Cooper Raiff To Get Long-Overdue SXSW Bow As Apple Sets His Sundance Prize Winner ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ For Austin Fest

EXCLUSIVE: Two years removed from his debut film Shithouse winning the top prize at SXSW the year that fest became the first one canceled by the Covid pandemic, writer-director Cooper Raiff finally will get his moment to take a bow in Austin.

Apple, which acquired Raiff’s Sundance Audience Award-winning follow-up Cha Cha Real Smooth for $15 million, has set that film as one of five titles that the streamer will send to SXSW. Cha Cha Real Smooth will get a SXSW screening Friday, March 18, followed by a conversation with the cast and filmmakers. The cast didn’t have the ability to do that in January when Sundance went virtual because of the Omicron spike. 

Sundance Review: Dakota Johnson And Writer/Director/Star Cooper Raiff In ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

“It’s so exciting to be able to add two wonderful new titles to the lineup for the 2022 Film Festival as part of the outstanding selection of wide-ranging work that Apple TV+ is bringing to SXSW this year,” said Janet Pierson, VP-Director of Film at SXSW. “Not only did we fall in love with Cha Cha Real Smooth at Sundance, we jumped at the chance to finally host SXSW 2020 Grand Prize Award-winning filmmaker Cooper Raiff for his first in-person festival premiere ever with this new film. The Big Conn is a riveting, fascinating limited series we know our audience will embrace.”

Apple has also added to the SXSW roster the global premiere of The Big Conn, the four-part docu on Eric C. Conn and his theft of more than $500 million from Social Security coffers, a series by the makers of McMillion$. Apple also is bringing the previously announced SXSW premieres WeCrashed, the eight-episode series from Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello about WeWork that stars Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway; the four-part Magic Johnson documentary They Call Me Magic; and the Elizabeth Moss-Wagner Moura starrer Shining Girls.