It's time for another big Texas festival with SXSW getting started Friday. Yes it's the same weekend as the Oscars - which coincidentally look rather likely to be topped by a SXSW-premiering film. But Hollywood glitz and glamor be damned! Austin breakfast tacos and Shiner Bock are way more fun. And don't forget about the movies.
There is a scientifically measured "shit ton" of great stuff to be seen at this year's fest. We are going to shine a light on just a small amount of those films here, but you can find way more on the SXSW site.
Brooklyn 45
The latest horror from We Are Still Here and Mohawk director Ted Geoghegan is this ghost story set just after the second World War. It stars Anne Ramsay, Ron E. Rains, Jeremy Holm, Ezra Buzzington, Kristina Klebe and, you guessed it, Larry Fessenden.
Midnight
Only the Good Survive
Bad Turn Worse screenwriter Dutch Southern makes his directorial debut with this Rough & Tumble-produced feature about a heist gone wrong. It stars Sidney Flanigan, Frederick Weller, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Ropp, Darius Fraser, Lachlan Watson, and Jon Gries.
Narrative Spotlight
You Can Call me Bill
Alexandre O. Phillippe has made a great career out of exploring topics around the world of art and cinema (The People vs. George Lucas, Doc of the Dead, Memory: The Origins of Alien). His latest explores the life and career of one William Shatner.
Docu Spotlight
Harbor Island
Calvin Lee Reeder (The Oregonian, The Rambler) tells the first part of a new series about an out-of-work stand-up comic who wanders industrial zones at night working up jokes and happens upon something he doesn't expect to see.
Independent TV Pilot Competition
Furies
Actress Veronica Ngo (Ngo Thanh Van) (The Rebel, The Old Guard) returns to the directing chair for her third feature with this Vietnamese story of a woman who trains a trio of girls to take revenge on a criminal gang. You can see it soon on Netflix.
Midnight
The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution
Ondi Timoner's latest docu explores our meme-filled culture, from Gamestop to TikTok to January 6.
Docu Spotlight
Joy Ride
Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon screenwriter Adele Lim makes her directorial debut with this buddy comedy about four Asian-American women on a wild business trip to Asia gone wrong. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu star in this Lionsgate film produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Headliners
Scrambled
Leah McKendrick, the writer, producer, and star of previous SXSW thriller M.F.A., adds the director's job to that list in this story of a millennial staring down an existential crisis over her reproductivity options.
Narrative Competition
BlackBerry
The Dirties director and general pal of the site, Matt Johnson, makes his much anticipated feature follow-up to Operation Avalanche some seven years on with this story of the fabled cell phone. It stars Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Cary Elwes, and Saul Rubinek alongside Johnson. IFC Films will be putting it out later this year.
Narrative Spotlight
A Disturbance in the Force
Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made director Jeremy Coon teams up with Steve Kozak for this behind-the-scenes story of how the hell the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special got made.
Docu Spotlight
Story Ave
Aristotle Torres, director of numerous shorts, makes his directorial debut with this story about an unlikely kinship between a runaway graffiti artist and an MTA worker after a robbery. It stars Asante Blakk and Luis Guzmán and has a heavy-hitter producer list that includes Jamie Foxx.
Narrative Competition
The Wrath of Becky
After living off the grid for two years, a woman goes toe to toe with the leader of a fascist organization ahead of a terrorist attack in the latest from The Open House and Hypnotic directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote.
Midnight
Caterpillar
Liza Mandelup won the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking for her phenomenal 2019 Sundance debut Jawline. Her followup is this doc about an outsider who travels to India with the hope of having his eye color changed to finally fit in.
Visions
Hung Up on a Dream
Actor, director, distributor, rockstar, and all-around renaissance man Robert Schwartzman takes his first stab at feature documentary directing with this story of the British Invasion iconic rockers The Zombies.
24 BPS
Frybread Face and Me
Documentary director Bully Luther (Miss Navajo, Grab) turns to narrative with this 1990-set coming-of-ager about a boy sent from the city to spend the summer on his grandmother's ranch in the Navajo nation.
Narrative Spotlight
Self Reliance
Actor Jake Johnson makes his directorial debut with this star studded comedy about a man trying to outsmart a million dollar game of death by never being alone. The crazy cast list includes, Anna Kendrick, Andy Samberg, Natalie Morales, Christopher Lloyd, Wayne Brady, GaTa, Emily Hampshire, Mary Holland, and Boban Marjanović alongside Johnson.
Narrative Spotlight
Black Barbie: A Documentary
Director Lagueria Davis examines the representation of Black women in popular culture via the famous doll.
Docu Spotlight
Monolith
Matt Vesely makes his directorial debut in this story of a disgraced journalist who turns to podcasting and discovers what might be an alien conspiracy.
Midnight
Molli and Max in the Future
Zosia Mamet and Aristotle Athari star in Michael Lukk Litwak's feature directorial debut, which is described as a "grounded romantic comedy set in an absurd world" that combines "When Harry Met Sally and Futurama." Cool!
Visions
Satan Wants You
Documentarians Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams explore the story of how one woman and her psychiatrist ignited the global 'Satanic Panic.'
Docu Spotlight
Peak Season
The End Of Us directing duo Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner return to SXSW with this story of a woman (Claudia Restrepo) forced to spend her Jackson Hole vacation without her fiance and finds unexpected companionship in a wilderness guide (Derrick Joseph DeBlasis).
Narrative Spotlight
Another Body
If the idea of discovering porn of yourself online isn't horrifying enough, what if it was fake? Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn's feature documentary debut follows a college student as she confronts this situation.
Docu Competition
The Long Game
Jay Hernandez stars alongside Dennis Quaid and Cheech Marin in this true story set in 1957 about Mexican-American high-school caddies who face down discrimination and take on the state tournament. The film is directed by Julio Quintana.
Narrative Spotlight
Pay or Die
This docu from Rachael Dyer and Scott Ruderman examines the human cost of the insulin racket.
Docu Competition
The Arc of Oblivion
One man takes on a quixotic adventure to build his own backyard ark, and make a movie about it to boot. Ian Cheney's past films include King Corn, The City Dark and The Search for General Tso.
Docu Spotlight
The Artifice Girl
An AI set up to catch child predators online spins out of control in the feature debut from Franklin Ritch.
Visions