the ground?

OLMO: It was a collaboration among friends, and yes was a difficult movie to make. Obviously when you’re not part of the industry and you’re doing something that might seem challenging or on the periphery of what people will accept, there is a lot of trial and error. It was a kind of search party to find the right producing partner to help me get this movie made. It wasn’t until I met Francesco Melzi d’Eril that I found a producer who was very excited and motivated to put this film together. I think because he’s from another cultural background, he was willing to take some risks. Whereas if you go meet with an agency or head of a studio in the US, they have a mandate to fill that this film didn’t fit into. Someone like Francesco is willing to bet on young filmmakers, and to take a risk. With Francesco I met Jeremy who was very instrumental. He helped me meet other people who were super useful for getting this out into the world. It was important to create a dialogue and have the support system I needed, because it wasn’t easy.

JEREMY: Olmo had worked a long time and garnered a lot of financing before I got involved. It was a real mountain to climb getting the movie made. Francesco is a great champion of Italian cinema and independent cinema. He’s worked a lot with Luca Guadagnino. I think that in Francesco, Olmo found a real partner who could read the universe he was building.  

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the story? Is it based on true events?

OLMO: Jack Irv, the lead in the movie who also co-wrote it, based it off a friendship he had with a friend of ours named Alejandro. In its core it’s based off a relationship he was very excited and surprised about. I believe it’s more of a fantasy of what they could do together than what they weren’t doing together. It’s a mixture between the attraction of a real relationship but also that kind of naïve childlike curiosity of what could happen if they went on this crazy adventure together. And Jack had that kind of spontaneous completely loose and free story that didn’t need to be hyper realistic. It was much more like if someth

I’ve only done about three useful things in my life – I would like to do more but having no talent for anything is a bit of a barrier. Still, if I can do one useful thing through this website then it’s to highlight great music that you might not otherwise find out about, and here’s my latest attempt. You won’t find a better score either on or off the beaten track lately than Stormskerry Maja, a Finnish period drama with music by Lauri Porra. If I tell you that he’s the great grandson of Sibelius and that the talent has clearly flowed down through the genes then hopefully that’s an exciting start, sorry, I mean an exciting Finnish.

The music is an outstanding effort, a portrait of a difficult and challenging life on a remote, stormy island but one which features numerous moments of exquisite beauty. Porra is clearly a master of the orchestra: whether it’s dark suspense/action music for the full symphonic breadth in a cue like “Imperial Entanglement” or a light shimmering breeze for string quartet in “We Are Married Now”, the emotional depth he gives this music is remarkable.

There’s a real meaning to the music – it’s written and performed with passion and not a note is wasted. In film music terms I think of Bernard Herrmann at his most romantic but really the comparison should be with classical music (I’m too much of an ignoramus to say exactly what). Listen to the cello dancing in the three “Cello Interludes” – the soaring, powerful “Bonfire” – the gentle piano of “Firstborn”. Best of all, I think, the pair of tracks called “Driftwood” – the first presenting a theme for piano and string quartet, the second the same theme for the full orchestra – it’s a dazzlingly beautiful, virtuoso display of emotional writing and playing, quite the highpoint. Porra’s music is genuinely brilliant and I couldn’t recommend this one more highly – it’s only March but I’d be amazed if this doesn’t end up on lots of people’s best-of lists come the end of the year, if only they hear it.

Go For Grandma is a short film in which a boy is allowed to escape the horrors of his home life by listening to stories told by his grandma, stories of dragons and unicorns and fantasy worlds. Fabrizio Mancinelli’s delightful score takes as its inspiration the classic fantasy scores of the 1980s and is everything you might want a score of that description to be. Warm, melodic orchestral music is the order of the day – the emotional main theme is playful and heroic and that’s just the start.

The composer’s score is essentially a series of mini episodes – each piece doing something new, from the brassy blast of “Alone in NYC” through the twinkly “Magic is Real” (which sounds exactly like you might expect it to) and the incredibly warm-hearted “Grandma’s Painting”. It’s not quite all joy and happiness – there’s a little edge to some of the action later on – and that makes it all the more well-rounded. It’s a short score, but it’s as big a short score as you could imagine – think Alan Silvestri, think Bruce Broughton, nothing specific but that style. Definitely one to check out.

Until We Meet Again is a 2022 film whose score has only just been issued. A mixture of ghost story, romance and music, it sounds like it must have been a great palette on which the composer, Emir

The SXSW Film & TV Festival announces winners across various categories, including Narrative Feature Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, Design Awards, and Special Awards during the annual Film & TV Awards ceremony. Short Film Program winners, eligible for Jury Awards, and Film and TV categories eligible for Audience Awards, will be certified by Maxwell Locke & Ritter.

Meet the 2024 Jurors for this year’s Narrative and Documentary Feature competitions, Shorts Programs, Music Videos, Poster Design, and XR competitions.

Explore the complete list of 2024 winners for the 31st SXSW Film & TV Festival announced during the Film & TV Awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 13. Stay tuned to sxsw.com for the announcement of Audience Awards winners following the event's conclusion.

SXSW is proud to be an official qualifying festival for the Academy Awards® Short Film competition. Winners of our Best Animated, Best Narrative and Best Documentary Short Film categories become eligible for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards (Oscars). Any British Short Film or British Short Animation that screens at SXSW is eligible for BAFTA nomination. Films are also eligible for the Independent Spirit Awards.

2024 Winners

FEATURE FILM GRAND JURY AWARDS
NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION
Jury Award Winner: Bob Trevino Likes It
Director/Screenwriter: Tracie Laymon, Producers: Tracie Laymon, Sean Mullin, Edgar Rosa, Felipe Dieppa

Special Jury Award for Performance: Maria Rodríguez Soto, Mamifera

Special Jury Award for Filmmaking: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, We Were Dangerous

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
Jury Award Winner: Grand Theft Hamlet
Directors/Screenwriters: Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane, Producers: Rebecca Wolff, Julia Ton

Special Jury Award for Bravery and Empathy: Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons, We Can Be Heroes

SHORT FILM COMPETITION GRAND JURY AWARDS
Presented by You42

Jury Award Winner: Dissolution
Director/Screenwriter: Anthony Saxe, Producers: Thomas Lopez, Anthony Saxe

Special Jury Award: Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz, Trapped

Documentary Short Competition
Jury Award Winner: Remember, Broken Crayons Colour Too
Directors/Screenwriters: Shannet Clemmings, Urša Kastelic, Producers: Filippo Bonacci, Gabriel Grosclaude

Special Jury Award Winner: David Gauvey Herbert, Frank

Midnight Shorts Competition
Jury Award Winner: Transylvanie
Director: Rodrigue Huart, Screenwriters: Rodrigue Huart, David Alexander Cassan, Axel Würsten, Producer: Lucie Vigier

Special Jury Award Winner: Eros V, Meat Puppet

Animated Shorts Competition
Jury Award Winner: Wander to Wonder
Director: Nina Gantz, Screenwriters: Nina Gantz, Simon Cartwright, Daan Bakker, Stienette Bosklopper

Special Jury Award Winner: Phoebe Jane Hart, Bug Diner

Music Video Competition
Jury Award Winner: Célen - 'Mom told you so'
Director/Screenwriter: Cécile Cournelle

Special Jury Award for Technical Wizardry: Joe Nicolosi, The Burning Hell - 'All I Need'

Texas Shorts Competition
Jury Award Winner: Jedo's Dead
Director/Screenwriter: Sara Nimeh, Producers: Michael Mittelstaedt, Jeff Walker, Ellyn Church

Special Jury Award: Fatima Wardy, Hair Care

Independent TV Pilot Competition
Jury Award Winner: Marvin Is Sorry
Showrunners/Screenwriters: Brett Morrow, Alex Gehrlein, Jack Gacek, Director: Clint Pang

Special Jury Award: Zeke Nicholson, Halfrican American

Poster Design Competition
Jury Award Winner: 7 Beats Per Min

Amazon Studios’ upcoming romantic comedy Música from writer/director Rudy Mancuso, starring Mancuso and Camila Mendes. 

Música held its world premiere on March 13 at SXSW, and will stream globally on Prime Video from April 4.

Loosely based on his own experiences, Mancuso stars as Rudy, a soon-to-be college graduate and street performer living with his mom (portrayed by his real-life mother, Maria Mancuso) in the Ironbound District of Newark, New Jersey, who experiences synesthesia which manifests as hearing rhythms within quotidian sounds. Already feeling stuck in life – between his seemingly futile passion for music and performing, the long-term relationship with a girlfriend (Reale) who has very different plans for the future than he does, and his mother who puts pressure on him to find and commit to a Brazilian girl as soon as possible – things become more complicated when he meets the enthralling Isabella (Mendes) at his local fish market.

With Música (his debut film), Mancuso crafts a colorful, charming, and laugh-out-loud funny love triangle saga informed by a deep appreciation of his Brazilian culture. Also serving as composer and choreographer, Mancuso embellishes his earnest story with a playful score to creatively convey to viewers the cacophony he constantly hears in his head from commonplace objects. Mancuso and Mendes are a couple in real life as well, adding to their off-the-charts chemistry onscreen.

Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (Charlie Hamilton James, 2024) 4½ out of 5 stars There are few wild animals as cute as otters. I will fight anyone who disagrees. With their expressive faces, playful demeanor, and rich fur coat, they charm those fortunate enough to spot them in their natural habitat. In some […]