South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.
Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."
Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.
Pinny Grylls is a British documentary filmmaker. She is known for co-directing Grand Theft Hamlet, a 2024 feature documentary shot exclusively inside a video game, with Sam Crane. The film won the Best Documentary Jury Prize at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.
Benjamin Jeffrey Steinbauer is an American director, showrunner, writer, and producer who directed the feature documentary Winnebago Man (2009). Steinbauer also directed the documentary Chop & Steele (2022), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was the showrunner and director of the episodic television show High Hopes for Jimmy Kimmel's Kimmelot. He directed the PBS show Stories of the Mind, and the CBS docuseries, Pink Collar Crimes.
Brett Gaylor is a Canadian documentary filmmaker living in Victoria, British Columbia. He grew up on Galiano Island, British Columbia. He was formerly the VP of Mozilla's Webmaker Program. His documentary, Do Not Track, explores privacy and the web economy.
Chel White is an American film director, composer, screenwriter and visual effects artist. In his independent films and music videos, White is known for his stylized, often experimental use of images, unusual animation and narratives depicting an outsider's perspective. He often adopts darkly humorous and poetic sensibilities to explore topics of love, obsession and alienation; with dreams and the subconscious being his greatest influences. He describes his own work as “stories and images that reside on the brink of dreams, or linger on the periphery of distorted memories.” A Rockefeller Fellow, Chel White has made three films based on the work of Peabody Award-winning writer and radio personality Joe Frank.
Mumbhai Connection is a 2011 Hindi-language film shot entirely in Atlanta, USA. The film was set to release theatrically in August 2014 It is directed by Atlanta Nagendra, who also wrote the screenplay. It is produced by Abbas Moloo, Nawal Parwal, Sathya Narayanan and Rafiq Batcha. The music director is Praveen Duth Stephen.
"Sheila Ki Jawani" is an Indian Hindi-language song sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Vishal Dadlani, featuring Katrina Kaif along with Akshay Kumar in the 2010 Bollywood film Tees Maar Khan. The music was composed by composer duo Vishal–Shekhar and the lyrics were penned by Dadlani. The moves were choreographed by choreographer-director Farah Khan, who went on to win the Filmfare award for best choreography for the film.
Sanjoy Deb, known primarily by his stage name Sanjoy, is an American musician, electronic music producer and DJ. He primarily produces in the EDM genre and is influenced by Bollywood.
Josh Greenbaum is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has won an MTV Movie Award, CINE Golden Eagle and Emmy Award. He directed the feature documentary The Short Game, winner of the SXSW Audience Award, which was acquired by Netflix to launch their Originals film division. He also directed Becoming Bond, a documentary about George Lazenby, which won SXSW's Audience Award in the Visions category, as well as the critically acclaimed Too Funny to Fail, a documentary about The Dana Carvey Show. He is also the creator, director and executive producer of Behind the Mask, which earned Hulu its first ever Emmy nomination. He made his narrative feature debut with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.
7 Days in Syria is a 2015 American documentary film directed and produced by Robert Rippberger. Filmed in November 2012, it captures the human side of war and what life is like in Syria for the millions trying to escape. The film has played in over 50 cities worldwide, on television in Denmark, Sweden, and China, to Angelina Jolie, to senior members of the United Nations, and at Britain's House of Lords. The film was released internationally by Ro*co films, throughout North America by Gunpowder & Sky, by Gathr films for theatrical-on-demand, and online through Hulu.
Alive and Kicking is a 2016 American documentary film about swing dancing, its origins in Harlem, and its rebirth starting in the 1990s. It is directed/produced by Susan Glatzer. The film premiered at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival and was subsequently acquired by Magnolia Pictures. The executive producers were Jason Blum and Robert Rippberger.
Sunny Moza is an Indian actor who made his debut with the TV series Bhabhi (2004) and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2004). He is known for his performance as the lead actor in the Bollywood music video "Ab Laut Aa" (2013) and as the TV host in the reality show Dance USA Dance (2017). His notable roles as an actor include the films Kurse (2008), According to Plan A (2012), Yellow (2015), Babru (2019) and Songs of Silence (2020).
Strive is a 2019 American independent coming-of-age drama film. Set in Harlem, the film tells the story of Kalani Johnson (JoiStaRR), a driven 18-year-old high school student who dreams of getting accepted into Yale University while facing the challenging life in the projects and streets of Harlem - with her only ally being college counselor Mr. Rose.
For Sama is a 2019 documentary film produced and narrated by Waad Al-Kateab, and directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. The film focuses on Waad Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian uprising. Her husband is Hamza al-Kateab, one of the few doctors left in Aleppo, and they raise their daughter Sama Al-Kateab during the Syrian Civil War.
Nicolas Blies, born on 26 September 1981 in Mulhouse (France), and Stéphane Hueber-Blies, born on 18 August 1976 in Mulhouse (France), also called the Blies brothers, are two French filmmakers, producers and artists who create their works together. They are known for writing and directing the feature film Zero Impunity which was in official feature film competition at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2019.
Waad Al-Kateab is the pseudonym of a Syrian journalist, filmmaker, and activist. Her documentary, For Sama (2019), was nominated for four BAFTAs at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards, winning for Best Documentary, and was also nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards. Her coverage of the Battle for Aleppo won an International Emmy Award for Current Affairs & News for Channel 4 News. The pseudonymous surname Al-Kateab is used to protect her family.
Em Cooper is a British filmmaker and animator. She is best known for her distinctive hand-painted oil-paint animation style and as the director of the oil-painted music video for The Beatles song I'm Only Sleeping released on 1st November 2022 and created with over 1300 of Cooper's oil paintings.
Public Enemy Number One is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Robert Rippberger and produced by Rippberger, Chris Chiari, and Ice-T. It looks at the war on drugs from 1968 until today and looks at trigger points in history that took cannabis from being a somewhat benign criminal activity into a self-perpetuating constantly expanding policy disaster. The film won Best Documentary Feature at the Seattle Film Festival, and Storyteller Award and Best Producer at Doc LA - Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival. It was released on various over-the-top media services after a limited theatrical release.
