It’s that time of year again and yes, no rest for the wicked. Following the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale, Austin, Texas, gets its day in the humid sun this week with the 2024 edition of the SXSW Film & TV Festival. As its new-ish title suggests, SXSW is no longer just a film festival and has expanded in recent years to make room for the glut of streaming content and re-emerged second golden age of filmmaker-driven prestige TV.
That said, if you look at it in the aggregate, SXSW is still predominantly programmed with film, TV arguably being slightly minimized this year (which would make sense given we’ve seen a streaming retraction in recent years).
Regardless, The SXSW Film & TV Festival promises a lot of great treats this year. A new A24 political thriller from Alex Garland (“Civil War”), a new Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt action thriller from director David Leitch (“The Fall Guy”), the remake of “Road House” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, a new Anne Hathaway rom-com dramedy from director Micheal Showalter (“The Idea Of You”), and much much more.
The TV premiere section is undoubtedly led by “3 Body Problem,” the ambitious sci-fi series from the creators of “Game Of Thrones,” and a big expensive bet by Netflix that they can deliver in the same way again. Other notable premieres include MAX’s “Hacks” season 3, the first new episode of the acclaimed comedy series, “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” featuring the eponymous famed comedian, the premiere of the finale season of “Star Trek Discovery,” and a Duplass Brothers Indie TV Showcase that features several of their upcoming small-scale shows. Below, our entire preview list of what to watch, though it’s just the tip of the iceberg and you can check out the full SXSW line-up here.
“Fall Guy”
Action filmmaker David Leitch (“Bullet Train,” “Deadpool 2”) reimagines the 1970s “Fall Guy” TV series into an action comedy about a battle-scarred stuntman (Ryan Gosling) who is drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie—directed by his ex (Emily Blunt)—goes missing. Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Stephanie Hsu co-star.
“Babes”
“Better Things” creator/writer/director and comedienne Pamela Adlon makes her feature-length debut with “Babes,” a pregnancy comedy that stars and is co-written by “Broad City” star Ilana Glazer. After becoming pregnant from a one-night stand, Eden (Glazer) leans on her married best friend and mother of two, Dawn, to guide her through gestation and beyond. Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj, and John Carroll Lynch star.
“Civil War”
Sci-fi writer/director Alex Garland, whose last foray into filmmaking was horror with “Men,” made another kind of terrifying film in “Civil War,” a provocative political drama and adrenaline-fueled thriller that imagines a new future the United States so divided it’s broken out into unrest, conflict, and all-out civil war. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman star.
“The Idea of You”
Following several successful comedies and dramedies (“The Big Sick”) and dramas centering on strong female protagonists (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” “The Drop Out”), Michael Showalter returns with a romantic dramedy starring Anne Hathaway. The film centers on a 40-year-old single mom (Hathaway) who begins an unexpected romance with a 24-year-old pop star—the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet that she meets by chance at Coachella. Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin, Reid Scott, Annie Mumolo, Viktor White, Raymond Cham, Jaiden Anthony, and Dakota Adan co-star.
“Monkey Man”
“Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel goes from charming leading man to hard-charging action filmmaker and lethal fighter in his directorial debut “Monkey Man.” Patel’s directorial debut is an action thriller about a man’s vengeance against the man who murdered his mother. Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, and Adithi Kalkunte co-star.