The Biggest Breakthroughs from the SXSW Film Festival

Serious question: Where would Lena Dunham be without the SXSW Film Festival?

If not for the 2010 SXSW premiere of her debut indie feature, Tiny Furniture, Dunham could very well be living Hannah Horvath's Girls life right about now, only without millions of people watching every week, and, you know, as Lena Dunham, not Hannah Horvath. But like everyone else in Hollywood and the independent film community who've benefited from the festival's impact, Dunham is a telltale example of the annual Austin gathering's career-making powers.

The Complex Pop Culture team spent eight cinema-crammed days in that liberal Texas city for this year's SXSW Film Fest, and what were the biggest takeaways? While it's too soon to predict who'll be the next Lena Dunham from 2014's crop of SXSW standouts, there was no shortage of high-caliber talent both in front of and behind the camera.

For the best of the lost, let us introduce you to The Biggest Breakthroughs From the SXSW Film Festival.

For more of Complex Pop Culture's SXSW coverage, click here.

RELATED: The Best Movies Complex Saw at SXSW

SXSW's 2014 Midnighters lineup wasn't lacking in indie genre prestige. French co-directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were there with Among the Living, the follow-up to their two previous festival favorites, Inside and Livid; Adam Wingard was back at SXSW with The Guest after last year's You're Next screened in Austin in 2013; Daniel Stamm switched gears from the found-footage hit The Last Exorcism for 13 Sins; and Eduardo Sanchez, one of the The Blair Witch Project's makers, arrived in Austin with his new found-footage Bigfoot movie, Exists.

Among those established genre names, though, stood Leigh Janiak, a first-time filmmaker and the midnight lineup's lone female voice. And, as it turned out, Janiak's film, Honeymoon, was one of the best Midnighters entries, by far.

Tapping into her love of science fiction, Janiak's intimate two-hander centers on a married couple (Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway) confronting their love's disintegration and otherworldly threats while on a supposed-to-be romantic weekend getaway in the woods. More interested in character than scares, Janiak develops Honeymoon's scares, of which there are plenty, through a somber, macabre mood. The film's freaky elements sneak up on you and remain ambiguous enough to remain unsettling but also definitive enough to feel satisfying.

It's a remarkable debut that's more refined and confident than most movies made by seasoned veterans. -Matt Barone

Audiences have sky-high expectations of HBO's new series, Silicon Valley, and it's all creator Mike Judge's fault. Had Office Space sucked and King of the Hill been canceled after a few episodes, the series wouldn't be in this predicament. However, after seeing it at SXSW, Judge fans can rest assured: Silicon Valley is everything you want and more.

Comedians T.J.. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Josh Brener, and Zach Woods form the hilarious nerd herd in the California capitol of technology working to get the start-up, Pied Piper, up and running. But the star of the show is unarguably Thomas Middleditch's Richard, a Mark Zuckberg-meets-Seth-Cohen-type genius who comes up with the most sought-after code in the Valley. He's the perfect balance between endearing, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and socially awkward, making him a true delight to watch on screen. —Tara Aquino

It's impossible to take your eyes off Sophia Takal when she's on the screen. In Wild Canaries, she buzzes with such excited, manic energy that you feel like the whole rhythm of the movie is dependent on her. And in a way, it is. The film follows her character Barri, who leads her fiance and her friends on a wild goose chase for a potential murderer in their apartment building.

Watching Takal, she's got the sweetness of Audrey Hepburn and ferocity of Katharine Hepburn, which is perfect for a film that feels like a love letter to old screwball comedies. It's only a matter of time before Hollywood swoops her up.—Tara Aquino

It's very likely that you've seen David Dastmalchian and Kim Shaw before. In addition to a creepy turn in last year's Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Prisoners, Dastmalchian was also in a little superhero movie called The Dark Knight, playing Joker's goon whom Batman grills for questioning after the assassination attempt on Jim Gordon. Shaw, meanwhile, was in the 2010 comedy She's Out of My League and has popped up in TV shows like Anger Management, The Good Wife, and Two and a Half Men.

If cinematic justice prevails, you'll be seeing a lot more of them in years to come. The reason: their superb performances in Animals, the winner of SXSW's Special Jury Recognition for Courage in Storytelling. Dastmalchian, for his part, also wrote the script.

They play Bobbie and Jude, a young couple keeping their love going through through the seemingly insurmountable odds of homelessness and drug addiction. With naturalistic chemistry, Dastmalchian and Shaw embody one of the most simultaneously heartbreaking and endearing on-screen couples in some time. -Matt Barone

Co-directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch asked a lot from actress Alexandra Essoe in the horror film Starry Eyes. Essentially a honed-in study of one character's mental and physical deterioration, Starry Eyes lives and dies on Essoe's performance as aspiring Hollywood starlet Sara Walker. And it's because of Essoe's steady command and multi-faceted range that the dark, stylish, and at times ultra-violent SXSW Midnighters highlight works so damn well.

Essoe begins Starry Eyes as an insecure lost soul drifting through Los Angeles, failing one audition after another and physically hurting herself to deal with the pain. As the film progresses, the character descends deeper and deeper into moral degradation and, for all you David Cronenberg lovers out there, revolting body horror.

As much a dark comedy as it is a confrontational horror movie, Starry Eyes seesaws between those tones—you get the feeling that its proverbial wheels could fall off at any minute, but Essoe keeps the craziness grounded. Whether you're laughing or feeling assaulted, she's always there to make your reactions substantial. -Matt Barone

The world needs more Andre Hyland. As it stands, the dude is the funniest comedian no one's ever heard of. Who else can make your abs hurt in laughter with an seven-minute short that's all just him talking on the phone while walking from a Speedway store to his car? Never for a second do you find yourself checking out of his exceptional short Funnel. In fact, by the end of it, all you want is an extra couple minutes.

Hyland's been grinding for over a decade now, and has even released his own web series, Hollywood and Hyland, but thanks to Funnel's success, the guy is probably fielding major studio offers as you read this. —Tara Aquino

As difficult as it is to forget a peculiar name like Scoot McNairy, it'll be even harder to forget the actor once you've seen him in Halt and Catch Fire. AMC's new show about a trio who competes to put out their own PC during the '80s computer boom, McNairy plays Gordon Clark, the tortured brains behind the operation. While Lee Pace plays the face of the company and Mackenzie Davis takes on the role of the no-nonsense prodigy, it's Clark who's most responsible for the manual labor.

McNairy's become a familiar face, thanks to supporting roles in 12 Years a Slave and the underseen Killing Them Softly. But now, his talent is front and center, as it should be. He wafts between reluctant businessman to responsible family man from one scene to the next so effortlessly that it's easy to forget McNairy's acting a part. —Tara Aquino

The stars of the Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Narrative Feature, on-screen BFFs Bridey Elliot and Claire McNulty have unquestionable chemistry. It's no wonder that the duo is being compared to Romy and Michele, as the strength of their feature film lies in their ability to make you laugh even in the most cringe-worthy situations.

If there's one revelation about this film it's this: Elliot and McNulty are two gifted comedic talents the world should look out for. —Tara Aquino

Downton Abbey fans will likely see that face above and start crying. It's been over a year since Dan Stevens' character, Matthew Crawley, unexpectedly died on the BBC period drama series, yet the scars remain.

It's all good, though—Stevens is about to become a big-time movie star. At least, that's what should happen once people see his dominating performance in The Guest, the new genre hybrid film from You're Next director Adam Wingard. Owning the film with a presence that's equal parts Ryan Gosling and Jason Statham, Stevens plays David, an Army soldier visiting the family of one of dead military friends, doing his best to make their lives better but, eventually, destroying everything in his past due to the major secret he's been hiding.

Stevens' work in The Guest hits all the necessary attention-grabbing beats. He maneuvers around Winagrd's elaborate, brutal action scenes and fight choreography like a nimble UFC all-star; he has one of those Gosling-in-Crazy-Stupid-Love shirtless moments that'll leave women trembling; and he delivers lines with a cool-guy charm that lands somewhere between a young Tom Cruise and present-day Vin Diesel.

Yup, he's come a long way from the stodgy Downton Abbey universe. It's easy to imagine The Guest's David backhanding Matthew Crawley without breaking a sweat. -Matt Barone

Chances are, Harry Treadaway fans—meaning, those who've seen and liked him in British films like Control and Fish Tank—anticipated a Hollywood breakthrough last year, when the young English actor landed a plum role in The Lone Ranger. But, yeah, that didn't work out so well for anyone involved.

At this year's SXSW, though, Treadaway bounced back in grand fashion with standout roles in two of the festival's splashiest genre project premieres. Initially beneath most attendees' radars, the sci-fi/horror breakout film Honeymoon showed that Treadaway has sufficient leading man abilities, impressively balancing vulnerability with chilling paranoia as a husband trying to figure out why his wife's acting unlike herself.

That on-screen duality was also present in Showtime's Penny Dreadful, the pilot for which was unveiled in Austin and gave audience members a good sense of what Treadaway will bring to the key role of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. -Matt Barone

Zachary Wigon gets it—"it" being the way technology can manipulate relationships, the way it distorts how we communicate with each other, the way it twists our sense of self. His debut feature film, The Heart Machine, an expanded version of the short he made a couple years ago called Someone Else's Heart, follows a man who begins to suspect that his online girlfriend, who claims she's in Berlin, actually lives in the same city as him. Essentially, it's perfect for the world right now.

Wigon impressively maintains the key air of mystery so clutch in the film through simply allowing the camera to linger and the characters' faces to tell the story. None of his directions feel forced or contrived. Rather, the camera serves as a window to peek into a man's unraveling world. Because of this, The Heart Machine stays with you, forcing you to think about the film's implications days after seeing it. —Tara Aquino

It's surprising that not many people are talking about Margaret Brown, a woman we're going to pin as the next indie film darling turned Oscar winner. Her Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt scores a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and is regarded as one of the best music films made. Four years later, The Order of Myths earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award.

Continuing on her path to success, Brown's The Great Invisible, won best documentary at SXSW. The film documents the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2010, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in American history. Brown expertly tells the story of the survivors who still live with the results of the explosion everyday.—Tara Aquino

The horror genre has its own modern-day Charles Bronson, and his name is Nick Damici.

With his writing partner and go-to director Jim Mickle, the grizzled New Yorker has earned an indie-world reputation as a supreme badass in the sort of zombie movie Mulberry Street (2006) and the underrated post-apocalyptic vampire flick Stake Land (2011). Now, he's officially a leading man.

In the SXSW midnight movie Late Phases, Damici plays a blind war veteran on a one-man mission to eradicate the werewolves threatening his retirement community home. Directed by Argentinian horror filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil), Late Phases gives people who've been starving for a new, actually good werewolf movie plenty to celebrate—there's one nasty, hardcore transformation sequence and some nifty practical makeup effects that flip the bird towards CGI trickery.

By the film's end, though, it's Damici who leaves the strongest impression, exuding enough elder gruffness and gravitas to make you hope Sly Stallone sees Late Phases and puts him in The Expendables 4, because you know Stallone's already writing that sequel. -Matt Barone

Jen McGowan directed one of the funniest films to come out of SXSW, Kelly and Cal. The movie stars Juliette Lewis as a has-been "riot girl" turned suburban mom, who starts an unlikely friendship with the wheelchair bound teen next door (Jonny Weston).

It's McGowan's first feature film but she's surely someone worth paying attention to, and apparently we're not the only ones with that thought process. She won the Gamechanger Emergent Woman Director Award—previously won by Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture—which comes with a $2,500 grant to help fund women-directed films.—Tara Aquino