We Need to Talk About Oscar

Canadian filmmaker Chandler Levack follows up her critically acclaimed debut 'I Like Movies,' with not one but two films releasing on the same day: 'Mile End Kicks,' her most personal work yet, and 'Roommates,' her first time directing someone else's script for Netflix. She reflects on whether there's a recognizable signature that shows up in both regardless of whose story she's telling or what the budget looks like.
We explore the distance Chandler found through gender reversal in 'I Like Movies' versus the raw exposure of 'Mile End Kicks,' where Barbie Ferreira wears her actual SPIN Magazine T-shirts from her days as a music critic. She discusses navigating the casting process when the character is essentially herself, and whether there was a moment that felt too exposed. Having written the script a decade ago, she shares how making 'I Like Movies' first transformed what 'Mile End Kicks' ultimately became.
Turning to 'Roommates,' Chandler explains what drew her to directing someone else's words for a studio after building a career on intensely personal films. She examines how directing without the full backstory of every line requires developing a different kind of ownership, and whether the leap from microbudget indie to Happy Madison Netflix production altered her approach in practical ways. With three feature films now in her filmography, she considers where her work might head next.
(Photo: Courtesy of Jeremy Cox)

‘Bunnylovr’ is out in theaters today. Premiering at Sundance in January 2025 as part of the US Dramatic Competition, writer-director-star Katarina Zhu’s debut feature follows Becca, a Chinese-American cam girl in New York navigating a toxic relationship with a mysterious client while quietly trying to reconnect with her estranged, dying father.
This is our conversation with Katarina and her cinematographer Daisy Zhou, their first collaboration together. The admiration between them is palpable throughout, two people who clearly found something rare in each other on their first project. We open with how they connected and what drew each of them to the material, before getting into what it means to direct and perform simultaneously and how that shapes the set from both sides of the camera.
From there the conversation moves into the heart of the film: how Katarina built Becca as a character who moves between very private digital spaces and the more grounded textures of everyday life without ever splitting into two different people, and how Daisy translated those shifts into a visual language where each space carries its own feeling while still belonging to the same film.
(Photos: Courtesy of Katarina Zhu)

Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, the comedy duo known as BriTANicK, brought two feature films to SXSW 2026: 'Pizza Movie,' which they wrote and directed, and 'Over Your Dead Body,' which they adapted for Jorma Taccone to direct. They reflect on their sketch comedy roots and whether anything they'd done before approached narrative filmmaking, plus how they regard sketches within the broader realm of cinema. The pair also share how their festival weekend turned out, juggling two premieres and a live comedy show.
Our conversation explores how their dynamic as performers translates behind the camera, and the mechanics of escalation in 'Pizza Movie,' a film that constantly heightens the stakes. They discuss whether that comes from instinct or structure, and how they think about audience experience now that it's heading to Hulu after theatrical screenings.
We turn to 'Over Your Dead Body,' examining what writing for someone else to direct feels like versus helming their own work, and how they approached "Americanizing" a 2021 Norwegian film while navigating what to touch and what to leave alone. Having been candid about their creative differences over the years, they consider whether the partnerships depicted, roommates in one film and a married couple in the other, mirror anything about how they actually collaborate.
(Photo: Courtesy of Disney and Brett Roedel)

Writer-director-star Matthew Shear took home the SXSW Audience Award for 'Fantasy Life,' with Amanda Peet earning a Special Jury Award for her performance. Matthew reflects on what this double recognition means for a film drawn so directly from his own experience, and whether the script could have been directed by anyone else given how personal it is.
Drawing on his acting background with directors like Noah Baumbach and M. Night Shyamalan, Matthew identifies where he consciously chose his own path versus where he unknowingly broke from what he'd learned. He tackles his frustration with mental health narratives that sensationalize crisis rather than depicting the reality of living with mental illness.
Matthew shares his approach to working with an intergenerational cast of Jewish New Yorkers including Bob Balaban and Judd Hirsch, letting their natural rhythms and comic instincts surface. He also examines how the film explores a particular vision of Jewish American success and what he's learned about that ideal through making and sharing this deeply personal work.
(Photo: Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

Writer-director-star Aisha Evelyna builds on her 2024 short 'Nola' with 'Seahorse,' expanding the story of the same titular character to feature length. Aisha reflects on the jump from short to feature and her evolving collaboration with Natalie Remplakowski, who co-directed the short and now produces the feature. She shares how they navigated dividing responsibilities as their partnership transformed.
We explore the challenge of balancing roles in front of and behind the camera. Aisha discusses how she reconciles her presence as both director and star, and who makes the final call on whether a take works when those two roles might disagree. She addresses capturing authentic restaurant kitchen atmosphere on a low budget in an era when audiences have become familiar with that world through shows like 'The Bear,' and her deliberate approach to using flashbacks as a storytelling device.
Aisha gets candid about how work-life balance functions when your life and feelings are embedded in the work itself, revealing the complex reality of transforming personal pain into cinema where the boundaries between artist and art dissolve entirely.