Get ready, film lovers! The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is rolling out the red carpet for its highly-anticipated 32nd edition, showcasing an impressive array of feature films, and TV series.

This year’s festival promises to deliver an eclectic mix of genre-busting projects, continuing its legacy of championing groundbreaking work. The 2025 lineup boasts 96 Features, including 82 World Premieres, 3 International Premieres, 3 North American Premieres, 2 U.S. Premieres, 6 Texas Premieres, alongside 57 Short Films and 18 Music Videos. The TV Program includes 16 TV projects, with 5 TV premieres, 4 TV Spotlight entries, and 7 Independent TV Pilots. Additionally, the XR Experience Program features 31 projects, including 15 in the XR Experience Competition and 16 in the XR Experience Spotlight.

Kicking off the festival with a bang, the Opening Night TV Premiere is the eagerly awaited Apple TV+ series, The Studio, starring Seth Rogen, who also serves as the showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer, along with Emmy Award-nominee Evan Goldberg.

As the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival promises an exciting event filled with bold, boundary-pushing films and TV shows, we take a closer look at some of the most anticipated films in the Headliners and Narrative Spotlight categories.

Headliners

The Accountant 2

Christian Wolff, a U.S. Treasury agent and secret assassin, is brought out of hiding by Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina after someone close to them is killed by unknown assassins. Wolff must recruit his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax to solve the murder.

  • Director: Gavin O’Connor
  • Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, J.K. Simmons

Death of a Unicorn

    A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat. Their billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties, leading to unexpected consequences.

    • Director: Alex Scharfman
    • Cast: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Jessica Hynes

    Ash

    A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.

      • Director: Flying Lotus
      • Cast: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Ike Uwais, Kate Elliott, Beulah Koale

      Holland

        • Director: Mimi Cave
        • Cast: Nicole Kidman, Jesse Plemons, Matilda Lawler
        • Plot: A small-town American life is turned upside down by a secret, leading to a thrilling mystery.

        Drop (World Premiere)

          • Director: Christopher Landon
          • Cast: Meghann Fahy, Violet McGraw, Jeff Ward, Sarah Yarkin, Zach Tinker
          • Plot: A suspenseful thriller where a group of friends must escape a deadly situation.

          The Astronaut (Sci-Fi Drama)

          After returning from her first space mission, astronaut Sam Walker is placed under NASA’s care at a high security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. However, when disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, she fears that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth.

          • Director: Jess Varley
          • Cast: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne

          The Surfer

          A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point. 

          • Cast: Nicolas Cage
          • Director: Lorcan Finnegan

          The Studio

          Seth Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of embattled Continental Studios leading his core team of infighting executives, as they battle their insecurities, and wrangle narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords in the ever-elusive pursuit of making a great film.

          • Cast: Seth Rogan
          • Directors/Producers: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

          Government Cheese (Series Premiere)

          Government Cheese is a seemingly surrealist family comedy set in 1969 San Fernando Valley that tells the story of the Chambers, a quirky family pursuing lofty and impossible dreams, beautifully unfettered by the realities of the world.

            • Cast: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike
            • Plot: A surreal comedy that explores the absurdities of modern life.

            Happy Face Killer (True Crime Series)

            The true story of a woman discovering that her father is the infamous Happy Face Killer.

            • Director: Michael Showalter
            • Cast: Annaleigh Ashford, Dennis Quaid

            Mermaid

            A Percocet-addicted ‘Florida Man’ finds a wounded mermaid at his lowest point. Fascination becomes a drug infused, one sided relationship — sending him further into decline. When word spreads about his secret, he’ll stop at nothing to protect her. 

            • Cast: Johnny Pemberton, Avery Potemri, Kevin Nealon, Kirk Fox, Tom Arnold, Robert Patrick
            • Director: Tyler Cornack