SXSW unveiled another wave of programming for its 33rd annual Film & TV Festival earlier this week, bringing the 2026 lineup to 107 feature films and 52 short films for the March 12–18 run in Austin, Texas. Among the additions are 82 world premieres, alongside international, North American, U.S., and Texas debuts.
The festival goes beyond features: 12 television projects across TV Premiere, TV Spotlight, and Independent TV Pilots join the roster, while 31 XR Experience entries experiment with immersive and unconventional storytelling.
From darkly comic thrillers to inventive horror and offbeat romcoms, this year’s selections cover a wide spectrum of genres. The concepts, coupled with the accomplished creative teams behind them, position these films as ones to watch closely. So, without further ado, here are CinemaChords’ most anticipated genre films heading to SXSW 2026, each looking set to rework familiar tropes in unexpected ways, challenging our expectations with inventive storytelling, and delivering moments that hopefully catch festivalgoers completely off guard.
Over Your Dead Body
Director: Jorma Taccone
Principal Cast: Samara Weaving, Jason Segel, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, Keith Jardine
What it’s about: A couple heads to a remote cabin in an attempt to reconnect, only to discover that each secretly plans to kill the other.
Why so much anticipation? This English-language adaptation of the Norwegian thriller The Trip has had a bit of a journey: the original, directed by Tommy Wirkola, was well received, holding an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating, with critics praising its wild energy, inventive violence, and strong performances from Aksel Hennie and Noomi Rapace. Initially, Wirkola was set to direct the English version in 2021, but by late 2024, Jorma Taccone – Saturday Night Live alumnus – had taken over as director, with Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney writing the screenplay. Taccone’s version looks set to bring the same cheeky, over-the-top energy as the original, mixing tension and dark humour, but this time for an English-speaking audience – it’s sure to be just as wild.
Pretty Lethal
Director: Vicky Jewson
Principal Cast: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Uma Thurman
What it’s about: Five stranded ballerinas find shelter at a roadside inn in a remote forest and must turn their disciplined training into survival tactics when danger strikes.
Why so much anticipation? Why so much anticipation? UK filmmaker Vicky Jewson, known for blending action with character-driven stakes, looks set to continue in that vein with her latest survival thriller. The cast, drawn from across the genre spectrum, is sure to lend both gravitas and energy, marking it as one of SXSW’s must-see highlights. Premiering March 13, 2026, it lands on Prime Video just weeks later, giving audiences everywhere a front-row seat to the action.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Directors: Matt Bettinelli‑Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Principal Cast: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood
What it’s about: Picking up after the events of Ready or Not (2019), survivor Grace faces a new iteration of the deadly family‑hunting game alongside her estranged sister, pursued by rival factions.
Why so much anticipation? The original Ready or Not was a breakout horror-comedy, blending sharp social satire with inventive genre beats and grossing over $57 million worldwide on a modest budget. The sequel reunites directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett with writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, who delivered the deft mix of tension and humour that made the first film a success, this time expanding the narrative’s mythos with an even larger, star-studded ensemble.
Wishful Thinking
Director/Screenwriter: Graham Parkes
Principal Cast: Maya Hawke, Lewis Pullman, Randall Park, Jake Shane, Amita Rao, Kate Berlant, Eric Rahill
What it’s about: In this rom‑com with speculative elements, a couple’s emotional states begin to affect the world around them, triggering unintended supernatural consequences.
Why so much anticipation? Wishful Thinking marks the feature directorial debut of Graham Parkes, blending relationship drama with speculative elements in a way that feels well-suited to SXSW’s track record for emotionally grounded, concept-driven films. It’s also buoyed by a cast very much on the rise: Lewis Pullman, whose recent work spans Top Gun: Maverick, Apple’s “Lessons in Chemistry”, and Marvel’s Thunderbolts, is joined by “Stranger Things” breakout Maya Hawke, fresh from scene-stealing turns in Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.
Family Movie
Directors: Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon
Principal Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, Liza Koshy, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley, Andrea Savage, Austin Amelio, Scoot McNairy
What it’s about: Family Movie plays with life‑imitates‑art chaos when a real dead body turns up on the set of a family’s DIY horror flick.
Why so much anticipation? Details remain scarce, but the talent behind the camera alone makes this one hard to ignore. Co-directed by Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, the film puts decades of on-screen experience behind the camera, with Sedgwick continuing her move into feature filmmaking after Space Oddity, which premiered at Tribeca in 2022. It’s that shift—from performers to storytellers—that makes this one of the festival’s most intriguing wild cards.
Normal
Director: Ben Wheatley
Principal Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Lena Headey, Henry Winkler, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Brendan Fletcher, Reena Jolly, Peter Shinkoda, Jess McLeod, Derek Barnes
What it’s about: In rural America, a provisional sheriff’s discovery of a buried community secret leads to escalating conflict.
Why so much anticipation? British filmmaker Ben Wheatley has earned critical attention for genre-bending work that blends social observation with visceral storytelling, from Kill List to Sightseers. The project is based on a script Derek Kolstad conceived prior to Nobody, but which he and Bob Odenkirk only fully developed after working together on that film. Shaped by action elements alongside Hitchcockian crime-thriller and mystery influences, and later packaged with Wheatley directing and Odenkirk starring, the collaboration brings together distinct genre sensibilities, making it one of the festival’s more intriguing propositions on paper.
Drag
Directors: Raviv Ullman, Greg Yagolnitzer
Principal Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, Christine Ko
What it’s about: When a routine rural burglary goes awry after an injury, two amateur thieves must navigate escalating setbacks to survive before the homeowner returns.
Why so much anticipation? Written and directed by Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer in their feature debut, the film arrives in SXSW’s Midnighters section, a slot traditionally reserved for genre experiments that thrive on tonal play between comedy and suspense. Produced by Danny DeVito alongside Lucy and Jake DeVito, the project has already attracted early enthusiasm, with its producers pointing to a form of physical comedy rooted in performance and action, and a narrative designed to keep the audience guessing. It’s the kind of setup that fits neatly within the Midnighters tradition that has often proved fertile ground for unexpected breakout titles.
Hokum
Director/Screenwriter: Damian McCarthy
Principal Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Siox C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle
What it’s about: A novelist’s retreat to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes becomes a confrontation with eerie tales and unexplained disappearances linked to a purported witch haunting.
Why so much anticipation? The film marks McCarthy’s follow-up to the poisedly eerie Oddity, which premiered at SXSW and went on to claim the Midnighter Audience Award, reinforcing his growing reputation as a filmmaker to watch within contemporary genre cinema. Having been picked up by Neon in August last year, the film will premiere at SXSW on March 14, 2026, before rolling out into a wide US theatrical release on May 1, 2026.
Obsession
Director/Screenwriter: Curry Barker
Principal Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson, Megan Lawless, Andy Richter
What it’s about: After breaking a mysterious wish‑granting object to win a crush’s heart, a young man discovers that getting exactly what he asked for comes with unforeseen consequences.
Why so much anticipation? Curry Barker’s Obsession, which has already drummed up all kinds of festival buzz, takes the familiar wish-gone-wrong trope and turns it into something genuinely unprecedented. The concept leans into folk-horror and dark fantasy currents, while Barker’s direction and Inde Navarrette in the central role promise an intense, sharply focused exploration of obsession, making it one of the more intriguing titles on the festival slate.
The Shitheads
Director/Screenwriter: Macon Blair
Principal Cast: Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Peter Dinklage, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, Killer Mike
What it’s about: Two hapless couriers tasked with transferring a wealthy teenager to rehab find themselves in escalating mayhem.
Why so much anticipation? Director Macon Blair has carved out a distinct voice in genre-adjacent dark comedy, from I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore to collaborations with Jeremy Saulnier, making this anarchic road story a natural fit for SXSW’s appetite for offbeat, character-driven films. A long-standing passion project, the film has evolved since a 2017 incarnation that attached Luke Wilson and Tracy Morgan, then described as ‘The Last Detail by way of Bret Easton Ellis.’ Written and directed by Blair, who previously collaborated with Peter Dinklage on Brothers and The Toxic Avenger, the film promises irreverent humour and sharply drawn characters. If it hits the mark, this chaotic mix of sharp comedy and anarchic characters could make it one of SXSW’s wildest, most unmissable oddities.
