The 2025 SXSW Movie & TV Competition kicked off Friday, March 7 in Austin with world and North American premieres of flicks in 11 sections, TV exhibits in three sections and a number of other quick movie and digital actuality packages.
This 12 months’s competition kicks off with opening-night movie One other Easy Favor reteaming Paul Feig, Blake Vigorous and Anna Kendrick, with different notable world premiere titles together with Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome, Kate Mara‘s two entries The Astronaut and The Dutchman (the latter additionally starring André Holland), the Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal sequel The Accountant 2, the Nicole Kidman-starring Holland and Dying of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.
Try Deadline’s opinions recaps beneath as movies premiere on the fest, which runs by March 15, and click on on the titles for the complete opinions.
‘One other Easy Favor’
Lorenzo Sisti / Amazon Content material Providers Llc
Part: Headliner
Director: Paul Feig
Forged: Anna Kendrick, Blake Vigorous, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Henry Golding, Allison Janney
Deadline’s takeaway: Whereas some may argue that Feig and writers Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis are too reliant on apparent nods to the unique movie — bringing again acquainted plot gadgets just like the mommy vlog teaser opening and an act-three twist that felt somewhat too recycled — the references in the end add a playful wink to a enjoyable and thrilling movie that stands by itself. — Glenn Garner
‘The Astronaut’
Rocket Energy LLC
Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Jess Varley
Forged: Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, Macy Grey
Deadline’s takeaway: Finally, The Astronaut doesn’t soar fairly as excessive as a number of the higher entries on this universe, notably Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, which I stored fascinated by watching this unfold. Its climax simply feels a bit rushed and somewhat incomplete for this to be greater than a minor addition to a very ripe style. — PH
André Holland and Kate Mara in ‘The Dutchman’
Frank DeMarco/Andre Gaines
Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Andre Beneficial properties
Forged: André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Aldis Hodge, Lauren E. Banks
Deadline’s takeaway: Though the symbolism is robust and the underlying themes might sound somewhat heavy-handed at occasions, on condition that the supply materials was initially written for the stage throughout an entirely troubling period not not like our personal, that’s forgivable. The movie is a dialogue-driven character examine that presents as a journey of self-reflection as a nightmarish fever dream. — GG
Martin Pistorius, topic of ‘Ghost Boy’
SXSW
Part: Visions
Director: Rodney Ascher
Deadline’s takeaway: At an formidable 95 minutes, Ghost Boy tends to lag in locations, however each director and narrator are conscious of their story’s potential to get caught in a groove, and each are there to select up the slack each time it’s wanted. Like all of Ascher’s movies (notably 2021’s A Glitch within the Matrix), it manages to humanize the unthinkable, and its topic will proceed to hang-out you lengthy after the closing credit.. — DW
‘The Threesome’
Star Thrower Leisure
Part: Narrative Highlight
Director: Chad Hartigan
Forged: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Younger-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, Julia Sweeney
Deadline’s takeaway: The soap-opera turns The Threesome takes are within the arms of gifted indie filmmakers who devise a posh story of three younger singles merely searching for love however discover issues pulling them aside and protecting them collectively in methods they by no means might have imagined. — Pete Hammond
