HtN’s 10 Most Anticipated Films of SXSW ’25

Though we will for once not have boots on the ground for SXSW 2025, that doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking about the festival in this 31^st iteration of its Film & TV conference, which runs March 7-15. As always, SXSW is perfectly positioned in the year, following Sundance and Berlin, to launch a great variety of films and episodic series, as well as immersive experiences (as in VR, AR, XR, etc.). What follows are some recommendations of what to see from the critics on our roster—lead critic Christopher Llewellyn Reed and Editor-at-Large Matt Delman—who have either had access to advance screeners or are just excited about the program. Enjoy!

Good Boy (Ben Leonberg)

While horror is not my preferred genre, the premise of Ben Leonberg’s first feature, Good Boy, looked intriguing. Using his own dog, Indy, the director shot a creepy, supernatural narrative mostly from the perspective of the trusted canine companion. Once I watched, I discovered that the film was far more a meditation on mortality, death, and the afterlife than merely a creative genre piece. As such, it delivers thrills and heartfelt sentiment supported by a strong script. It helps that Indy is a natural in front of the camera. (Christopher Llewellyn Reed)

F*cktoys (Annapurna Sriram)

Sure to raise a lot of eyebrows, Annapurna Sriram’s F*cktoys is a transgressive take on the Tarot’s fool journey. Shot in grungy and colorful 16mm, it looks similar to Sean Baker’s Red Rocket which was also shot on 16. Before you complain about the title, remember there was another SXSW film, Cooper Raiff’s debut entitled Sh*thouse, which won the grand jury prize, and when IFC acquired it, they didn’t change the name. Lifting a curse is always such a fun obstacle in movies (well maybe not for the protagonist) but for the viewers: strap in, because F*cktoys is one wild ride. (Matt Delman)

A still from F*CKTOYS

Mix Tape (Lucy Gaffy)

Part of the episodic program, Mix Tape is a series to be released on the Australian streamer Binge. Directed by Lucy Gaffy (Here Out West), it is an adaptation of Jane Sanderson’s eponymous 2020 novel, and follows the meet-cute, if never-quite-consummated, teenage relationship of Daniel O’Toole and Alison Connor. Raised in the English working-class town of Sheffield, they are now, years later, half a world apart, Alison having moved to Australia. They are both married, with one child each. Two episodes were made available to critics—the ones playing at the festival—and they set up the narrative with poignant nostalgia for love and innocence past, buoyed by late-1980s music recorded to the titular cassettes. Teresa Palmer (Ride Like a Girl) and Jim Sturgess (Alone Together) star as the adult Alison and Dan, while Florence Hunt and Rory Walton-Smith play, with especially heartbreaking sensitivity, the younger versions. I look forward to seeing what happens next! (CLR)

Creede USA (Kahane Cooperman)

This life affirming documentary is especially relevant after our recent election, and is positioned to bridge the political divide. An old Colorado mining town of 300 people reckons with sexual education in their tiny school. When did the term ‘male’ become a ‘body with a penis’? When the theater was brought to town, it introduced with it an artist community that came with different perspectives. That dichotomy is at the center of Creede USA. Cooperman’s camera spends time with many different townsfolk, and one lovely non-binary child featured in the film who has a resemblance to Greta Thunberg with equal moxie. She has a deep love for theater, and wants to ultimately return to Creede after going to train at an acting school like Julliard. Actor Mandy Patinkin, who was a member of the theater and still owns a house there, is proof that stars can be born anywhere. (MD)

My Uncle Jens (Brwa Vahabpour)

Akam (Peiman Azizpour)—an Iranian Kurd who emigrated to Norway as a child—lives a peaceable existence as a high-school literature teacher in Oslo, sharing a flat with two roommates, when the calm normalcy of his routine is shattered by the arrival of Uncle Khdr (Hamza Agooshi), whom he has not seen for ages. Assuming that Akam’s roomies wouldn’t be able to pronounce his name, Khdr introduces himself as the more Scandinavian-sounding Jens. What ensues is a comedy of errors and misunderstandings that gradually morphs into a touching examination of family, culture, and the plight of refugees. Mixing humor and pathos, director Brwa Vahabpour (making his feature debut) refuses to go for easy laughs or easy solutions. The result is satisfying on both a narrative and emotional level. (CLR)

Are We Good? (Steven Feinartz)

When beloved indie filmmaker Lynn Shelton unexpectedly passed away, her partner comedian and podcaster Marc Maron may have felt the most pain. He processes his grief on and off stage in Steven Feinart’s Are We Good?, and Maron gets a co-directing credit. Mortality seems to weigh heavy on everyone’s mind these days, and Maron’s philosophy always has a special flavor of wicked wisdom. (MD)

A still from REAL FACES

Real Faces (Leni Huyghe)

Julia (Leonie Buysse) has just returned to Brussels from London following a romantic break-up. Her current gig is as a casting director for a perfume commercial, which requires her to find models from among the city’s ordinary denizens. She also has to deal with the creepy director, David (Yoann Blanc, Beasts), whom she first meets at a reception where he makes an awkward pass. On the brighter side, she has just rented a room in a flat owned by Eliot (Gorges Ocloo), a biologist working on his dissertation about lichens, which he collects from around the city to preserve and return to the biosphere. As Julia navigates the treacherous terrain of her professional life, she and Eliot form an unlikely friendship that takes a turn for the strange when she asks him to audition for the commercial. Filled with moments of genuine rapport between the characters, and moving sequences involving those brought in for casting, the film offers more than just “real faces,” director Leni Huyghe also delivering real humanity, in all its beauty and grotesquerie, at every turn. Hard to believe it’s but her first feature. (CLR)

Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)

After premiering at TIFF to a riotous response, director Andrew DeYoung and A24 bring Friendship to Austin for what’s sure to be an equally raucous screening. Tim Robinson’s character befriends Paul Rudd’s character as neighbors, but what happens when Paul just doesn’t want to hang out anymore? If the trailer is any indication: madness. The film seems somewhere in between I Think You Should Leave and I Love You Man but DeYoung brings his own take to the absurd premise. I can’t wait to laugh my ass off. (MD)

Surviving Earth (Thea Gajić)

Thea Gajić is yet another director making her feature debut. Based on a true story, her Surviving Earth tells the story of Serbian-born Vlad (Slavko Sobin, Only When I Laugh), who emigrated to England following the 1990s Balkan conflicts and now works as a drug counsellor while pursuing musical dreams in the evening. A former addict himself, he also strives to mend fences with his adult daughter, Maria (Olive Gray, Paramount Plus’ Halo series), who lives with her mother in London. Vlad is in a three-man Balkan-music band—he plays the harmonica—which has a modest following, but longs for greater things, and so sets up a big concert for themselves alone (they usually open for others). Unfortunately, as the financial and performance pressures mount, he threatens to slide back into bad habits, putting everything he’s worked for at risk. Sobin and Gray are terrific in their parts, and the movie is a mostly effective study of addiction that only goes awry in its final overwrought conclusion. (CLR)

The Age of Disclosure (Dan Farah)

People love aliens, UFOs and UAPs. Maybe not drones so much anymore since they terrorized New Jersey. But Dan Farah’s Age of Disclosure sounds like the definitive documentary on the subject, with 34 senior members of the Government revealing an 80 year cover up. Also potentially a secret arms race to reverse engineer the alien technology?  If there are indeed intelligent lifeforms piloting these mysterious aircraft, I say we send Will Smith after them. (MD)

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed & Matt Delman

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