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 You, Lionsgate’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
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
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