21 Buzzy SXSW Premieres: ‘Another Simple Favor,’ ‘The Threesome,’ ‘F–––toys,’ ‘The Age of Disclosure’ and More

Check in with the die-hard alien believers and UFO seekers in your life, and they’ll certainly already know about “The Age of Disclosure” — the documentary’s trailer reached millions of views on social media as soon as it was released. From director Dan Farah, the film features 34 senior figures across the U.S. government, military and intelligence community coming forward about a space race of sorts. They claim to have firsthand knowledge of a competition between several nations to reverse-engineer technology created by intelligent, nonhuman beings, with at least one interviewee saying he’s seen those beings himself. It’s not hyperbole to say that “The Age of Disclosure” — and the conversations it creates — could change the world. — S.H.

The titular workplace in “American Sweatshop” isn’t a factory. It’s an agency that witnesses the absolute worst that humanity has to offer, as it’s responsible for determining whether images flagged as potentially harmful are fit to see the light of day on the internet. Lili Reinhart stars as an employee who begins to fixate on an obscene video that crosses her desk and decides to leave her keyboard to find the guilty party. With a logline that recalls “Job,” a Broadway play from just last fall that followed a similar content moderator motivated to take matters into her own hands, and coming just after the nationwide panic around the 14-hour ban of TikTok, the film taps into a deeply current narrative about how social media isn’t real — until it is. — S.H.

After grossing a modest $97.6 million globally in 2018, director Paul Feig’s “A Simple Favor” became a cult sensation, thanks to the deliciously twisty story of widowed single mother Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and her mysterious best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). That story ends with Emily’s impossibly stylish working mom going to prison for a double murder due to Stephanie’s sleuthing. And yet Feig’s sequel sends the duo to Capri, where Emily is somehow out of jail and marrying an Italian businessman and Stephanie is attending. With co-stars including Andrew Rannells, Henry Golding, Elizabeth Perkins and Allison Janney, “Another Simple Favor” — already catnip for lovers of camp cinema — is certain to make SXSW’s opening night movie a bona fide event. And that’s without factoring in the frisson of Lively’s headline-spawning real-life legal battle with Justin Baldoni. — A.B.V.

In good ways and bad, SXSW and the city that hosts it have grown over the years. But some things never change — like the consistent presence of at least one of the two Duplass brothers at the festival. Two decades after “The Puffy Chair” launched the duo’s careers and a new wave of microbudget cinema, Jay Duplass returns to Austin with his solo feature directorial debut, in which a Christmas Eve mishap leaves newly sober Cliff (Michael Strassner) and his emergency dentist stuck together on a spontaneous and wintry quest through Baltimore. Between the odd couple, the holiday backdrop and the filmmaker’s homecoming, “The Baltimorons” is sure to be this year’s coziest premiere. — S.H.

Twin brothers Ari and Ethan Gold play versions of themselves as they meander through San Francisco with their ukulele and guitar, seeking an audience for their music and trying to find their nonagenarian father, novelist Herbert Gold. Directed by Ari Gold (“The Song of Sway Lake”), “Brother Verses Brother” embraces what Francis Ford Coppola calls “live cinema”: The dialogue is improvised, the locations are all real — including landmarks like Vesuvio Cafe and City Lights Bookstore — and the story takes place in real time over roughly 90 minutes in a single unbroken shot. — A.B.V.

One of the most sought out horror films internationally, “Clown in a Cornfield” is an adaptation of Adam Cesare’s award-winning novel of the same name. From the production company behind “Smile,” the film is a Hallmark movie gone sideways. A young girl (Katie Douglas) and her stepfather (Aaron Abrams) move to a small town for a fresh start, only to find that tensions are high; among other problems, Frendo the clown has arrived in town and is claiming lives one by one. RLJE Films and Shudder produced the movie, which was directed by Eli Craig and adapted by Craig and Carter Blanchard. — E.L.

Unlike most major festivals, SXSW frequently spotlights crowd-pleasing, high-concept comedies in its lineup, and this A24 release — the directorial debut of indie producer Alex Scharfman (“Resurrection”) — looks to be no exception. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as a father and daughter who, en route to a weekend retreat hosted by the dad’s billionaire boss (Richard E. Grant), accidentally hit a unicorn with their car. After they arrive with the carcass in their car (as you do), the boss and his family (including Téa Leoni and Will Poulter) promptly exploit the body for all kinds of medical miracles — only to discover that the famed fantasy steed has a mate, and it is pissed off. — A.B.V.

Audiences fell in love with Meghann Fahy in “The White Lotus.” Now they’ll see another side of the actress in the latest Universal-Blumhouse thriller. Fahy plays a widowed mother who starts receiving anonymous text messages with terrifying instructions: If she doesn’t do what she’s told, her child will die. “Happy Death Day” director Christopher Landon teamed up with producers Jason Blum and Michael Bay for the film, which co-stars Brandon Sklenar, Jeffery Self, Gabrielle Ryan Spring, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson and Ed Weeks. — E.L.

In Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play “Dutchman,” a 20-year-old Black man named Clay is seduced and taunted by Lula, an older white woman, while riding the New York City subway — an allegory for the lethal dynamic between white and Black Americans. In updating the play into a modern-day film, director Andre Gaines, making his feature debut, has reimagined Clay as a 45-year-old businessman (André Holland), and expanded the story beyond Lula (Kate Mara) to include Clay’s wife (Zazie Beetz) and their couple’s therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who further complicates Lula’s enigmatic motivations with his own mysterious agenda. All is not quite what it seems here. — A.B.V.

The logline for “Fucktoys” is enough to prove it belongs at SXSW, which is known for raucous crowds who delight in the obscene. This, after all, is the festival that gave the butt plugs of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” a welcome warm enough to launch a best picture-winning campaign. Described as an “odyssey across a dreamy landscape of smut, filth and psychics,” the film sees writer-director Annapurna Sriram embodying the highs and exhausting lows of sex work while playing AP, a woman desperate to earn enough cash to lift the curse that’s allegedly ruining her life. That premise feels apt, given the maximalist world-building Sriram pulls off on a presumably low budget. — S.H.

With a supernatural twist, “Hallow Road” follows a mother and father (Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys) after they receive a late-night phone call from their daughter (Megan McDonnell), telling them that she has caused a terrible car accident and now is in danger. The thriller is almost completely set inside the parents’ car as they race into the night to find their child before someone else does. “Hallow Road,” distributed by XYZ Films, is directed by BAFTA winner Babak Anvari, who is also set to helm the upcoming “Cloverfield” sequel. — E.L.

Inspired by a true story, the CBS Studios drama tells the tale of Keith Hunter Jesperson (Dennis Quaid) — otherwise known as the Happy Face Killer — and his daughter, Melissa Moore (Annaleigh Ashford), who have been estranged since he went to prison for murdering at least eight women. Decades later, Moore faces her father, hoping to save a man who is on death row for a crime she believes Jesperson committed. The series comes from Jennifer Cacicio and “Good Fight” duo Michelle and Robert King. The pilot was directed by Michael Showalter, who also serves as an executive producer. — E.L.

Setting this film in the titular Michigan city, best known for its tulip festival and Dutch windmill, is meant to evoke a kind of picture-postcard Midwestern life — at least at first. But when local teacher Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman), suspecting that her husband (Matthew Macfadyen) may be hiding a dark secret, begins to surveil him with the help of a colleague (Gael García Bernal), she discovers that her town isn’t nearly as perfect as it appears. The film, from director Mimi Cave (“Fresh”), arrives 12 years after Andrew Sodroski’s screenplay topped The Black List. — A.B.V.

Canadian creators Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol star in this time-traveling comedy based on their mockumentary TV series “Nirvanna the Band the Show,” which aired for two seasons from 2017 to 2018. As in the series, the duo play musicians Matt and Jay, who, though they’ve never written or recorded a song, make it their mission to play a concert at Toronto’s Rivoli. Even if you haven’t seen the show, the movie will still be a lot of fun — and a musical journey. Johnson made a splash on the festival circuit with the 2023 dramedy “BlackBerry,” for which McCarrol was the composer. — E.L.

If you thought Seth MacFarlane and Matt Groening had cornered the market on adult animated sitcoms about domestic life under the red, white and blue, think again. Ramy Youssef has created an all-American cartoon that follows the Husseins, a cheerful family with nothing but love for their country who find their patriotism called into question after the events of 9/11. Expect the dark comedy of Youssef’s stand-up and self-titled Hulu show but packaged in 2D. And though Amazon greenlit the project three years ago, it’s especially timely after the war in Gaza demonstrated that Islamophobia, in America and worldwide, is still as much of an issue as it was in 2001. — S.H.

Director Geremy Jasper’s first movie following his 2017 feature debut, “Patti Cake$,” could easily be one of the most audacious films of the year. A rock opera set in a neon-soaked, post-apocalyptic future, the picture follows “Stranger Things” star Sadie Sink as the musically gifted farm girl O’Dessa, who uses the power of her voice to confront a totalitarian despot, Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett), and his henchwoman, Neon Dion (Regina Hall), to save the love of her life, Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Beyond inventing those incredible names, Jasper and co-composer Jason Binnick wrote 16 songs for the film, which will premiere on Hulu five days after its bow at SXSW. — A.B.V.

This thriller, set in rural Oklahoma, follows Matthew McConaughey’s Amziah King, a charismatic bluegrass musician who also runs a honey-processing business. When he unexpectedly reunites with his foster daughter (newcomer Angelina LookingGlass) and invites her into the family business, he must face off against ruthless rivals who threaten them both. The Black Bear film — one of the few productions granted waivers by SAG-AFTRA and able to continue filming during the 2023 strike — also stars Kurt Russell, Jake Horowitz and Cole Sprouse. This is director Andrew Patterson’s follow-up to his buzzy 2019 sci-fi thriller “The Vast of Night.” — E.L.

Written and directed by Siobhan McCarthy, this LGBTQ+ comedy couldn’t be more topical. The 81-minute movie follows Ethan (Misha Osherovich) and Alex (Nico Carney), two high school seniors pretending to be trans women so they can get closer to their shared crush. In the process, Ethan realizes she is trans and comes out to Alex. Suzanne Cryer, Mark Indelicato, Malia Pyles and Emmett Preciado co-star in the film, which takes a close look at identity, acceptance and friendship. — E.L.

Without the awkward SXSW-Oscars scheduling conflict, more industryites will be available to see their business skewered just days after collecting their golden trophies. TV series “The Studio,” which premieres opening night, sees co-creator Seth Rogen playing a newly minted Hollywood executive struggling to support the audacious filmmaking that excites him while being pressured to greenlight soulless but lucrative schlock. The satirical Apple TV+ show also stars Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders, plus guest stars including Steve Buscemi and Martin Scorsese hilariously playing themselves. Thoughtfully shot, frenetically paced, with ridiculous gags aplenty, “The Studio” is the kind of title that explains why television was added to SXSW’s offerings. — S.H.

Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy has threesome with girl and other girl — what could go wrong? Everything, obviously. After Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) and his crush, Olivia (Zoey Deutch), find themselves making up two-thirds of a surprising sexcapade with a stranger named Jenny (Ruby Cruz), they begin to fall for each other. But the future they’re planning is put in jeopardy when Jenny returns with a healthy degree of chaos in tow. The combination of a blunt, horny title, a messy love triangle and a buzzy cast that also features Jaboukie Young-White and Josh Segarra gives “The Threesome” everything it needs to achieve the platonic ideal of a young adult coming-of-age film. — S.H.

The seven-person U.K. parkour group known as Storror began posting videos of their death-defying jumps — across high-rise rooftops, off construction cranes, through London traffic while racing trains — on YouTube in 2010; to date, they’ve garnered more than 10 million subscribers and 3.4 billion views. They also got the attention of director Michael Bay, who hired the group for his 2019 Netflix action film “6 Underground.” The daredevils left enough of an impression that Bay made his feature documentary debut with this portrait of how the group’s mission to, as the festival description touts, “conquer four extreme environments” tests their commitment to the sport, and to each other. — A.B.V.