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It might be the culmination of Oscars week in Hollywood, but down in Texas a new year of moviegoing is in full boom. The SXSW festival is here and with it comes the greatest intersection between film, television, technology, and music on this side of the Atlantic. And such a feat can be attested by the eclectic and wide-ranging line-up of cinema making up the narrative film component of the festival.
There are Hollywood films in town, as well as splashy sequels like Ready or Not 2 (which you might have heard about already on this site…). There are also indie films from modern auteurs like Boots Riley, who is kicking off the festival opening night with the iconoclastic-looking I Love Boosters, as well as genre-benders like Wishful Thinking, Graham Parkes’ romantic dramedy where the fate of the world really does hang in the balance when a young couple (Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman) consider calling it quits. Jorma Taccone, one-third of the Lonely Island, has a new original comedy starring Samara Weaving and Jason Segel, and John Carney is imagining a world where Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas are bros. So without further ado, below is a preview of just some of the riches awaiting you alongside tacos and BBQ in Austin.
Brian
The titular character is having a tough go of it in writer-director Will Ropp’s debut feature, Brian. Played by Ben Wang (Karate Kid: Legends), the poor lad is prone to panic attacks, struggles to find an identity, and yes, has an unrequited crush (on his teacher no less). That’s why in a desperate attempt to find his true calling, Brian decides to run for the most hallowed position in all of high school politics: class president.
“At its core, Brian is a coming-of-age story about learning how to survive yourself; about realizing that being ‘too much’ isn’t something to be ashamed of, it’s something you learn to live alongside,” Ropp says. “I wanted to honor the kids, and adults, who walk around feeling like they missed a class everyone else took about how to be a normal person. This is the kind of movie I wanted when I was 17. So I made it now.”
NEON
I Love Boosters
When it’s that SXSW time of year, it must be Boots Riley season. At least that’s proven true in the best years where the iconoclastic, multi-hyphenated filmmaker, musician, activist, and all around cool dude came to town with visionary acts of subversion like Sorry to Bother You and I’m a Virgo. And he’s back at this festival with the opening night film.
An apparently kaleidoscopic and candy-colored heist movie set in the San Francisco fashion scene, I Love Boosters follows the three Fs: Fashion Forward F(Ph)ilanthropy. That’s the motto of the eponymous boosters who steal from the bougie and give to the proletariat. It’s a hell of a setup unto itself, but following on the magical realist flourishes of Riley’s previous work, we’re sure there is more going on in a film bursting at the seams with onscreen talent, including Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, Eiza Gonzaléz, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, and Demi Moore fresh off kicking The Substance.
Over Your Dead Body
Following the smashing success of Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun in 2025, another one-third of legendary comedy troupe the Lonely Island is set to bring a fresh action-comedy into the world, and this one from the maestro of the cult beloved MacGruber, Jorma Taccone. A remake of the 2021 Norwegian film The Trip, the Jorma Over Your Dead Body follows a couple (Samara Weaving and Jason Segel) as they attempt to reconnect on a vacation, blissfully unaware that each is planning to kill the other. Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, and Paul Guilfoyle also star.
“This ‘film’ is a blend of many genres, and I had an absolute blast making it with this amazing cast,” Taccone says. “The level of commitment was something other directors can only dream about. I feel lucky to have been part of this production and I hope the tremendous fun we all had making it is reflected in every scene, and the audience feels that love and sense of joy. If they don’t, I’m fucked.”
Power Ballad
How lucky are we to live in a time when John Carney has a new film coming to cinemas, and its first stop is Austin, Texas? The singular Irish filmmaker of bittersweet musical love stories like Once and Sing Street has now finished what we’re sure will be a swooning Power Ballad. The film also partners the writer-director with Paul Rudd in the role of Rick, a washed-out wedding singer who lost his best years to ‘80s nostalgia trips.
Also in another bit of canny casting is Nick Jonas (you know the one) as Danny, a former pop star also past his sell-by date. The pair kindle a friendship that proves productive but also, perhaps, predatory as Danny winds up turning one of Rick’s unsold songs into an international hit. Will Rick get any credit for it? It might be hard seeing Rudd down on his luck, but knowing Carney, there will still be plenty of uplift too.
Sender
Have you ever received an unsolicited package from an online retailer containing some sort of small, trivial item you didn’t order? This is an annoying but harmless real-world phenomenon called “brushing” that online sellers do to generate fake online reviews of their product. But what if those packages never stopped coming? And what if the items inside those packages started to feel unsettlingly relevant?
That’s the horrifying scenario facing Julia (Severance’s Britt Lower) in the Russell Goldman-directed thriller Sender. When an anonymous sender from the online market Smirk won’t stop shipping items tied to Julia’s traumatic past, she tumbles down an online rabbit hole to unmask them. Jamie Lee Curtis, David Dastmalchian, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus) also star, with the lattermost actress’ presence making Sender a meeting of Apple TV’s two most beloved sci-fi leading ladies.
They Will Kill You
Festival headliner Ready or Not 2 isn’t the only film in this year’s “everyone’s coming to kill you” genre. Joining it in Austin is the fittingly titled They Will Kill You. The blood-soaked thriller finds cultists played by Myha’la, Tom Felton, Heather Graham, and Patricia Arquette trying their darndest to capture and sacrifice Zazie Beetz to sweet, sweet Satan.
Catching Ms. Beetz is easier said than done, however, as the hunt takes place in swanky Manhattan hotel the Virgil. Built in 1923, the structure was designed to be a death trap for the poor would-be human offerings to the Dark Prince. But that design might prove as useful to the hunted as it is to the hunters. Directed by Kirill Sokolov and produced by Andy and Barbara Muschietti (It), They Will Kill You has the feel of a hide-and-seek game set in the Continental from John Wick.
Wishful Thinking
As Marvel’s Bob Reynolds, a.k.a. Sentry, and Stranger Things’ Robin Buckley, respectively, actors Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke dominated the pop culture landscape in 2025. Now they’re looking to keep the good genre vibes going with Graham Parkes’ sci-fi rom-com, Wishful Thinking. The duo star as Julia and Charlie, a couple from Portland, Oregon going through a rough patch in their relationship.
After attending a seminar led by twin healers who claim to use energy to fix relationships, Julia and Charlie discover that the state of their union suddenly affects the world around them: earthquakes, stock market crashes, the whole nine yards. With the literal fate of the world now in their hands, the couple has to figure out what to do with the power of their connection. You know, with great power comes… all that stuff.
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