The Standouts: SXSW 2025’s Best of the Best
March 18th, 2025 / Kevin Ward
These are the films that defined this year’s festival—bold, memorable, and impossible to ignore. Whether through groundbreaking storytelling, powerhouse performances, or sheer emotional impact, these selections rose above the rest and left a lasting mark. We’ll be adding more Best of SXSW features each day this week, as well, so check back for more highlights.
The Rivals of Amziah King
A wholly original fusion of backwoods crime, revenge thriller, and community-driven folk tale, The Rivals of Amziah King is a film that defies easy categorization. At its heart, it’s a story about people lifting each other up, breaking bread, and harmonizing in song. Matthew McConaughey delivers one of his finest performances in years as Amziah King, a man dedicated to beekeeping, honey production, and communing with friends in food and song. He steps out of his way to help others without ever a concern for the cost. He’s effortlessly magnetic, imbuing Amziah with a soulful warmth and strength, but the real revelation here is Angelina LookingGlass in her debut feature performance. She’s an absolute force, bringing both vulnerability and steely resolve to a role that feels destined to make her a star.
Director Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night) has crafted a film unlike any I've ever seen. It evokes memories of O Brother, Where Art Thou? but even that doesn't necessarily translate 100%. With six folksy musical numbers, two community potlucks, a daring backwoods heist, and an epic revenge saga, The Rivals of Amziah King above all else, is truly memorable—a story of resilience, justice, and the strength of human connection. It’s early in 2025, but The Rivals of Amziah King already feels like one of the year’s best films.
Credits: Directed by Andrew Patterson. Written by James Montague. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Angelina LookingGlass, Kurt Russell, Jake Horowitz, Scott Shepherd, Rob Morgan, Tony Revolori, Owen Teague, Bruce Davis, Cole Sprouse. Produced by Black Bear Pictures. US Release Date: Awaiting distribution.
Redux Redux
Redux Redux is exactly the kind of lo-fi sci-fi that gets under my skin in the best possible way—intimate in scale, but conceptually sprawling, playing with the limitless possibilities of the multiverse without ever getting bogged down in explaining how any of it works. Instead, it throws us headfirst into an exhilarating, revenge-fueled time loop with a protagonist hell-bent on righting the ultimate wrong, consequences be damned.
Michaela McManus delivers a star-making performance as Irene, a woman who has taken it upon herself to track down and annihilate every version of her daughter’s murderer across the multiverse. The film doesn’t waste time with grand philosophical musings on fate or morality; Irene’s grief and rage fuel her like a machine, and we watch her burn through dimension after dimension with singular purpose. But as the cycle continues, and Irene meets another would-be victim of her daughter’s killer—someone desperate to take up the mantle of vengeance—Irene is forced to confront whether this never-ending war is actually achieving anything or if it’s just keeping her trapped in her own ‘multiverse of sadness.’
The film strikes a perfect balance between heady sci-fi minutiae and stripped-down, character-driven storytelling. I love when a movie like this digs into the nerdy details—what kind of multiverse-hopping tech she’s using, which model her device is, how she scrambles to locate a fuel cell—but doesn’t over-explain the “rules” to the point of hand-holding. Redux Redux trusts the audience to keep up, and that makes it all the more thrilling.
The only real downside? The flagrant underuse of Jim Cummings. It’s not that he isn’t great—he is—it’s just that I could have used way more of him. But that’s a small gripe for a film that absolutely delivered on its premise. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Redux Redux finds distribution soon. This one deserves an audience.
Credits: Directed by Kevin McManus, Matthew McManus. Written by Kevin McManus, Matthew McManus. Starring Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus, Jim Cummings, Grace Van Dien, Jeremy Holm .Produced by Mothership Motion Pictures. US Release date: Awaiting Distribution
Credit: Alan Gwizdowski
40 Acres
40 Acres is a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller that delivers intense action while weaving in thought-provoking themes of survival, cultural preservation, and generational trauma. Set in a dystopian future where food scarcity has driven society into chaos, the film follows the Freeman family—Hailey and Galen Freeman, played with commanding presence by Danielle Deadwyler and Michael Greyeyes—as they defend their farmland from violent marauders with a taste for human flesh. The film merges elements of dystopian horror, action, and family drama, creating a relentless experience that never lets up.
Thematically, 40 Acres is rich with cultural references and historical weight. The title itself alludes to the unfulfilled Reconstruction-era promise of “40 acres and a mule” for freed Black Americans, and the film explicitly nods to Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a novel about resilience in the face of societal collapse. These influences are embedded organically into the story, never overwhelming the action but reinforcing the film’s underlying message about survival, legacy, and the costs of fighting for one's land.
As a directorial debut, R.T. Thorne demonstrates a strong command of tension, pacing, and brutal action choreography. The fight sequences are visceral, with Deadwyler and Greyeyes delivering raw, physical performances that make every punch, slash, and gunshot feel weighty. The gore is plentiful, and the film doesn’t shy away from showcasing the horrors of this new world, making each encounter with the cannibalistic raiders pulse with dread.
The film immediately pulls you in with a striking opening sequence, setting the tone for a relentless ride that doesn’t disappoint. The film closes with Slow Up by Jacob Banks, a song that perfectly captures the themes of resilience and perseverance. R.T. Thorne's background in music videos is apparent throughout, with a wonderful use of music that evokes emotion in just the right moments. Having seen the film twice now (once at VIFF 2024 and now again at SXSW 2025), I can safely say I love this film and am excited to see what Thorne does next.
Credits: Directed by R.T. Thorne. Written by R.T. Thorne. Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O'Connor, Michael Greyeyes, Milcania Diaz-Rojas, Leenah Robinson, Jaeda LeBlanc, Haile Amare, Elizabeth Saunders, Tyrone Benskin. Produced by Hungry Eyes Media. US Release date: June 2025 (Magnolia Pictures)
Credit: Magnolia Pictures
Clown in a Cornfield
Clown in a Cornfield** f🤩kin’ rips, guys.** A throwback slasher with a modern edge, it delivers classic genre setups and tropes with a fresh, ferocious energy. The film zips along at a breakneck pace, packing in some excellently satisfying kills, sharp humor, and a crowd-pleasing escalation of chaos. Just when you think you’ve settled into its well-worn slasher rhythm, it takes a turn—then another, then another—until the mayhem is completely off the rails. Absolutely loved it. This is the kind of horror movie that demands to be seen in a theater, surrounded by an audience reacting in real-time to every gory shock and every well-timed joke.
For those unfamiliar, the film is based on Adam Cesare’s Clown in a Cornfield novel series, which already had a reputation for blending slasher nostalgia with biting social commentary. While the book was a love letter to ‘80s horror with some very contemporary anxieties baked in, the film adaptation leans even harder into the funhouse insanity of its premise. As the title suggests, the film revels in the eerie juxtaposition of clowns and cornfields—imagery that obviously evokes Stephen King’s brand of rural horror, but with an extra dose of sheer, unhinged carnage. Killer clowns aren't new to the horror genre by any stretch, but thankfully Frendo isn't just a retread.
Katie Douglas is a fantastic final girl, bringing grit, vulnerability, and a fierce survival instinct to Quinn Maybrook. Director Eli Craig, best known for the horror-comedy gem Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, proves once again that he knows exactly how to balance brutal horror with laugh-out-loud moments. The humor in Clown in a Cornfield is razor-sharp, with one particular bit involving Quinn trying to make a phone call ranking as one of the funniest moments of the entire festival.
If you love fast-paced, blood-soaked, wildly entertaining slashers, this is an absolute must-see. Clown in a Cornfield is pure horror bliss—gruesome, hilarious, and filled with exhilarating set pieces. Cannot wait to see this again.
Credits: Directed by Eli Craig. Written by Adam Cesare (novel), Eli Craig (screenplay). Starring Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac, Vincent Muller, Kevin Durand, Will Sasso, Verity Marks, Cassandra Potenza, Ayo Solanke, Alexandre Martin Deakin. Produced by Temple Hill. US Release Date: May 9, 2025 with RLJE and Shudder distributing.
Credit: Courtesy of RLJE Films & Shudder. An RLJE Films & Shudder Release.
We Bury the Dead
In a festival packed with anticipated films, We Bury the Dead emerged as an unexpected standout—an understated yet deeply effective genre piece that delivers both emotional weight and unsettling horror. This was the exact movie I wanted Handling the Undead to be: a meditation on grief and how it profoundly changes us, yet still embraces its zombie roots, striking a balance between somber introspection and unnerving supernatural horror.
Daisy Ridley gives one of her best performances as Ava, a woman searching for closure after her husband vanishes following a military disaster. To get closer to the truth, she enlists in a body retrieval unit, trudging through barren landscapes of Tasmania. But something isn’t right—some corpses start to reanimate, complicating Ava's grief. The film takes its time letting this horror unfold, using restraint in its scares while building a heavy, ominous atmosphere. When the zombie moments hit, they hit, offering chilling imagery and a few incredibly well-executed sequences that remind us this is still a horror film. The zombies make this teeth-grinding sound as they reanimate, creating an unsettling sensory experience that effectively heightens the chills.
This was one of the festival’s most pleasant surprises, yet I haven’t seen many people discussing it. Perhaps it’s too understated to make a loud impact, but it deserves attention. Unlike many grief-driven horror films that lose themselves in abstraction, We Bury the Dead never forgets to be a zombie movie, delivering just enough visceral moments to keep the genre fans satisfied while maintaining its emotional core. A chilling and melancholic standout.
Credits: Directed by Zak Hilditch, written by Zak Hilditch, starring Daisy Ridley. Produced by XYZ Films. Awaiting distribution.
Credit: Steven Annis