SXSW 2025: Tapping Into Texas’s Vast Potential to Become the Next Cinematic Frontier
This year’s SXSW film festival in Austin blew into town with a considerable tailwind of enthusiasm for the Lone Star state’s film and TV future. Every state in the union can claim unique cultures, geographies, and mythologies, but there’s no disputing that Texas looms very large in our collective cultural imagination. It’s a state that takes very seriously the notion that it’s really a country.
Texas’s hold on our imagination is evident in how many great films and TV series are set there (whether they’re actually filmed there or not—we’ll get to that in a second),
No Cuts, Pure Tension: “Adolescence” Director Philip Barantini on Crafting Netflix Thriller in Unbroken Single Takes
British actor Stephen Graham is so reliably intense he played Al Capone for Martin Scorsese in Boardwalk Empire, stared down Al Pacino in The Irishman, executive producer and co-starred in the bare knuckle boxing drama A Thousand Blows, and earned the prestigious Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award for his contributions to UK television. Now he’s co-written the acutely tense Adolescence (streaming on Netflix on March 13),
From the Upside Down to the MCU: “Stranger Things” Star Sadie Sink Joining Tom Holland in “Spider-Man 4”
It’s official—Spider-Man 4 is in full swing.
In a big bit of casting news, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink is joining Tom Holland in the fourth installment of Holland’s run as Peter Parker. Deadline reports that while Sink’s role is not yet known to the public, they’ve gone ahead and posited an intriguing possibility—that she will play legendary X-Men mutant Jean Grey.
Following “Ballerina,” a Fifth “John Wick” Movie Has Been Confirmed
John Wick will never die.
And by “John Wick,” we might not necessarily be referring to the man himself, as played by Keanu Reeves in the first four films. By all accounts, Reeves’ nearly indestructible assassin died a noble death at the end of the last installment, John Wick: Chapter 4. We knew we’d be given another glimpse at the man in the upcoming spinoff, Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as Eva Macarro as she begins training as an assassin in the traditions of the Ruska Roma.
The Weight of Survival: Relive Ellie’s Journey in “The Last of Us” Before Season 2 Premiere
For all intents and purposes, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is a normal kid. She likes comic books. She’s bright but mischievous. She’s learning how to stand up for herself, but she also craves guidance and mentorship. She’s tougher than she looks, but she’s still just a kid.
That’s about where normalcy ends for Ellie, who has the both the blessing and the curse of being the one person alive in the world of The Last of Us who is immune to the virus that turns human beings into flesh-eating zombies in the wake of a cordycepts-borne plague that turned the planet into a living hell.
“Hacks” Attack: HBO’s Award-Winning Comedy Drops Trailer Ahead of Season 4 Premiere
The self-destructive but oh-so lovable comedy team are back for season 4.
Max’s Emmy-award winning series Hacks has dropped its official trailer ahead of its April 10 premiere, with Jean Smart’s Deborah and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava finding themselves at a crossroads, and, to Ava’s detriment, no doubt, in each other’s crosshairs as they try to pull off something unprecedented. Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky’s whip-smart comedy enters its fourth season with Deborah and Ava trying to get their late night show off the ground and to make TV history in the process.
“Thunderbolts”: Marvel’s Wild Card Mixes Antiheroes and Indie Talent From A24 & More
Recently, Florence Pugh, one of the stars of Marvel’s upcoming antihero epic Thunderbolts, said the Marvel Cinematic Universe installment was very unlike your average MCU addition. In fact, Pugh told Empire that Thunderbolts feels much more like an indie film.
“It ended up becoming this quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes,” Pugh told Empire.
This isn’t just one of the film’s marquee names trying to give her movie an edge at the box office.
SXSW 2025: Dan Farah’s “The Age of Disclosure” Stuns Crowd With Shocking Alien Doc
Festival crowds are notoriously exuberant—it can be hard to get a real read on a film’s potential for broader success or acclaim even if the first time it plays for a crowd at a film festival results in cheers and guffaws. Yet sometimes, for some films, a festival crowd’s excitement is as precise an indicator for a film’s impact as you need. This was the case here in Austin this past Sunday, when director Dan Farah showcased his doc The Age of Disclosure for the first time ever to a crowd.
SXSW 2025: 11 Intriguing Film & TV Premieres Highlight a Big Time Festival Lineup
Hello from Austin!
This year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival is extra star-studded and jam-packed with exciting titles. This is due, in large part, to the fest not coinciding with the Oscars, as it has for the past few years. As always, SXSW is chock-a-block with screenings—an adventurous and inexhaustible attendee has 111 films and 17 series to choose from—and some very big stars and a ton of intriguing filmmakers and TV creators are on hand to showcase their work.
From Wings to Stars: Costume Designer Gersha Phillips on Redesigning Captain America
Gersha Phillips is no stranger to the kind of immediately recognizable costumes that tell a viewer immediately what world she’s in, like the intergalactic looks and Starfleet designs she crafted for the recent Star Trek feature Section 31 and the Star Trek series Discovery and Strange New Worlds. Skewing to the realism side of the closet, Phillips has designed the duds for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic The Woman King.
Dream Team Reunite: Tina Fey & Tracy Morgan to Collaborate Again on NBC Comedy
“Here’s some advice I wish I would’ve got when I was your age. Live every week like it’s Shark Week.”
This was one of the immortal lessons delivered by Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) on Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s 30 Rock, a show now firmly situated in the firmament of great comedy series. Do you have a friend—or friends—who still regularly quote from 30 Rock? Re-watching Fey and Carlock’s consistently hilarious NBC comedy is shocking for two reasons: 1) How absolutely chock-a-block each and every episode is with jokes that land,
From “Elf” to “Blue Bloods”: Veteran Producer Santiago Quiñones on the Unique Advantages of Filming in New York
Santiago Quiñones was a co-executive producer on Blue Bloods, CBS’s long-running police procedural that followed the Reagan family through their dynastic run within the NYPD. Quiñones, a born and bred New Yorker, joined the show assuming that, like previous projects, he might be moving on after a little while for another opportunity. Instead, he stayed for a decade, which kept him home alongside his family as his children grew and his colleagues became extended family members.
“Captain America: Brave New World” Composer Laura Karpman Crews a New Beat for a New Cap
The Academy Award-nominated composer Laura Karpman is now a consistent voice in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She scored Ms. Marvel, The Marvels, and What If? Now she adds Captain America: Brave New World to her impressive resume, which also includes American Fiction and Lovecraft Country.
In the tradition of Captain America movies, a conspiracy is afoot.
“Anora” Completes Its Cinderella Story With Fairy Tale Oscars Night
The 97th Oscars ended up being a true fairy tale story for writer/director Sean Baker’s Anora, with Baker capping an already magical night after winning Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Director—in which he gave a rousing acceptance speech defending the unparalleled experience of the theater experience—by seeing Anora take the top prize, Best Picture. For good measure, Anora‘s Cinderella herself, Mikey Madison,
Brazilian Sociologist & Film Expert Ana Paula Sousa on the Power & Promise of the Oscar-Nominated “I’m Still Here”
One of the most striking scenes in Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here does not depict any of the violence instilled by the military regime that ruled Brazil for over two decades; nor does it show the despair of having a loved one vanish without a trace, while those so obviously responsible unashamedly deny any involvement.
Rather, it is the scene where Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) is being photographed with her children for an article in the national magazine Manchete.
From “Day of the Jackal” to “Captain America: Brave New World”: DP Kramer Morgenthau Breaks Down 70s Thriller Inspiration
Sam Wilson returns in director Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World, here to take on twin domestic threats. Sam (Anthony Mackie) and his sidekick (and replacement as the Falcon) Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) have been sent to Mexico to stop Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito) from making an illegal sale. Sam and Joaquin recover the items but lose Sidewinder. The pair then head home to train with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a former super soldier introduced in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,
Bare-Knuckle Couture: “A Thousand Blows” Costume Designer Maja Meschede’s Knockout Designs
Editor’s note: Spoiler alert! This story discusses plot lines of A Thousand Blows Season 1.
The subtle storytelling of Maja Meschede’s costume designs is hiding in plain sight if you’re able to look away from the simmering drama of A Thousand Blows, a six-part series from Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight that follows Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and his brother Alec (Francis Lovehall), two Jamaicans immigrating to London during the late 1800s.
Jon Bernthal Set to Return in a “Punisher” Standalone for Disney+
Jon Bernthal is ready to punish Disney+ (in a good way, folks) with more than just his upcoming role in Daredevil: Born Again.
Bernthal’s inclusion in Marvel’s upcoming Daredevil series was manna from heaven for fans of his take on Frank Castle, the brutal antihero who exploded onto the scene in the second-season premiere of Netflix’s Daredevil, which starred Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.
The Future of Batman at DC Studios Includes Giving a Surprising Villain His Own Film
When DC Studios co-chiefs Peter Safran and James Gunn delivered an update on their upcoming slate of films and TV shows at a screening room on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, they were revisiting the location of their first public reveal about their initial slate.
Two years ago, in January 2023, Gunn and Safran sat in the very same spot and updated the press on specifics for their new-look DC Studios.
The Heart of Hell’s Kitchen: New “Daredevil: Born Again” Video Celebrates NYC Setting
“Daredevil is a New York superhero” are the first words we hear at the top of a new look at Daredevil: Born Again, which proudly (as any good New Yorker would) boasts about its Big Apple bonafides.
“You have this picaturesque view of the city; the backgrounds are the backgrounds…there are no green screens,” says executive producer Sana Amanat. “We made New York City a character.”
Another key collaborator in agreement that filming in New York City pays off in ways big and small is Matt Murdock himself,
