The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicked off Friday, March 7 in Austin with world and North American premieres of movies in 11 sections, TV shows in three sections and several short film and virtual reality programs.
This year’s festival kicks off with opening-night film Another Simple Favor reteaming Paul Feig, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, with other notable world premiere titles including Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome, Kate Mara‘s two entries The Astronaut and The Dutchman (the latter also starring André Holland), the Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal sequel The Accountant 2, the Nicole Kidman-starring Holland and Death of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.
Check out Deadline’s reviews recaps below as films premiere at the fest, which runs through March 15, and click on the titles for the full reviews.
‘The Accountant 2’
Amazon MGM Studios
Section: HeadlinerDirector: Gavin O’ConnorCast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, J.K. SimmonsDeadline’s takeaway: Nearly a decade after The Accountant, the sequel stands perfectly on its own while delving further into the dynamics that felt halfheartedly introduced the first time around, like Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal hitting perfect comedic chemistry as estranged brothers who still know how to push each other’s buttons. — GG
‘Another Simple Favor’
Lorenzo Sisti / Amazon Content Services Llc
Section: HeadlinerDirector: Paul FeigCast: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Henry Golding, Allison Janney Deadline’s takeaway: While some might argue that Feig and writers Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis are too reliant on obvious nods to the original film — bringing back familiar plot devices like the mommy vlog teaser opening and an act-three twist that felt a little too recycled — the references ultimately add a playful wink to a fun and exciting film that stands on its own. — GG
‘The Astronaut’
Rocket Power LLC
Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Jess VarleyCast: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, Macy GrayDeadline’s takeaway: Ultimately, The Astronaut doesn’t soar quite as high as some of the better entries in this universe, notably Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which I kept thinking about watching this unfold. Its climax just feels a bit rushed and a little incomplete for this to be more than a minor addition to an overly ripe genre. — PH
‘Death of a Unicorn’
Andrew Wonder
Section: HeadlinerDirector: Alex ScharfmanCast: Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Carrigan, Téa Leoni, Jessica Hynes, Sunita Mani, Stephen ParkDeadline’s takeaway: And while the film touches on some serious issues through a humorous lens — like addiction, price-gouging and science deniers — the message felt uneven, hidden beneath a comedy horror that struggles to find its footing, despite its star-studded roster. — GG
André Holland and Kate Mara in ‘The Dutchman’
Frank DeMarco/Andre Gaines
Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Andre GainsCast: André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Aldis Hodge, Lauren E. BanksDeadline’s takeaway: Although the symbolism is strong and the underlying themes might seem a little heavy-handed at times, given that the source material was originally written for the stage during a wholly troubling era not unlike our own, that’s forgivable. The film is a dialogue-driven character study that presents as a journey of self-reflection as a nightmarish fever dream. — GG
Amanda Peet and Matthew Shear in ‘Fantasy Life’ at SXSW
SXSW
Section: Narrative FeatureDirector: Matthew ShearCast: Amanda Peet, Matthew Shear, Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, Sheng WangDeadline’s takeaway: Shear has crafted a classic kind of family dynamic for this kind of smart, dialogue-driven comedy but he shows a great deal of promise in carefully keeping the inherent drama beneath the surface, particularly involving mental illness and depression, without using any of it as the butt of a joke. These characters and their deep anxieties and life problems feel very real. — PH
Martin Pistorius, subject of ‘Ghost Boy’
SXSW
Section: VisionsDirector: Rodney AscherCast: Jett HarrisDeadline’s takeaway: At an ambitious 95 minutes, Ghost Boy tends to lag in places, but both director and narrator are aware of their story’s potential to get stuck in a groove, and both are there to pick up the slack whenever it’s needed. Like all of Ascher’s films (notably 2021’s A Glitch in the Matrix), it manages to humanize the unthinkable, and its subject will continue to haunt you long after the closing credits. — DW
‘Lifehack’
SXSW
Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Ronan CorriganCast: Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, Roman Hayeck-Green, James Scholz, Jessica Reynolds, Charlie Creed-MilesDeadline’s takeaway: For my money this is hands down the best Screenlife movie yet, a dazzling marriage of online skill, clever storytelling, brilliant editing, and acting within the confines of your computer screen that rivals the best of any heist film in recent years. — PH
Polly Maberly in ‘Odyssey’
Paul Stephenson
Section: VisionsDirector: Gerard JohnsonCast: Polly Maberly, Mikael Persbrandt, Jasmine Blackborow, Guy Burnet, Ryan Hayes, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Kellie ShirleyDeadline’s takeaway: Key to the film’s success is leading lady Maberly, a great British actress who seems to be have been hiding in plain sight so far. Maberly is the glue that binds together what could so easily have looked like two very different scripts cut in half and jammed together. — DW
‘The Threesome’
Star Thrower Entertainment
Section: Narrative SpotlightDirector: Chad HartiganCast: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, Julia SweeneyDeadline’s takeaway: The soap-opera turns The Threesome takes are in the hands of talented indie filmmakers who devise a complex tale of three young singles simply looking for love but find complications pulling them apart and keeping them together in ways they never could have imagined. — PH
