I was lucky enough to conduct 20 interviews while in Austin for SXSW 2024. Over the course of those 20 conversations, I met industry icons I’ve been watching my entire life, icons like The Uninvited‘s Lois Smith. I spoke with hugely popular actors who are using their star power to support independent productions as producers, actor-producers like Immaculate’s Sydney Sweeney and I Wish You All the Best’s Cole Sprouse. I was also fortunate enough to meet wildly talented first-time feature filmmakers who are bound for big things in this business, directors like Sew Torn’s Freddy MacDonald.

During our conversations, we learned a lot about them as individual artists and the filmmaking feats they pulled off to bring their visions to screen, but toward the end of each conversation, we shifted our focus to the industry itself — to the future of Hollywood.

There’s always been a need to adapt in an ever-evolving industry, but the last few years have been especially turbulent. Going back to 2020, of course, there was the COVID shutdown and then the challenge of bouncing back. During that period, we saw an extreme acceleration in the rise of streaming content, which heavily impacted development, production and distribution models, and viewer habits. In 2023, Hollywood saw two major labor strikes that brought the industry to another standstill while writers and actors negotiated for a number of vital changes to their work as artists in their own disciplines, changes that will also undoubtedly contribute to a brighter future for the industry overall.

The fortitude is inspiring and there’s no doubt great strides have been made, but there’s still a significant uphill battle ahead in a number of respects. Streaming is still rocking the industry to its core. Filmmakers’ work is being erased. There’s fear regarding performance at the box office and the programming of independent films in theaters. The use of AI continues to raise significant concerns in film, television, all forms of art, and beyond.

Given there’s no better way to forge forward than with wind in your sails, I opted to make my SXSW 2024 “supercut” question, the question repeated in all interviews conducted, one that puts the spotlight on the good out there. I asked everyone to name a recent show or film that signaled the future is bright for Hollywood.

Find out what Lilly Singh, Devery Jacobs, Sunita Mani, Karan Soni, Walton Goggins, Calum Worthy, and many, many more chose in this video: