Lily Sullivan in Monolith.

Australian sci-fi thriller Monolith starring rising star Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, I Met a Girl, Picnic at Hanging Rock) will have its international premiere at SXSW 2023 and has locked ANZ distribution and international sales. XYZ Films is now representing the title for North America, with Bonsai Films handling Australian distribution. Blue Finch Films have boarded the film for international sales. Monolith will have its international premiere as part of SXSW’s Midnighters section after having screened at Adelaide Film Festival in 2022.

In this taut, contained mystery, we follow a disgraced journalist (Sullivan) as she tries to salvage her career by turning to investigative podcasting. Whilst trying to get to bottom of a strange artefact that may be linked to an alien conspiracy, she begins to uncover the lies at the heart of her own story.

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Monolith was developed and produced through the FilmLab: New Voices program, an initiative run by the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival, financed with the assistance of Screen Australia, designed to develop and elevate first time South Australian feature filmmakers. Monolith was directed by Matt Vesely, written by Lucy Campbell and produced by Bettina Hamilton and was filmed across a three-week period in one location in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills. Completed at the end of 2022, Monolith is the first film to come out of the FilmLab: New Voices program with the second round currently in development.

Keep an eye on cinemaaustralia.com.au for future screenings in Australia.