What to watch at the first ever SXSW London… | Little White Lies

Festivals

What to watch at the first ever SXSW Lon­don festival

15 May 2025

Three adults in dark leather jackets standing in a dimly lit room, one woman and two men
Three adults in dark leather jackets standing in a dimly lit room, one woman and two men
We delve into the juicy screen offer­ings that are com­ing to the cap­i­tal this June, from pre­mieres to indus­try pan­els and more.

For near­ly four decades the city of Austin, Texas, has played host to the SXSW fes­ti­val, a mas­sive mul­ti-ten­drilled cel­e­bra­tion of film, music, tech, live events and gen­er­al all-round good vibes.

That’s a long time to be afflict­ed with extreme FOMO – and so to soothe our fes­ti­val­go­ing ills, the good folks at SXSW have struck up a new iter­a­tion of the fes­ti­val, which takes place from 2 – 7 June in and around East London.

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Although the inau­gur­al SXSW Lon­don will offer up every­thing its vaunt­ed pre­de­ces­sor does (and prob­a­bly a lit­tle more), here at LWLies tow­ers we’re espe­cial­ly inter­est­ed in the Screen pro­gramme, and it’s one that we’re pleased to see includes a range of hot titles from across the globe.

The fes­ti­val has snagged itself a world pre­mière for its open­er in the form of Steven Leckart’s Stans, whose name derives from the clas­sic Eminem track of the same name which dark­ly satirised the life of an obses­sive fan. It’s a doc­u­men­tary not only about the man him­self, but also those who have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to rep­ping for him.

Hor­ror guy Mike Flana­gan has made a bit of a name for him­self as an expert adapter of Stephen King, and he returns for his third bite of the cher­ry with The Life of Chuck star­ring Tom Hid­dle­ston. The film is not your usu­al griz­zly King fare, and focus­es on the denizens of a small Amer­i­can town and the solace they seek in the face of cer­tain death.

Underwater image of a woman wearing a black wetsuit with her arms outstretched, with long dark hair floating around her in a turquoise-coloured pool.

We’re big fans of the British writer/​director Tom Kings­ley, and so it’s a thrill to see his newest and biggest work, Deep Cov­er, play­ing in the Cen­tre­piece Gala slot at the fes­ti­val; it’s a Lon­don-set heist thriller with a dash of com­e­dy and star­ring Orlan­do Bloom and Bryce Dal­las Howard.

Else­where, there’s the UK pre­mière of the 12-part ITV ser­i­al, What It Feels Like For a Girl, there’s Olivia Cappuccini’s Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf, a pro­file of the pathfind­ing trans activist, and also the world pre­mière of upcom­ing series, The Insti­tute, based on a nov­el by (that guy again!) Stephen King.

And on top of all that, there’s a film com­pe­ti­tion strand with sev­en key titles vying for a prize and com­ing from locales such as Spain, India, Switzer­land, Aus­tralia, Turkey, Lesotho and the US. It’s a huge and diverse pro­gramme, cov­er­ing fea­tures, shorts, series and new XR work, so tonnes and tonnes to dive into and discover.

Oh, and we’re host­ing our very own pan­el event all about the rise of phys­i­cal media in the dig­i­tal age, with a spe­cial focus on bou­tique Blu-ray labels in the UK. Please do join us for that on Fri­day 6 June at Rich Mix from 4.30pm.

To see the full SXSW Lon­don pro­gramme and to book tick­ets, vis­it sxswlon​don​.com

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