SXSW 2026 Watchlist
Every year, I look forward to the incredible lineup at SXSW. This year feels particularly curated to my personal, off-the-wall taste, and I am here for it, Baby. Here are just 12 of the films and TV pilots I am stoked to get my eyeballs on starting this week!!
SXSW 2026 runs from March 12-18th. Do. Not. Miss. It.
When Jamie, ungovernable 40-something wild child collides with her venomous mother, Anne, her life blows up spectacularly leaving her evicted and single. This sends Jamie on a pig in a hurricane journey for “home”; breaking into her Nana’s house to prove it should be hers, a rejected bid to move in with her van-dwelling punk rock ex, and a stint in her best friends pied a terre, which ends with Jamie hooking up with her husband.
I like to think I am ungovernable, I whisper to myself as I go grocery shopping and run the PTO. I can surely live vicariously through Anne’s shenanigans.

Timid Catholic school dork Edie Arnold is dragged to a punk show where a mishap lands her on stage behind the drums. She’s mortified… but a natural. Convinced by her best friend, she secretly forms a band called The NunDead. Her newfound confidence leads to a date with the altar boy but also a fight that gets her suspended. Thinking she bailed on their first gig, her bandmates bust her out of the house just in time to win a Battle of the Bands. But when she faces expulsion and her mother’s wrath at a disciplinary hearing, footage of her kick-ass performance has an unexpected effect on her mom.
Hi! Former Catholic school kid here. Hi, former punk band member. Battle of the Bads? Almost. I hosted. In spirit, another film that someone makes beatuful misfits like me feel seen. Do not miss it.

A wandering medium, Airi spends her life guiding restless spirits out of the world of the living. Summoned to an isolated country house, she comes face to face with a grotesque apparition with powers that defy Airi’s experience. As she digs deeper into the house’s past, a secret comes to light — and Airi finds herself hunted by a far more unpredictable force. For the first time, her greatest adversary is not the supernatural, but the living.


SXSW 2025
Director: Gerard Johnson, Producers: John Jencks, Isabel Freer, Matthew James Wilkinson, Patrick Tolan, Screenwriters: Gerard Johnson, Austin Collings
Director: Elaine Epstein, Producers: Elaine Epstein, Robin Hessman
Directors/Screenwriters: Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak, Producers: Maria Gołoś, Monika Matuszewska
Director/Screenwriter: Alex Scharfman, Producers: Drew Houpt, Lucas Joaquin, Alex Scharfman, Lars Knudsen, Tyler Campellone, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page
Director: Yana Alliata, Producer: Jack Forbes, Screenwriters: Yana Alliata, Amy Miner
Director: Jessica Earnshaw, Producers: Holly Meehl Chapman, Jessica Earnshaw
Director: Eli Craig, Producers: Marty Bowen, John Fischer, Wyck Godfrey, Screenwriters: Carter Blanchard, Adam Cesare, Eli Craig
Director/Screenwriter: Kaspar Astrup Schröder, Producers: Maria Helga Stürup, Katrine A. Sahlstrøm
Director/Screenwriter: Amy Landecker, Producers: Amy Landecker, Bradley Whitford, Valerie Stadler, Jenica Bergere, James Portolese
Director/Screenwriter: Geremy Jasper, Producers: Michael Gottwald, Noah Stahl
Director: Kahane Corn Cooperman, Producers: Innbo Shim, Kahane Corn Cooperman
Director: Anayansi Prado, Producers: Ina Fichman, David Goldblum, Screenwriters: Anayansi Prado, Pablo Proenza
Director: Matt Johnson, Producers: Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson, Screenwriters: Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
Director: Ari Gold, Producers: Michelle Stratton, Starr Sutherland, Screenwriters: Ari Gold, Ethan Gold, Lara Louise, Brian Bell, Herbert Gold, Tongo Eisen-Martin, John Flanigan
Director/Screenwriter: Chelsea Christer, Producers: Clinton Trucks, Alexa Rocero, David B. Lyons
Director/Screenwriter: Lucy Davidson, Producers: Vanessa Batten, Amy Upchurch


Addison Heimann is a queer genre filmmaker currently residing in Los Angeles. His first feature, Hypochondriac, premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and was distributed by XYZ Films. His goal is to tell queer stories that explore mental health in the genre space.











Evan Twohy was raised on Hitchcock and opera on the edge of a forest outside Berkeley, California. From an early age, he found himself drawn to absurdist theater and began writing plays in New York City prior to making his first feature, Bubble & Squeak.
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