Opening night film Another Simple Favor promises to kick proceedings off with “even more glamor, murder and betrayal” as Paul Feig, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively reunite in Italy for the sequel to 2018’s A Simple Favor. Across the Headliner section, beautiful women and sinister mysteries seem to be the name of the game. Nicole Kidman dons her best dancing clogs and grabs a tulip bouquet for Holland, director Mimi Cave’s twisty follow-up to Fresh, while Christopher Landon’s Drop stars Meghann Fahy as a single mom whose first date in years gets derailed by threatening, anonymous messages. Another Simple Favor and Holland soon come to Prime Video on May 1 and March 27, respectively, while Drop hits US theaters on April 11 via Universal Pictures.
The sunny streets of West Hollywood are no stranger to the silver screen, but something tells me Idiotka and its Project Runway-style reality show spiritually align more with its small screen comrades (See: Vanderpump Rules, Selling Sunset and MTV’s tragically short-lived The Real Friends of WeHo.) After memorably pining over Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding, Anna Baryshnikov stars alongside a stellar comedic cast including Camila Mendes, Julia Fox and Theater Camp’s Owen Thiele.
Passionate purveyors of the 100-minutes-and-under comedy can also look forward to Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s feature version of their mockumentary sitcom, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, and the seemingly raunchy, seemingly sweet coming-of-ager Summer of 69, Jillian Bell’s directorial debut about a high schooler enlisting a stripper (Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman) to help impress her crush.
Below, we highlight more themes and watchlist must-adds in this year’s program, but before we get into it, an urgent PSA to all Michael Bay heads to buckle in for the action aficionado’s parkour documentary, We Are Storror. Find the full SXSW 2025 feature lineup here.
