The South by Southwest Film and TV Festival released the program for this year’s event, which will run March 7–14. The opening night’s TV selection will be the world premiere of “The Studio,” the anticipated new series from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who served as showrunners, directors and screenwriters.
Starring Rogen as the newly appointed head of a Hollywood studio, the show also features Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders and Kathryn Hahn. The series begins streaming on Apple TV+ on March 26.
The festival’s opening night film selection will be announced separately.
Rogen and Goldberg have become reliable forces at SXSW, having previously brought projects such as “Long Shot,” “Good Boys,” “Sausage Party” and numerous others to the festival.
“We are thrilled to welcome Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg back to SXSW,” said Claudette Godfrey, the festival’s VP, Film & TV, in a statement. “This brilliantly conceived series is exquisitely cast and written, capturing the fanatical love, dedication, pressure and, yes, the hubris that defines our industry. It’s hilariously spot-on, bringing to life the stories we’ve all heard or witnessed firsthand. We can’t wait to experience the joy and energy radiating from the Paramount when we share this gem with the world.”
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“The Accountant 2,” starring Jon Bernthal, left, and Ben Affleck, will be unveiled in South by Southwest’s high-profile headliner section.
(Amazon MGM Studios)
Films included in the festival’s high-profile headliner section will be the world premieres of Gavin O’Connor’s action thriller “The Accountant 2,” starring Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal; Flying Lotus’ sci-fi horror “Ash,” starring Eiza González and Aaron Paul; Alex Scharfman’s horror-comedy “The Death of a Unicorn,” starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega; Christopher Landon’s suspenseful “Drop,” starring Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar; and Mimi Cave’s thriller “Holland,” starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Macfadyen.
The narrative feature competition will include the world premieres of Ben Jacobson’s “Bunny,” Matthew Shear’s “Fantasy Life,” Annapurna Sriram’s “F—toys,” Alexander Ullom’s “It Ends,” Brwa Vahabpour’s “My Uncle Jens,” Elena Oxman’s “Outerlands,” Yana Alliata’s “Reeling” and Amy Wang’s “Slanted.”
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The documentary feature competition will include the world premieres of Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife,” Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons’ “Assembly,” Jessica Earnshaw’s “Baby Doe,” Xander Robin’s “The Python Hunt,” Paige Bethmann’s “Remaining Native,” Grace Hughes-Hallett’s “The Secret of Me,” Benjamin Flaherty’s “Shuffle” and Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman’s “The Spies Among Us.”
In the narrative spotlight section will be films including Uta Briesewitz’s “American Sweatshop,” starring Lili Reinhardt; Jess Varley’s “The Astronaut,” starring Kate Mara; Jay Duplass’ “The Baltimorons” starring Michael Strassner; J Pinder’s “Cotton Candy Bubble Gum,” starring Nick Darnell; Andre Gaines’ “The Dutchman,” starring André Holland; Amy Landecker’s “For Worse,” starring Landecker and Bradley Whitford; Jing Ai Ng’s “Forge,” starring Kelly Marie Tran; Geremy Jasper’s “O’Dessa,” starring Sadie Sink; Siobhan McCarthy’s “She’s the He”; Chad Hartigan’s “The Threesome,” starring Zoey Deutch; and Zak Hilditch’s “We Bury the Dead,” starring Daisy Ridley.
Titles in the documentary spotlight section include Steven Feinartz’s “Are We Good?” on comedian Marc Maron, Adam Bhala Lough’s “Deepfaking Sam Altman,” examining AI, Kate Blackmore’s “Make It Look Real” on intimacy coordinators, Linus O’Brien’s “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” about the classic 1975 midnight movie and Anayansi Prado’s “Uvalde Mom” on the aftermath of a school shooting in Texas.
David Oyelowo in the forthcoming series “Government Cheese.”
(Apple TV+)
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Other premieres include Matt Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” an adaptation of the Canadian television series; Babak Anvari’s “Hallow Road,” starring Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys; Tom J. Stern’s documentary “Butthole Surfers: the Hole Truth and Nothing Butt” about the notorious Texas psychedelic band; and H.E.R.’s documentary “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield,” on the legendary R&B musician.
On the TV side, other premieres include “#1 Happy Family USA” from showrunners Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, starring Youssef and Mandy Moore; “Government Cheese,” from showrunners/screenwriters Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr, starring David Oyelowo and Simone Missick; “Happy Face” from showrunner/screenwriter Jennifer Cacicio and director Michael Showalter, starring Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid; and “Spy High” from director Jody McVeigh-Schultz, produced by Mark Wahlberg.
“This lineup celebrates the fearless storytellers who make SXSW so unique,” said Godfrey in a statement. “We love to discover and elevate filmmakers who make bold statements, push boundaries, spark important conversations and challenge our perspectives in ways we never expected. When our incredible SXSW community gathers in March to experience these stories, the energy and inspiration is going to be absolutely transformative.”
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
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Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
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He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
