SXSW 2024 Movie Preview: 20 Films We Can’t Wait To See

Anyone who watched Pamela Adlon autobiographical TV series Better Things could tell you that she’s a hell of a director (she helmed all but a tiny handful of episodes during the show’s five-season run). Now she’s set to make her feature debut behind the camera, courtesy of this story about Eden (cowriter Ilana Glazer), a woman who lives a single life as paradisical as her name. Then she accidentally gets pregnant, and seeks counsel from her best friend with kids, Dawn (Michelle Buteau). The supporting cast bench is deep here: Hasan Minhaj, Sandra Bernhard, John Carrol Lynch, Oliver Platt, If Beale Street Could Talk‘s Stephan James, the Lucas brothers. And since it’s been given the key Saturday night slot at the Paramount, we’re anticipating this to be a particularly big premiere for the 2024 fest.

Based on Jason Parham’s absolutely essential three-part article for Wired Magazine, this docuseries covers the evolution of the then-new social media platform as a communal space for Black users around the end of the aughts. Sometimes it meant a collective response over something ridiculous (see: Meet Me in Temecula), sometimes it meant reveling in sharing experiences and Black joy, and sometimes it meant calling out an epidemic of racially charges incidents and helping to kickstart a movement. But as this multi-episode oral history reminds you, the phrase “Black Twitter” became part of the cultural lexicon for a reason.

One was a Mexican-American from Watts who moved to Vancouver to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War. The other was a Chinese-Canadian musician who’d recorded for Motown. They met in the Great White North, and ended up working together as a duo that would become the Rosetta stone(rs) of 1970s drug humor. Behold, the saga of Cheech & Chong! Producer-turned-documentarian David Bushell digs into the long, wild and sometimes tumultuous history of one of the greatest comedy double acts ever, combining archival footage with new interviews from Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong. Smoke ’em if you got ’em, folks.

Easily one of the most anticipated premieres of the festival — and eagerly awaited movies of 2024 overall — the latest dystopian bad dream from filmmaker Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men) imagines a not-so-distant future in which America is embroiled in a 21st century war, thanks to a power-hungry POTUS, a partisan political system that’s been weaponized and the complete lack of unity among our formerly united states. [Gulp] Yes, this movie is a work of fiction, at least for the time being. Kirsten Dunst , Wagner Moura, Priscilla‘s Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman and Stephen McKinley Henderson are among the chess pieces on this particular worst-case-scenario board.

It’s bad enough that Gretchen (Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer) is being dragged along on her dad’s relocation to Germany with his new family — the fact that she’s stuck at a resort in the Bavarian Alps, run by a seriously creepy owner (Dan Stevens), only makes things that much worse. Then she starts hearing strange noises coming from the nearby woods and experiencing odd déjà vu episodes, and quicker than you can say Grimms’ Fairy Tales, this young woman finds herself in the middle of a Euro-dread nightmare. The word on the street after the Berlin Film Festival premiere of writer-director Tilman Singer’s genre flick is that it’s a mix of folksy horror and late-giallo nuttiness. Sold!

A new movie by Bill and Turner Ross — the sibling duo who gave us the David-Byrne-discovers-high-school-color-guards doc Contemporary Color (2016) and the barfly love letter Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) — is always a lovely thing to look forward to. And the word out of last year’s Venice Film Festival was that this improvised coming-of-age film, starring actual Pacific Northwestern teens playing loose versions of themselves, is supposedly their strongest hybrid, real-to-reel work to date. Sick of kicking rocks in their tiny hometown in Oregon, a group of young adults decide to hit the road and see the ocean. From there, the Ross brothers orchestrate situations and encounters for these kids to play off of dramatically. Sound pretentious? Totally. Will this likely be a poetic mediation on living in the moment in that beautiful limbo period between childhood and adulthood? In these filmmakers’ hands, almost assuredly yes.

Trying to make ends meet in Paris, a single mother named Nour (Paterson‘s Golshifteh Farahani) works side hustles ranging from smuggling rare animals to linking up the neighborhood’s mystics, spiritual healers and more supernaturally inclined types with clients. A new computer app she’s designed — think Tindr but for holy men instead of dates — may finally be the thing that puts her and her son on the path to a brighter future. Then something goes very wrong, and Nour is a banlieue pariah who’s running for her life. Saïd Belktibia’s directorial debut sounds like a white-knuckle ride through several genres as once. And the fact that this is produced by Ladj Ly, one of the most exciting filmmakers to come out of France in recent years (he directed Les Misérables and cowrote Athena), bodes extremely well.

Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) have been together for 10 years, and they’re about to adopt a baby. Before that lifechanging event happens, however, this couple has a nice, relaxing vacation planned in Italy to celebrate Cole’s birthday. Everything seems molto bene once they arrive. Then a few days into their trip, their car breaks down, after dark and in the middle of nowhere, and …did we mention neither of these Americans speak Italian? SXSW has this listed under both “Comedy” and “Horror” in its program notes, which pretty much tells you the tone that writer-directors David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano are going for with this tourists’ nightmare of a story.

In 2022, Jarrod Carmichael released Rothaniel, a groundbreaking special in which the stand-up talked about coming out to his parents. This HBO docuseries essentially maps out the aftermath, as the Emmy-winning comedian starts to explore his sexuality, balances a hectic personal and professional life, and deals with the friction within his immediate family over him exiting the closet. Carmichael’s work has always blurred the line between comic and confessional; his decision to allow cameras to follow him around in his most vulnerable state suggests he’s about to erase that barrier entirely.

In February 2021, the band with the number one album on the U.K. charts was …Mogwai. Yes, that Mogwai — the Scottish quartet fronted by Stuart Braithwaite that, for nearly 30 years, has perfected a certain type of post-rock instrumental song that’s sometimes quiet and stark, sometimes layered and deafening, and always an emotional experience. The manner in which this cult group, beloved by 1990s indie-rock nerds and who spent decades chasing a specific sound, found their latest record As the Love Continues ascending to the top of the pop heap forms the backbone of Antony Crook’s music doc. But this also sounds like a dream for anyone who’s ever put on Come On Die Young late one night and found themselves weeping before the final notes of “Christmas Steps” rang out. Mogwai hive, activate. Our time has come.

In the future, every actor will star in a hyperkinetic, John Wick-style revenge thriller for 15 minutes. Now it’s Dev Patel’s turn. The Slumdog Millionaire actor also makes his directorial debut with this story of a mystery man who works in a ritzy nightclub when he’s not pummeling folks on the underground fight circuit while wearing a monkey mask. The gent is channeling a mythic Hindu figure known as Hanuman, a great warrior king — which will come in handy, as the reason he’s working his way into the good graces of the upper crust is to put a hurting on them. Things are going to get bloody, in other words. Bonus: Jordan Peele produced what looks like one gloriously pulpy tale of payback.

Have you ever wondered if you’ve just been living the same horrible week over and over week again? Zoya Lowe (Mary Louise Parker) understands what you’re going through. This quantum physicist has been stuck in a perpetual loop of the last seven days of her life for what seems to have been ages, and it’s driving her crazy. When she meets a young, up-and-coming scientist (The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri) who’s studying the ins and out of time, however, Zoya thinks the two of them can come up with a solution to this endless rinse-repeat cycle. Writer-director Bernardo Britto’s existentialist dramedy reads like fine addition to the make-it-Groundhog’s-Day-but different genre, and the pairing of Parker and Edebiri feels like an oddly perfect screen duo.

We’re admittedly curious about the directorial debut of Olmo Schnabel (yes, he is indeed related to Julian Schnabel, thank you for asking), which has been making the rounds on the festival circuit for a hot minute. It centers around Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal), a young man living in Mexico who hightails it to New York. Once there, he meets Jack (cowriter Jack Irv), and the two go on a long, scuzzy, hedonistic bender that leads to a torrid romance — at least until the past catches up with Alejandro. The cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard, Emmanuelle Beigner, Angela Sarafyan, Y Tu Mamá También‘s Maribel Verdú and Louis Cancelmi. Martin Scorsese and Jeremy O. Harris are producers. Like we said, we’re curious.

“I’ll Take You There.” “Soul Man.” “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” “Green Onions.” “Try a Little Tenderness.” “Hold On! I’m Comin’.” “Walking the Dog.” “Mr. Big Stuff.” The freaking theme from Shaft!!! Do we really need to keep naming immortal hit records that came out of Stax, because there are plenty more where those came from. This doc on the Memphis label that helped define soul music in the 1960s and ’70s will hopefully have all of those cuts and some deeper ones in there too, as it looks back at how Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton’s recording company gathered together first-rate singers, songwriters and musicians in the name of a classic sound that will still make you shake your ass today.

Have you heard the one about the porn star who could possibly take down a former president/would-be fascist? If you somehow don’t know about Stormy Daniels and the part she’s played in modern politics, rest assured: Sarah Gibson’s documentary will fill you in on all of the pertinent, and likely torrid details. It also promises to give you a deeper look at the woman behind the headlines, as Ms. Daniels tries to be a good mother and an advocate for change while also dealing with… well, that whole Trump thing.

From the brilliantly batty mind of British writer-director-comedian Alice Lowe (Prevenge, Gareth Marengi’s Dark Places) comes this tale of true love — or rather, truly obsessive love — throughout the ages. In the 16th century, a peasant worships a possible messiah. Right before death separates the woman from the object of her affection, she vows to find him again. And so she does, over many centuries and reincarnations, with each encounter ending in more or less the same manner. Lowe plays the smitten hero in all of her incarnations, The Goldfinch‘s Aneurin Barnard is her eternal soulmate, and Nick Frost and Jacob Anderson (a.k.a. Grey Worm from Game of Thrones) each play recurring roles in the lovers’ quest for a reunion.

In which two scruffy young dudes from Akron, Ohio, with a shared affinity for R.L. Burnside start a band, get in the van, almost break up, hit it big — very big — and then try to figure out how navigate being the saviors of rock & roll while remembering they’re the still same scruffy, if-not-quite-as-young-as-before dudes from Akron, Ohio. Director Jeff Dupre traces the 20-plus year arc of singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney’s duo, from their early days selling an indie version of gutbucket blues to headlining arenas and attempting to keep their hands off each others’ throats. Baby, they’re howlin’ for you.

For the nation, the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was a tragedy. For Alex Jones, it was an opportunity — to peddle conspiracy theories, to rile up his listeners, to cause outrage spikes for traffic and drive folks to buy the products he was hawking on his website. After years of harassment thanks to his constant accusations that the massacre was a “hoax” and a “false flag operation,” several families took Jones to court — and ended up winning the largest defamation-lawsuit verdict in U.S. history. Documentarian Dan Reed (Leaving Neverland) lays out how the InfoWars founder was finally forced to account for feeding a steady diet of fake news to fanatics.

Is there anything worse than an unannounced, uninvited house guest showing up to your swank dinner party? How about if said stranger not only seems to know everything about your guests and your place of residence, but claims that they actually live there? We’re not sure where this story of the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie being tested might be headed, but given that writer-director Nadia Conners has enlisted Pedro Pascal, Walton Goggins, Rufus Sewell, Lois Smith and Elisabeth Reaser to take us there, we’re game.

Former SNL star Kyle Mooney steps behind the camera for a period piece — listen, 1999 was a quarter of a century ago, this movie may as well be a costume drama — set at the very, very, very end of the last millennium. As in, right before the the 20th century glided into the past and everyone was paranoid about the Y2K bug bringing modern society to its knees. And when two high school juniors played by Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) and Jaeden Martell (It, Knives Out) sneak into the cool kids’ New Year’s Eve party, apparently things turn into, per the press notes, a “dial-up disaster comedy.” Rachel Zegler, Alicia Silverstone and Tim Heidecker costar.