The SXSW Film Festival unveiled its full lineup today.
Normally, when you see lineups, they are long lists. What we have done is broken it up into categories:
SXSW Industry News, which breaks out the films from top distributors.
SXSW Actor Spotlight, highlights the top talent at the festival.
SXSW Doc Spotlight, features the top docs at SXSW.
SXSW Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcases first and second-time filmmakers. And some indie vets.
If you know anyone that we mention, we’d appreciate you forwarding it to them.
SXSW 2026, here we come.
The Austin-based film festival, which has premiered some of the best indie films this century, including Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) and Short Term 12 (2013) has announced their lineup for 2026.
We have a few films from other festivals also playing:
Sundance premiere
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Focus Features)
Dir: Daniel Roher (Navalny)
See You When I See You
Dir: Jay Duplass
Cast: David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever
TIFF premiere
Erupcja
Cast: Charli xcx
Obsession (Focus Features)
THE SUNDANCE INDUSTRY NEWS
As in previous years, they have a big headliner section with studio films:
Warner Bros. - 1 film
They Will Kill You
Cast: Zazie Beetz
Apple TV+/A24 - 1 show
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
Creator: David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, Presumed Innocent)
Cast: Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, Thaddea Graham, Nicole Kidman, Greg Kinnear
Synopsis:
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a bold, heartwarming, and comedic family drama following recent college dropout and aspiring writer Margo as she’s forced to make her way with a new baby, a mounting pile of bills, and a dwindling amount of ways to pay them.
20th Century Studios - 1 film
Cast: Vince Vaughn
Dir/Wri: BenDavid Grabinski (creator: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off animated series)
Synopsis:
A hilarious, stylized, R-rated action-comedy about two gangsters and the woman they love trying to survive the most dangerous night of their lives. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s one wild ingredient added to the mix: a time machine.
Searchlight - 1 film
Ready or Not 2
Cast: Samara Weaving
Lionsgate - 1 film
Power Ballad
Dir: John Carney (Sing Street, Once)
Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas
Synopsis:
Power Ballad follows a talented but past-his-prime wedding singer and a young rockstar who uses the wedding singer’s songwriting prowess to revitalize his own career.
AMC - 1 show
The Audacity
Creator: Jonathan Glatzer (Supervising Prod/Writer: Succession)
Co-star: Zach Galifianakis
Neon - 1 film
I Love Boosters
Dir: Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You)
Cast: Keke Palmer, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi Moore
Synopsis:
A crew of professional shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven. It’s like community service.
IFC Films - 2 films
Over Your Dead Body
Prod: David Leitch (Bullet Train)
Cast: Samara Weaving, Jason Segel, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis
Synopsis:
A dysfunctional couple heads to a remote cabin to supposedly reconnect, but each has secret plans to kill the other.
Forbidden Fruits
Cast: Lili Reinhart, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain, Gabrielle Union
Synopsis:
Free Eden employee Apple leads a secret witch cult with coworkers Cherry and Fig. New hire Pumpkin questions their sisterhood, forcing them to confront inner darkness or meet violent ends.
SUNDANCE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Severance. Pluribus. I mean, can you imagine what the two leading ladies in those sci-fi series could do together?
Enter Sender starring:
Britt Lower
Rhea Seehorn
And:
Jamie Lee Curtis (also produces)
David Dastmalchian
Utkarsh Ambudkar (CBS’s Ghosts)
Synopsis:
After receiving a series of unwanted packages containing unnervingly targeted items, a woman tumbles down a paranoid rabbit hole to find her mysterious sender.
So Lower, whose paranoia is on wonderful display in Severance, goes down wormholes where she encounters this cast?! I can only think of Seehorn, Curtis, Dastmalchian, and Ambudkar as a series of crazy character actors. Yes, please!
How did director Russell Goldman pull it off? Well, he was Jamie Lee Curtis’ assistant. And went on to AP: Lost Bus, on which Lee Curtis is a producer.
Remember Neon’s first film, Colossal? Here’s the relationship version, Wishful Thinking, starring Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke.
Synopsis:
When a volatile couple discovers their emotional state has supernatural consequences on the world around them, they must decide whether to fight for their relationship or accept that their powerful connection might be doing more harm than good.
Great premise. And Hawke and Pullman make a good couple. Him more straight-laced and scientific. Her more of a free spirit. Seems to be a good split for this type of predicament. First look here.
Husband and wife Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon direct, produce, and star in Family Movie. First look here.
SUNDANCE DOC FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Wild doc incoming:
The Ascent
Synopsis:
Inspiring true story of Colorado Springs bilateral-amputee climber Mandy Horvath's record-breaking attempt to crawl to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the mysterious circumstances under which she lost her legs at the age of 21.
Seeing is believing. Check out the first look above.
Look out for Willa. They are distributing the most dangerous films each year: The Voice of Hind Rajab, La Cocina, etc.
Now they have My NDA.
Synopsis:
Three people bound by non-disclosure agreements face extreme personal risk to expose how a simple intellectual property contract is weaponized to silence, manipulate, and control.
The tricky part is, will the doc allow us to learn what they know?! Like the doc version of David Mackenzie’s recent Relay.
Mini Tidbit:
If you’ve seen A Glitch in the Matrix, you know the story of Richard “Beebo” Russell. He was the ground service agent who stole the airplane, went on an hour joy ride, and then committed suicide. Now there’s an entire doc on the subject, #Skyking.
Deon Taylor (dir: Lionsgate’s Fatale starring Hilary Swank) directs Drift about a self-taught photographer and Army veteran who finds healing through illegal climbs of the world’s tallest structures. Kind of like Skywalkers: A Love Story.
What would SXSW be without Bigfoot? Marq Evans has the answer with his doc Capturing Bigfoot, which centers on a rare piece of 16mm film from 50 years ago.
SUNDANCE INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Joe Swanberg is back.
The king of Chicago Mumblecore behind indie favs like Digging for Fire and Drinking Buddies is back with The Sun Never Sets.
Synopsis:
Wendy's life is thrown into chaos when her boyfriend, Jack, who is older and divorced with children, insists they take space to evaluate the relationship. During their break, Wendy runs into her ex, Chuck, forcing them into a volatile triangle.
The volatile triangle and intermingled relationships were part of what made Drinking Buddies (2013) an easy watch. The naturalism of the dialogue is juxtaposed with the sudden intensity.
The cast is great of The Sun Never Sets is great: Dakota Fanning, Jake Johnson, Cory Michael Smith, Debby Ryan. Some familiar Swanberg faces, some newcomers.
Alfonso Cuarón’s 45-year-old son, Jonás Cuarón (co-writer: Gravity), premieres Campeón Gabacho.
Synopsis:
Mexican migrant who fights, literally and figuratively, for a better life in the United States, punching through prejudice with heart, humor, and hope to become an unlikely hero.
The synopsis seems super basic. But with Alfonso producing and Jonás co-writing Gravity and the magical first-look image, this is going to be beautifully buoyant.
Mark Ankner (producer: Ponyboi, former Global Sales rep for Endeavor Content) produces Plantman & Blondie: A Dress Up Gang Film.
Synopsis:
A lonely man escapes working from home when he meets Plantman, a mysterious man saving the neglected house plants of Los Angeles.
Sounds fairly silly, but Ponyboi (trailer) was ultra powerful and mystical, so we’re hoping some of that magic rubs off here.
Mini Tidbit:
Danny DeVito, his son, and his daughter, Jake and Lucy DeVito, are all producing Drag about two burglars who run into trouble when one throws out his back.
Mark Duplass writes Their Town. Kind of a high school version of Before Sunrise.
Josephine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline) directs the short A Stable Marriage.
SXSW kicks off March 12-18 in Austin, TX.
Full line-up here.