Arriving just a few short days following the Oscars is wild—last year they overlapped, but I guess I memory-holed that one—but there’s no rest for the wicked of the entertainment industry as the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicks off today.
SXSW is shaping up to be an excellent event, showcasing diverse films and TV series that promise to engage audiences. This year’s festival, from March 7-14, 2025, features an impressive line-up of 96 feature films, including 82 world premieres, three international premieres, three North American premieres, and two U.S. premieres. Additionally, the TV program includes 16 TV projects, with five TV premieres.
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025
One of the most anticipated highlights of the festival is the opening night TV premiere of “The Studio,” an Apple TV+ series starring Seth Rogen, who also serves as showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer alongside Emmy Award-nominee Evan Goldberg. 
Among the notable film premieres is “Another Simple Favor,” directed by Paul Feig and starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, the sequel to their 2018 collaboration. Additional standouts include A24’s dark comedy “Death of a Unicorn,” starring Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Anthony Carrigan, Will Poulter and more;  Mimi Cave’s “Holland,” with Nicole Kidman, Flying Lotus’ “Ash,” starring Eiza Gonzalez, Ben Affleck’s “The Accountant 2,” Jess Varley’s “The Astronaut,” with Kate Mara, Christopher Landon’s “Drop,” and many more. 
With such a rich and diverse line-up, the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival promises to be a memorable experience for attendees. Here are 21 picks of films or series to watch. 
“The Studio”Are TikTok, YouTube, and dissociative attention-span-ruined Gen Z destroying Hollywood, which is circling the drain and on its last legs? If so, showrunners, creators, writers, and directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will have a big laugh at this moment of fragile Tinstleown anxiety and crisis. Rogen stars as the newly appointed head of embattled movie studio and movies struggle to stay alive and relevant he and his core team of infighting executives also face a similar struggle of significance. Battling their insecurities while wrangling narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords, they are all, nonetheless, in the ever-elusive pursuit of making great films. From AppleTV+, the series also co-stars Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, and Kathryn Hahn, with dozens of guest stars playing themselves, such as Bryan Cranston, Rebecca Hall, Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi, Anthony Mackie and many more.

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“Another Simple Favor”A sequel to the hit suspenseful black comedy mystery, “A Simple Favor,” filmmaker Paul Feig returns to follow the aftermath of a seemingly innocent favor that spirals into a web of secrets and lies. Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) reunite on the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a wealthy Italian businessman. Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho return along with newcomers Elizabeth Perkins, Alex Newell, Allison Janney and more.

“The Astronaut” After returning from her first space mission, an astronaut, played by Kate Mara, is placed under NASA surveillance due to fears of an extraterrestrial presence. The feature-length debut of actress/filmmaker Jess Varley (“Joshy”), this sci-fi horror film also features Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, and Macy Gray.
“Death Of A Unicorn”Known for producing “Resurrection” (2022) and “Blow the Man Down” (2019), indie filmmaker Alex Scharfman makes his feature-length directorial debut with a dark A24 comedy. Starring Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, and Anthony Carrigan, ‘Unicorn’ centers on a father and daughter who accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat. When the father’s billionaire boss learns of the rarity of their discovery, he seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties, but there are dark consequences to be found.

“For Worse”  The directorial debut of actress Amy Landecker (“Transparent”),  this comedy romance follows a newly divorced, sober mom who accompanies her Gen Z date to a wedding. Things go wrong when she tries to keep up with the younger wedding party and turns into a wild bridesmaid. Missi Pyle and Simon Helberg star alongside Josh Zuckerman, Ken Marino, Kiersey Clemons, Lilli Kay and Landecker herself.