Adobe Creative Cloud tools power top films at SXSW 2023

Glitter celebration texture. Golden stream with particles. Abstract background with magic lights and sparks.

Image credit: Adobe Stock/Sergii.

The 2023 South by Southwest Festival just wrapped, and Adobe is excited to share that a majority of the films premiering at the festival this year used Adobe Creative Cloud tools to bring their stories to life.

The horror feature Appendage, premiering exclusively at SXSW before it hits Hulu later this year, relied on the Creative Cloud suite, including Adobe Premiere Pro Productions, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop to edit the film and to create the VFX that brought the titular character to life.

Editor Alex Familian states, “It was awesome that Premiere Pro offered us all the tools we needed to get quick results that looked great without having to send anything to a VFX house.”

Over in the doc world, editor Meredith Perry used Premiere Pro to make important stylistic editing choices to maintain the security of the film’s participants in the documentary Plan C, which also debuted at Sundance this year and takes a look at the organization fighting to expand access to at-home abortion pills before, during, and after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Frame.io was also crucial to protecting participants’ privacy while enabling the team to share footage for review.

Said Perry, “Disappearing links in Frame.io made it possible to have control over who had access to our footage and for how long, and they were clutch as we strove to protect the heroes in our film.”

SXSW has long been a launchpad for some of the biggest films and series of the year. Last year, SXSW was the first to debut awards season darling Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was took home 7 Academy Awards, including Best Film Editing and Best Picture, at this year’s Oscars ceremony. Editor Paul Rogers relied on Premiere Pro, After Effects and Frame.io to cut the film.

Hear from some of this year’s festival filmmakers who used Premiere Pro, After Effects, Frame.io, and more Creative Cloud tools to cut their projects:

Still image from Appendage.

Image source: 20th Digital Studio/Hulu.

Still image from I Used to be Funny.

Image source: I Used To Be Funny Still.

Still image from Going Varisty in Mariachi.

Image source: Going Varsity in Mariachi Still.

Still image from Molli and Max.

Images source: Michael Litwak.

Still image from The Long Game.

Image source: The Long Game Still.

Still image from Black Barbie: A Documentary.

Image source: Black Barbie: A Documentary.