Mark Schwab’s Darkly Comic Cutaways Hits Amazon & Vimeo Feb 3
Acclaimed independent filmmaker Mark Schwab returns with his most personal and provocative work to date as his new feature film, Cutaways, premieres February 3 on Amazon Prime and Vimeo on Demand.
Following its world premiere as the Centerpiece Film at the 2025 SF Queer Film Festival, the film offers a sharp, darkly comic examination of ambition, survival, and the high cost of staying relevant in today’s entertainment industry; diving headfirst into the moral gray areas faced by artists pushed to their breaking point.
Set against the backdrop of Los Angeles, Cutaways stars Silas Kade as Evan Quick, a once-celebrated indie filmmaker whose career collapses after a social media backlash turns him into an industry pariah. With bills mounting and doors slamming shut, Evan reluctantly accepts a job directing an adult film; an act that becomes both a means of survival and an existential reckoning.
What begins as a compromise quickly descends into chaos as Evan navigates clashing egos, shifting power dynamics, and the uncomfortable truths he’s been avoiding about himself and his craft.
“For me, Evan is a kind of bizarro mirror-universe version of myself,” Schwab explains. “In another timeline where everything in my life had gone wrong, how desperate would I be to keep making films? That question interested me. In a backhanded way, this might be my most personal film.”
The ensemble cast includes Fernando as Andy, a former child star and queer Latinx performer determined to reclaim agency on his own terms; Diogo Hausen as Ryan, a physically gifted but naïve performer whose optimism masks deep vulnerability; and cult film icon James Duval, who returns to edgy queer cinema as manipulative producer Sammy Slade.
Duval- celebrating the 25th anniversary of Donnie Darko in 2026 – delivers a career-highlight performance as Sammy, whose arrival on set radically shifts the balance of power. He is joined by Jason Caceres as Trace, Sammy’s much younger boyfriend and an ambitious climber willing to sacrifice his morals for fame.
“James brought humor and depth to Sammy that elevated him far beyond a simple slimy cliché,” says Schwab. “He knows exactly what a manipulative producer looks and sounds like. Working with him was a literal dream come true.”
While Cutaways unfolds on an adult film set, Schwab is clear that the story isn’t about pornography itself. “It’s just the arena for my characters to play out deeper issues,” he says. “For Evan, it’s about survival and compromise, but even more than that, it’s existential. He has to keep making films no matter what. It’s his greatest compulsion.”
That compulsion and the power imbalances it creates runs throughout the film, which uses the adult film industry as a microcosm of Hollywood at large. “I saw it as the lowest rung on the entertainment ladder,” Schwab notes. “It’s the film industry writ microscopically with people metaphorically hanging on by their fingernails.”
A Bay Area–based filmmaker, Schwab’s recent work includes Shadows in Mind, Brotherly Lies (2021) and its sequel Exteriors, which won Best LGBTQ Feature at the 2024 Poppy Jasper Film Festival.
Balancing dark comedy, psychological drama, and discomfort, Cutaways refuses easy answers about redemption or success. Instead, it offers a raw, often unsettling portrait of artists who refuse to give up, even when the cost is nearly everything.
“I’ve always deeply respected the people who work in this industry,” Schwab says. “Cutaways might be an absurd dark comedy of errors and misfits, but it’s rooted in respect for people who just keep going and do their best no matter what the project is.”
Cutaways is produced by Diamond in the Rough Films. It premieres February 3 on Amazon Prime and Vimeo on Demand.
Head to watch the Trailer here!
