Toby Benoit Makes South By Southwest Debut

I began hunting the invasive Burmese pythons in 2018. It has become one of my favorite pastimes. And I guess it can be said of me that I’m pretty good at it. I’m not bragging here, but it’s not easy.

It was my success at hunting pythons that led to me being contacted by a casting director out of New York in 2023, asking me for help in creating a feature film about our state’s Python Challenge. I accepted and was quickly cast as the lead. We spent ten days filming together in the Everglades.

Three film crews operating under Director Xander Robins. Later, Xander and one of his crews joined me at my home and attended a speaking engagement with me in Brooksville. All in 2023.

Well, here it is, 2025, and I’m in Austin, TX, for the movie premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival. They must have shot a few hundred hours of film with myself and other participants. And to see the way in which they piece it together into a 92-minute film is amazing. The movie is amazing.

Coming here for the premiere has been a surreal experience. I’m used to deep forests, swamps and fields, not so much the weirdly wonderful world of film-making. And yet, this old swamp Cracker has been having a ball with the photo shoots, parties, and, of course, seeing “The Python Hunt” on the big screen in a sold-out theater.

I can’t wait for each of you to see “The Python Hunt.” It will be available in select theaters in April. In fact, the next public showing will take place in Orlando on April 19th. If any of you are interested, reach out to me, and I’ll get you the time, address and link to order tickets. I’ll be mighty happy to greet you all there.

Produced by Artists Equity, an independent movie production company owned by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and directed by Xander Robin, it’s been reported already by one film critic of The LA Times, “‘The Python Hunt’ will do for pythons what Jaws did for great white sharks!” I got a kick out of that.
Looking forward to reading your feedback, so as always, please reach out to me at [email protected]. God Bless, and good hunting.