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AUSTIN, Tex. — This year the South by Southwest Film Festival is celebrating its 25th edition, and my, how it has grown. Some of the writers, directors and performers in the mumblecore movies that populated the festival a decade ago have gone on to become Oscar nominees and land Netflix production deals. And now, some Hollywood movies and television shows are making themselves known at the event with immersive affairs. (HBO, for instance, created an entire “Westworld”-themed park.)
Beyond the spectacle, interesting movies can be found. Here is a look at some of the festival’s more notable moments.
Biggest Scares
“A Quiet Place,” “Ghost Stories,” “Hereditary”
Frightening films have long been a festival staple. And this year a jumpy horror thriller, “A Quiet Place,” opened the event. John Krasinski’s feature about a family that must keep the noise down to ward off sound-sensitive killer creatures thrilled the packed audience, punctuating the movie’s quiet moments with gasps and, ultimately, cheers.
Another fun creep-out, “Ghost Stories,” mixes bumps in the night with cerebral thoughts about the nature of existence. Viewers may lose a little sleep considering the implications.
And the twisted family drama “Hereditary” first freaked out audiences at Sundance. The crowd in Austin also was jangled by its slow-burn escalation of menace to a climax of outrageous, deeply unsettling proportions.
Memorable Leads
Regina Hall in “Support the Girls”
Last summer’s raucous comedy “Girls Trip” proved that Regina Hall could bring balance to the wacky situations unfolding around her. She’s the grounding force in the comedy “Support the Girls,” set in a Hooters-style restaurant called Double Whammies and written and directed by Andrew Bujalski, who’s based in Austin. Ms. Hall’s character is just trying to keep it all together while catastrophe threatens almost every moment. She brings grace and sensitivity to a character who wouldn’t be blamed for abandoning both.
Dave Franco in “6 Balloons”
Dave Franco is no stranger to the festival, where he’s been seen in comedies like “21 Jump Street,” “Neighbors” and “The Disaster Artist.” You won’t be laughing so much while watching “6 Balloons,” in which he plays a heroin addict and father to a young girl. It’s a harrowing role that shows a different side of the actor. The drama, written and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan, pairs him with another comedy veteran, Abbi Jacobson (“Broad City”), as his sister.
Longest Laughs
“Blockers”
Many lines from Kay Cannon’s movie, about parents who set out to stop their daughters from having sex on prom night, were drowned out by the waves of laughter in the SXSW audience (but we got the gist). And it’s not just the moment seen in the trailer, when John Cena’s character consumes beer in a nontraditional way. It’s the physical comedy throughout (that includes Leslie Mann doing a somersault) and rapid-fire banter that kept the giggles coming.
Most Endearing Comeback
Tracy Morgan on “The Last O.G.”
Sitting in the Paramount theater as the title credits came up for “The Last O.G.,” Tracy Morgan raised his hands in the air with a cheer. Boy, did he deserve to. This is Mr. Morgan’s return to episodic television after a car crash that left him with a brain injury. The audience cheered, and laughed, right along with him through two episodes of the series where he plays an ex convict trying to navigate life on the outside. It was nice to share the room with Mr. Morgan and watch the show’s jokes land with impact.
Best Depiction of New York
“The World Before Your Feet”
Matt Green has been walking every street in New York City. Like every street. That’s 8,000 miles of path. The director Jeremy Workman has been following Mr. Green for the past three years of his journey, and this documentary showcases sides of the city you rarely see in movies and that make it such a strange and fascinating place. That includes several undeveloped blocks of Edgemere, Queens — an area that is beautiful in its desolation — as well as redwoods growing on streets in the East Village. And yes, Mr. Green is still walking.
Most Disturbing Tech Movies
“Unfriended: Dark Web,” “Upgrade”
Many of us have come across material on the internet we wish we hadn’t seen. But Stephen Susco’s “Unfriended: Dark Web,” a sequel of sorts to the 2015 film, “Unfriended,” takes that to new levels. Playing out completely on a desktop screen (another SXSW entry this year, “Profile,” does the same), it leads its unwitting characters to dangers that can’t be closed out of or deleted away.
And Leigh Whannell’s dystopian action film “Upgrade” shows the pros and cons of installing a chip inside of a person. Pro: Your paralyzed body is healed. Con: A Siri-like program takes over your body and turns you into a killing machine.
Gamiest Nerd Movie for Game and Movie Nerds
“Ready Player One”
It was Steven Spielberg’s first appearance at the SXSW film festival, and the director didn’t quite know how his adaptation of a best-selling novel about futuristic virtual reality gamers would go over. “This has been the greatest anxiety attack I’ve ever had,” he said afterward. But turns out, the movie, which is peppered with ’80s pop culture references, was a good fit for the SXSW audience, melding vintage pop with digital spectacle and occasional relics from Mr. Spielberg’s own filmography.
Best Acceptance Speech
Barry Jenkins
No, the filmmaker didn’t have a film in the festival this year or win any awards. (Those jury prizes went to Jim Cummings’s “Thunder Road” for narrative feature and Hao Wu’s “People’s Republic of Desire” for documentary.) But as a keynote speaker, Mr. Jenkins delivered the acceptance speech he would have read at the Oscars last year after winning best picture if the mix-up hadn’t happened and he’d had time to process. He spoke about the award being a symbol that he hoped led viewers to love themselves.
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