SXSW 2024: 23 Films and TV Series to Watch This Year

“3 Body Problem” (TV Premiere)

Netflix’s latest epic (by “Game of Thrones” duo David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as Alexander Woo) is a book adaptation that follows “a young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China [that] reverberates across space and time into the present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists join forces with an unorthodox detective to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history,” per Netflix.

Starring Benedict Wong, Jess Hong, Jovan Adepo, and Jonathan Pryce, the science fiction drama based on the wildly popular book will premiere at SXSW and then all eight episodes will hit Netflix March 21. —ES

“Babes” (Headliner)

There are few creators we here at IndieWire love quite so fervently as Pamela Adlon, so the news that the “Better Things” creator was moving into movies with her feature directorial debut “Babes” was greeted with much joy when it was announced in mid-2022. And all the news since? Just as pleasing to our ears! Like, for instance, that the film will be written by Ilana Glazer, and that Glazer will also star in it alongside Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, and Hasan Minhaj.

The comedy also sounds like just the ticket to get the SXSW crowds roaring, as it follows an “aggressively single” woman (Glazer) who gets unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand and turns to her BFF (and mother of two), played by Buteau, to help her embrace motherhood. Neon already picked the film up for distribution, and we’re guessing its premiere in Austin will only be the continuation of our love for Adlon and company. —KE

“Birdeater” (Visions)

Already a hit at the Sydney Film Festival and elsewhere in Australia, Aussie filmmakers Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s “Birdeater”centers on a bride-to-be (Shabana Azeez) invited to the bachelor party from hell, hosted by her fiancé (Mackenzie Fearnley). The event is held at a remote property in the outback, where what-else-but buried secrets about their relationship are aired out, and the night devolves into a drug-fueled apocalyptic bender. Per U.K. distribution outfit Blue Finch, the film is “an unapologetic look at how Australia’s iconic masculine identity has become incompatible with contemporary gender politics.” Feral masculinity is territory often well-explored by Australia’s best filmmakers, from Kitty Green to Justin Kurzel. —RL

“Arcadian” (Narrative Spotlight)

A year after the premiere of “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” turned SXSW into an unofficial tribute to Nicolas Cage’s eclectic filmography, the star returns with one of the buzziest genre films to hit this year’s festival. “Arcadian” sees Cage re-teaming with Benjamin Brewer — who directed him and Elijah Wood in the underrated 2016 thriller “The Trust” — to tell a story about a single father protecting his two sons on a farm in a post-apocalyptic world. When one of them goes missing, Cage ventures out into a hellish landscape to rescue him — leaving the other child to face even more dangers as he fends for himself at home. —CZ

“Civil War” (Headliner)

A surprise late addition to the SXSW lineup is the premiere of the latest film from sci-fi master Alex Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”). Billed as a dystopian action thriller, the film follows a team of journalists traveling across the U.S. during a second American Civil War, in what the writer/director described as “a sci-fi allegory for our currently polarized predicament.” Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cailee Spaeny, the film will later be released by A24 on April 12. —CO

“Cold Wallet” (Narrative Spotlight)

Crypto was clearly a scam from the start, but it’s amazing how fast we’ve gone from Crypto.com Super Bowl commercials to feature-length movies about people trying to get revenge on the con artists who duped them into converting their life savings into Doge Coin or whatever.

Cutter Hodierne’s “Cold Wallet” stars Raul Castillo, Melonie Diaz, and Tony Cavalero as a trio of angry Redditors who gang together in order to hunt down — and home-invade — the small-time Sam Bankman-Fried who screwed them over, but the rich and powerful of the world always seem to have the upper hand, and getting even with them is never quite as easy as it seems. Will this be a bitter morality tale about the true cost of digital currency? A darkly satirical take on our eagerness to be duped? A sadistic, even “Saw”-like torture-fest that sees average Americans as socioeconomic playthings for the crooks who run this country? With this cast, any and all of those options sound just fine to us. —DE

“Diane Warren: Relentless” (24 Beats Per Second)

15-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren has yet to clinch an Academy Award win for her songwriting contributions to films like “Armageddon” and most recently “Flamin’ Hot.” Though she did receive an Honorary Oscar in 2022, but the hard-working composer is still chasing the real thing. Director Bess Kargman profiles the unparalleled music icon in “Diane Warren: Relentless,” a nonfiction portrait that promises to pull back the curtain on Warren’s personal life and her unique sense of humor and cheeky self-awareness. —RL

“The Fall Guy” (Headliner)

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt were two of the biggest supporting players in “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” but they put their box office rivalry aside to share the screen in David Leitch’s “The Fall Guy.” Adapted from the 1980s TV show of the same name, the film stars Gosling as an over-the-hill Hollywood stunt man who takes a job on a big budget film directed by his ex (Blunt). When the film’s star goes missing, and production is derailed, he takes matters into his own hands to solve a conspiracy and win back the love of his life.

The film sees Gosling making a welcome return to the noir comedy format that brought him so much success in “The Nice Guys.” And Leitch’s experience as a stuntman for the likes of Brad Pitt suggests that it will be a fitting tribute to the real fall guys who make action movies possible. —CZ

“Grand Theft Hamlet” (Documentary Feature Competition)

Shot entirely in “Grand Theft Auto V” and “GTA Online” — the online multiplayer version of the beloved PlayStation car-jacking and crime-doing franchise — “Grand Theft Hamlet” finds directs Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls staging a full production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” within the gaming engine. Set in January 2021, this first-of-its-kind feature film centers in the UK on its third lockdown, where two theater actors stumble upon a theater within the ultraviolent world of the game and decide to mount the play to save their middling careers. Billed as a documentary, the film blurs the line between reality and an alternate one while chronicling the actors attempts to put the Shakespeare show together. Both Crane and Grylls come from a theater background themselves, bringing with them plenty of fresh insight into the real and imagined dramas of stagecraft. —RL

“The Greatest Hits” (Narrative Spotlight)

Ten years ago, filmmaker Ned Benson launched an ambitious debut that saw the release of not just one or even two “first” films, but three entire features, care of his “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” which eventually spawned a trio of versions (“Him,” “Her,” and “Them”). While Benson hasn’t directed a film since his Jessica Chastain- and James McAvoy-starring three-for-one debut (he was probably exhausted!), he did contribute to the story of “Black Widow,” and finally seems primed to return to the big screen with yet another multi-faceted love story.

This one follows Lucy Boynton as a woman who discovers that some of her favorite songs can — literally — transport her back in time, a cute little conceit that sees her mixing and mingling with both her ex (newly announced Superman David Corenswet) and a new dude (Justin H. Min). Where, pray tell, will time take her? —KE

“I Wish You All the Best” (Narrative Spotlight)

Tommy Dorfman, the trans trailblazer and “13 Reasons Why” breakout who recently starred in Lena Dunham’s “Sharp Stick,” makes her feature directing debut with “I Wish You All the Best.” Based on Mason Deaver’s beloved 2019 young adult novel, the film has a stacked indie cast including Corey Fogelmanis, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Alexandra Daddario, Cole Sprouse, Amy Landecker, and Dunham herself. Fogelmanis plays Ben, a non-binary teen thrown out of their house and forced to live with their sister, Hannah (Daddario), the only person they’ve come out to. Hannah and her husband Thomas (Sprouse) have their own problems, and meanwhile Ben is trying to survive the myriad disasters of junior year in high school while under the wing of a charismatic classmate (Gutierrez-Riley). Dorfman also wrote the script and produces the film. —RL

“The Idea of You” (Headliner)

An adaptation of the pandemic hit bestseller by Robinne Lee, this Anne Hathaway-starring film by Michael Showalter follows Solène, a mom of a teen who gets swept up in a torrid love affair with the young lead singer of a boy band (Nicholas Galitzine) she meets through her daughter. The Harry Styles vibes are obvious, but beyond the fanfic-y premise, the movie will likely explore age gaps, second chances and the intoxicating rush of suddenly living out a teenage dream far past the age when you still believed in such things.

Written by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt, the film co-stars Reid Scott and Annie Mumolo. No stranger to the festival, Showalter’s buzzy projects “The Big Sick” and “Hello My Name is Doris” also premiered here. —ES

“Immaculate” (Headliner)

How do you follow an erotic thriller as fun, horny, and ridiculous as “The Voyeurs?” For Michael Mohan, there was only one possible answer to that question: Reteam with Sydney Sweeney for a psychological horror movie about a devout nun who discovers sinister — and possibly horny? — secrets lurking below the surface of the Italian convent where she’s been sent to live.

Running a tight 88 minutes and promising all manner of genre delights, “Immaculate” seems to continue Mohan’s commitment to making the sort of smart but lurid B-pictures that people don’t really make anymore, and we appreciate him for that. And no need to forsake God if you can’t make it to SXSW for the premiere; Neon will release “Immaculate” in theaters on March 22. —DE

“Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” (TV Premiere)

Described as a documentary series yet titled (at least for now) as a reality show, Jerrod Carmichael’s latest convention-defying creation is set to reveal itself at SXSW before premiering March 29 on HBO.

What little we know about the project is that it “centers on Carmichael’s personal life, following him through encounters with friends, family, and strangers, all in his quest for love, sex, and connection” (per an HBO press release). Early footage screened at a press preview showed Carmichael having meaningful conversations with his family about coming out as gay, embracing the joy and anxiety of dating, and keeping the cameras shooting his journey in frame, as part of the conversation. Carmichael has proven himself a perceptive comedian (be it hosting the Golden Globes or his award-winning special, “Rothaniel”), talented performer (from “Poor Things” to “The Carmichael Show”), and unflinching creative force. (His feature directorial debut, “On the Count of Three,” puts a powerful spin on an atypical buddy comedy.) Whatever he’s got cooking in this docuseries/reality show, we’ll be ready to feast. —BT

“Monkey Man” (Headliner)

When making the leap to directing for the first time, most famous actors opt to go with something too simple or too prestigious to fail. Dev Patel is not most famous actors. His debut, set to be distributed by Netflix before Jordan Peele recognized its theatrical potential and rescued it from the streaming abyss, is a bruising action thriller about an underground brawler (Patel) who wears a monkey mask to Mumbai’s most dangerous fight clubs and lets the more popular combatants beat the shit out of him for cash. It’s more of a dying than a living, but it’s all part of our hero’s plan to find the men responsible for his mother’s death, and then show them — with extreme, bone-breaking, skull-splitting prejudice — that he’s a lot harder to knock out when he’s actually trying to kill you. The versatile Patel has pulled off pretty much every role he’s ever tried to play, so if he wants to be our next major action star (on his own terms, minus the tuxedo), then it’s a safe bet that he’s going to become just that. —DE

“My Dead Friend Zoe” (Narrative Spotlight)

Travis Kelce’s debut foray into Hollywood after becoming the obsession of Swifties everywhere is “My Dead Friend Zoe,” his first project credited as an executive producer. Whether he attends the film’s premiere in Austin is still TBD, but there are other reasons to be excited about the film. It’s a dark comedy and buddy movie in which a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) has a dysfunctional relationship with her best friend from the Army, Zoe…who happens to be dead. Writer-director-producer Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, who makes his directorial debut on the project, is himself an Army veteran who enlisted a month before 9/11 and has spent the last 10 years telling stories about the military as part of his organization Veterans in Media & Entertainment. The film also has an impressive cast that includes Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Gloria Reuben and is available for sale. —BW

“Ren Faire” (TV Premiere)

The latest non-fiction collaboration between HBO and the Safdie Bros’ Elara Pictures sounds as wonderfully bizarre and alluring as their fantastic “Telemarketers” and “Chillin Island.” Directed by Lance Oppenheim (“Some Kind of Heaven”), the three-part “docu-fantasia” is about the drama that ensues when the founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, King George Coulam, retires to focus on his romantic life. 

SXSW describes a feud that “ascends to Shakespearian heights,” involving a battle between a kettle-corn kingpin and a former elephant trainer, both vying to remake the festival in their own image. —CO

“Road House” (Headliner)

This year’s opening night screening is almost more notable for the controversial circumstances surrounding its premiere than the film itself. Doug Liman’s “Road House” promises to put a fresh spin on the classic work of bouncer cinema, with Jake Gyllenhaal stepping in for Patrick Swayze alongside an ensemble cast of real-life UFC fighters. By moving the setting from Missouri to Key West and adding a combat sports twist, “Road House” could be one of the more successful remakes in recent memory. 

But the film’s premiere has been overshadowed by the Liman’s public protests about Amazon’s decision to release the film directly onto Prime Video without a theatrical run. A public game of finger-pointing has ensued since he openly denounced the rollout, with Liman insisting that Amazon reneged on an agreement to put the film in theaters. Meanwhile, the studio claims that the streaming release was agreed to by all parties as part of a deal to secure a larger budget. Liman is boycotting the SXSW premiere — which, ironically enough, might be the only time the film actually screens in a theater. —CZ

“She Looks Like Me” (Documentary)

Born without legs and abandoned by her biological parents, Junior Olympic gymnast and aerialist Jen Bricker would be a story worth telling on the strength of her athletic accomplishments alone, but that’s not what made her appearance on the late, great “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” one of the most jaw-dropping and incredible segments in the history of a show that gave us 29 years worth of jaw-dropping and incredible segments. No, what made that segment so unforgettable had to do with Bricker’s personal connection to Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu, who she idolized from afar. We don’t know if Torquil Jones’ “She Looks Like Me” will treat their relationship as a mystery capable of being spoiled, or if this feature-length documentary will be able to match the heart-stopping power of the 15-minute “Real Sports” segment that has already become so iconic, but Bricker’s story is one that truly beggars belief, and we’re here for anything that helps to share it with a wider audience. —DE

“This Is a Film About The Black Keys” (24 Beats Per Second)

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, the blues rock duo better known as The Black Keys, are keynote speakers at this year’s SXSW, but they’re coming to the festival not just with a new album to promote, the upcoming “Ohio Players,” but a rock doc to boot. “This Is a Film About The Black Keys,” a title in reference to the album cover for the band’s breakout album “Brothers,” follows their career dating back to the early days of rocking out in their Akron, Ohio basement and being on the road for a solid decade before hitting it big. The documentary is directed by Jeff Dupre, who made last year’s “Never Let Him Go” and was a co-director on “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present.” The film is looking for a distributor. —BW

“Timestalker” (Narrative Spotlight)

British actor and director Alice Lowe directed her gestation horror movie “Prevenge” (2016) while actually pregnant, which just shows how deep into the female psyche she’s willing to go. Her second feature, “Timestalker,” again finds the “Sightseers” co-writer and star on both sides of the camera. The film follows Lowe as Agnes, a woman repeatedly falling for the wrong guy, dying a bleak death, only to get reincarnated in another century and meet the same guy again. How will she break the cycle? This sci-fi rom-com co-stars Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost, and Kate Dickie while spanning 1680s West Scotland, 1790s rural England, 1980s Manhattan, and finally into a 22nd-century apocalypse. We’re big fans of “Prevenge” and Lowe’s work on Ben Wheatley’s deranged 2012 road trip comedy “Sightseers,” making “Timestalker” a genre film to watch at SXSW. —RL

“We Strangers” (Narrative Feature Competition)

Before Sarah Goldberg broke out on “Barry,” she made a short film about abortion called “Lucia, Before and After.” That film, directed by Anu Valia, won a jury prize at Sundance and also played SXSW, and both Valia and Goldberg are reuniting at SXSW with a film playing in competition. “We Strangers” follows a housekeeper named Rayelle who takes a job cleaning a wealthy therapist’s home and then the home of the therapist’s mistress. But things change for her after she tells a white lie that she can speak with the dead. Valia is making her feature debut on the project after cutting her teeth as a TV director on “Never Have I Ever,” “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” “And Just Like That…,” and “The Afterparty.” —BW

“Y2K” (Headliner)

“SNL” veteran Kyle Mooney makes his directorial debut on this comedy that imagines what could have happened if one of the biggest false alarms in human history wasn’t actually so false. Rachel Zegler stars as a high school junior who crashes a New Year’s Eve party on December 31st, 1999 — when the world was engulfed in panic that our computers’ inability to number years in the 2000s would bring civilization to a crushing halt. The actual Y2K was a solvable problem that was quickly fixed, but Mooney’s riff on the events promises to be much worse than even the biggest doomsayers predicted. The film’s blend of ‘90s nostalgia and disaster comedy could make it one of the festival’s breakout hits. —CZ