The 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicked off March 7, in Austin and features 49 world premieres among debuts. It’s the first time the event has launched on a Thursday.
Boots Riley’s sci-fi comedy I Love Boosters was the opening-night film, and other anticipated films include Searchlight’s Radio Silence sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, New Line’s Samara Weaving-Zazie Beetz horror action comedy They Will Kill YouLionsgate’s John Carney-directed music movie Power Ballad starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, the Vince Vaughn gangster pic Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice and Jorma Taccone’s couples-trying-to-kill-each-other pic Over Your Dead Body.
Here is a compilation of Deadline’s movie reviews from the 33rd anniversary fest, which runs through March 18 in the Texas capital.
‘I Love Boosters’
Neon/Everett Collection
Section: Headliner
Director-screenwriter: Boots Riley
Cast: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi Moore
Deadline’s takeaway: Boots Riley’s sophomore feature is a surreal, hyperpop love letter to creatives living under capitalism that successfully captures the hopelessness of our current capitalist dystopia. The camp factor is evident in every frame. — GG
‘Grind’
Yellow Veil Pictures
Section: Narrative Feature Competition
Directors: Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, Chelsea Stardust
Cast: Barbara Crampton, Rob Huebel, Christopher Marquette, Jessika Van, Vinny Thomas, Mercedes Mason, Matt Mercer, Aubrey Shea
Deadline’s takeaway: The ingenious horror-comedy anthology achieves the almost unthinkable: while it delivers the requisite laughs and shocks — never an easy balance to strike, even at the best of times — it is just as effective in its jabs at the gig economy as anything by Britain’s Ken Loach or any other director from the school of social realism. — DW
‘Seekers of Infinite Love’
SXSW
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director-screenwriter: Victoria Strouse
Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Justin Theroux, John Reynolds, Griffin Gluck, Justine Lupe, Greg Kinnear, David Ury, Michelle Johnston, Andrea Pyle
Deadline’s takeaway: Smart, sharply written and directed comedies are a rare bird these days, but Victoria Strouse takes a situation that easily could have sailed over the top, cast it intelligently and created some outrageously funny situations. — PH
The Shaggs
Geoffrey Weiss
Section: 24 Beats Per Minute
Director: Ken Kwapis
Deadline’s takeaway: This charming documentary sees the strange, one-album band of sisters known as The Shaggs for who they really and were, pushing past the “outsider art” label to arrive at something much more dignified, personal and, ultimately, moving. — DW
‘Wishful Thinking‘
Christopher Ripley
Section: Narrative Feature Competition
Writer-director: Graham Parkes
Cast: Lewis Pullman, Maya Hawke, Randall Park, Jake Shane, Kate Berlant, Amita Rao, Eric Rahill
Deadline’s takeaway: Wishful Thinking is ultimately a dreamy romantic comedy about the lengths people will go for the ones they love, as well as the realization that they need inner harmony to foster a harmonious relationship with others. — GG
