Published: March 22, 2026 | By texas.film
Macon Blair didn't start out as a director. For almost a decade, he was the guy in the movie — the working actor who showed up in his childhood friend Jeremy Saulnier's films and played men out of their depth in violent situations with remarkable, anxious precision. Then he wrote his own film, directed it at Sundance, won the Grand Jury Prize, and it's been on his own terms ever since.
He lives in Austin. His third feature as director just screened at SXSW. His career is a useful case study in how to build something lasting in independent film without ever leaving.
The Basics
Macon Chaplain Blair, born 1974, Alexandria, Virginia. Screenwriter, actor, director, producer. Currently based in Austin, Texas.
His filmography as a director:
- I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) — Sundance Grand Jury Prize (U.S. Dramatic)
- The Toxic Avenger (2023) — remake of the Troma cult classic
- The Shitheads (2026) — Sundance Premieres section; SXSW 2026
As an actor, his most significant work:
- Blue Ruin (2013) — lead; FIPRESCI Prize, Cannes Directors' Fortnight
- Green Room (2015) — supporting; Jeremy Saulnier's follow-up
- Various TV work (Ozark, Mindhunter)
The Saulnier Connection
Blair and Jeremy Saulnier have been friends since childhood — they grew up together in Alexandria, Virginia. That's the friendship that defines Blair's early career. He acted in Saulnier's first feature (Murder Party, 2007), then starred in Blue Ruin (2013) and appeared in Green Room (2015). Both were sharp, tightly wound genre films with an indie sensibility and a knack for darkly funny violence — a sensibility Blair clearly absorbed and made his own.
When he wrote I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Blair was drawing on those collaborations. A mild-mannered woman (Melanie Lynskey) gets burgled and, with her neighbor (Elijah Wood), decides to track down the thieves. It escalates. The film won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2017. Netflix acquired it. Blair was a director.
The Shitheads (2026)
Written by Blair and Alex Orr. Sundance Premieres section, then SXSW 2026.
The setup: Davis (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), a well-meaning but chronically bad-decision-making man, gets fired from his church job for accidentally taking the youth group to a screening of Lars von Trier's Antichrist — he had been under the impression it was an educational film about the life of Jesus. His next gig: transport a troubled teenage trust fund kid named Sheridan (Mason Thames) to a rehab center, assisted by his useless friend Mark (Dave Franco).
Sheridan is, as the title implies, a shithead. He's a social media failson — has literally set a person on fire, which his wealthy parents spun into a teachable moment and a payout. He has never faced a real consequence. He is not going to start now.
The film is, at its core, about class and consequence — about what it looks like when someone is so insulated by money that the normal rules of cause-and-effect don't apply. Blair isn't subtle about it. He doesn't want to be. As Cinapse noted: "You don't hate the ultra rich and powerful nearly as much as you should."
Supporting cast includes Kiernan Shipka as an Eastern European exotic dancer who wants a singing career, and Nicolas Braun as a juggalo who takes the "were" in "werewolf" literally. It is a Macon Blair movie.
The Austin Connection
Blair is based in Austin. That matters more than it sounds.
Austin's independent film scene has produced a lineage of working directors who didn't go to LA — the Duplass brothers, Andrew Bujalski, Annie Silverstein, the Zellner brothers. Blair is part of that cohort. He's not making films in Texas (most of his projects shoot elsewhere), but he's building his career from Texas, developing projects from Texas, and he's part of the creative ecosystem that makes Austin a real place to work as an independent filmmaker rather than just a festival town.
When I Don't Feel at Home won at Sundance, Blair was already Austin-based. When The Toxic Avenger came out in 2023, same. When The Shitheads screened at SXSW this year, he was home.
That's not nothing. That's the kind of long-term, rooted presence that builds a film culture.
What Makes Blair Distinctive
A few things that are consistent across his directorial work:
Darkly funny violence. Not gratuitous — purposeful. The violence in Blair's films is almost always tied to how ordinary people respond to extraordinary circumstances, and the gap between what they intend and what they accomplish is where the comedy lives.
Class consciousness. I Don't Feel at Home is about a woman whose belongings are stolen and who discovers that the systems supposedly protecting her don't. The Shitheads is about a kid who can do anything because his parents can pay for it. Blair notices who has power and who doesn't, and he makes films about it without making it preachy.
Character over plot. His scripts spend time on the people. Davis in The Shitheads is described by reviewers not as a comedic type but as genuinely sad in a way that feels human — he cries, not in an exaggerated movie way, but in a subdued way that makes him feel relatable.
What's Next
No announced follow-up project yet. The Shitheads doesn't have a distributor announcement as of SXSW. Watch for it.
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