Inuit filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk’s much-anticipated Slash/Back is among the Canadian projects heading to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

Innuksuk directed and co-wrote the Artic-set sci-fi thriller (pictured) from Scythia Films, produced by Dan Bekerman, Christopher Yurkovich, Alex Ordanis, Innuksuk, Stacey Aglok MacDonald, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Ethan Lazar. Mongrel Media is listed as the Canadian distributor and Sierra Affinity as the sales agent at SXSW.

The story of group of teen Inuk girls who fight off an alien invasion while trying to make it to a party will make its world premiere in the Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW, which runs March 11 to 19 in Austin. The feature adds to a growing canon of Indigenous futurism films coming out of Canada, after Jeff Barnaby’s zombie horror Blood Quantum and Danis Goulet’s dystopian drama Night Raiders. Ryan Cavan is the other screenwriter on Slash/Back, which stars Tasiana Shirley, Alexis Wolfe, Chelsea Prusky, Frankie Vincent-Wolfe and Nalajoss Ellsworth.

Making its world premiere in the Narrative Spotlight section is the Canadian drama Stay The Night from director/screenwriter/executive producer Renuka Jeyapalan and producers Brian Robertson (Low End) and Glenn Cockburn. Kim’s Convenience cast member Andrea Bang is among the stars in the story of a reserved and chronically single woman who who makes a connection with a professional athlete in Toronto. Other cast members include Joe Scarpellino, Humberly González and Ray Ablack.

Other Canuck projects making their world premiere at the festival include Prime Video’s upcoming docuseries Kids In The Hall: Comedy Punks from director Reginald Harkema and producers Nick McKinney and Kim Creelman. The two-part documentary produced by Blue Ant Studios chronicles the journey of the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids In The Hall.

In the Visions section featuring risk-taking new cinema is the Canadian experimental documentary Self-Portrait from director/screenwriter/producer Joële Walinga (Soft Studio), which is woven together as a poem as is explores humanity through surveillance cameras.

Everything Will Be All Right from director/screenwriter/producer Farhad Pakdel (Mise En Abyme) is in the Narrative Shorts Competition. The story features a young drama teacher in Montreal who has been keeping a secret from her family and finds herself in a predicament after her father falls ill of COVID-19 back home in the Middle East. The cast includes Nahéma Ricci, Abdelghafour Elaaziz, Dina Renon, Éloïse Tanguay Simard, Sophie Shields-Rivard, Noah-Maël Coderre and Nour Belkhiria.

Premiering in Midnight Shorts is Horse Brothers from directors/screenwriters/producers Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco. Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg) and Mitrovic (Tapeworm) star in the story of two paranoid brothers consumed with murderous fantasies after a horse convinces them that they are enemies.

Several other Canadian titles that are not world premieres are also in the lineup: Something Undone (4AM Film Studios) from director Nicole Dorsey, screenwriters Michael Musi and Madison Walsh, and producers Max Topplin and Jordan Hayes; Belle River from directors/screenwriters Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau and Yannick Nolin, along with producer Jean-Pierre Vézina; Nalujuk Night from director/screenwriter Jennie Williams and producers Latonia Hartery, Kat Baulu and Rohan Fernando; Nuisance Bear by directors Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden, produced by Jack Weisman; and Angakuksajaujuq – The Shaman’s Apprentice, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and co-written by him along with Jonathan Frantz. It’s produced by Kunuk and Frantz as well as Nadia Mike and Neil Christopher.

Image courtesy of Scythia Films