Variety staff chose eight standout films and TV titles from the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin. The abbreviated seven-day event featured gory comedies, documentaries, and a returning HBO series amid themes of horror humor. Highlights span studio headliners and indies seeking distribution.
The 2026 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival, held over seven days in Austin, drew crowds with a mix of blood-soaked laughs, emotional documentaries, and celebrity-driven projects. Variety highlighted eight favorites from the event, noting strength in the headliners section with studio-backed films like Boots Riley's sci-fi comedy I Love Boosters, starring Keke Palmer alongside Demi Moore, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Eiza González, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle. It premiered as the opening night film and hits theaters via Neon on May 22. Other headliners included Jorma Taccone's comedic thriller Over Your Dead Body with Jason Segel and Samara Weaving, supported by Juliette Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Paul Guilfoyle, and Keith Jardine, and Kirill Sokolov's horror comedy They Will Kill You, starring Zazie Beetz. Sokolov praised Beetz in a 10-minute introduction as “a warrior goddess, a force of nature in the shape of a woman, a demon slayer, the queen of tears and pain, and the coolest samurai,” with the film set for Warner Bros. release on March 27. TV addition shone with The Comeback Season 3 premiere on March 16 at Paramount Theatre, created by Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow stars as Valerie Cherish, now leading an AI-written comedy; the final season arrives on HBO March 22 after an 11.5-year gap. Documentaries featured Netflix's Noah Kahan: Out of Body, directed by Nick Sweeney, tracking the singer-songwriter's rise amid fame, depression, and body dysmorphia, streaming April 13. Indies included The Fox, an Australian satire voiced by Olivia Colman with Jai Courtney and Emily Browning, directed by Dario Russo; Peter Warren's Kill Me, starring Charlie Day and Allison Williams; and Their Town, written by Mark Duplass, directed by Katie Aselton, featuring their daughter Ora Duplass and Chosen Jacobs. These picks underscore SXSW's affinity for gory humor and heartfelt indies.
