A Cowboy in London CREDIT: BOBBY COCHRAN

SXSW kicks off the 40th edition of the festival today, launching a week’s worth of films, music, comedy, panels, and much more.

With a new streamlined approach that narrows the schedule down to one week with all segments of the festival running concurrently, this year features a strong overlap between the film and music components, with many music documentary subjects also performing during the festival.

Read on for a handful of our most-anticipated music films from this year’s stacked lineup including documentaries on Charlie Crockett (pictured above), The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Los Lobos, as well as deep dives into cult acts like The Shaggs and X-Cetra, and even a romantic comedy set in Montreal’s indie boom of the aughts (Mile End Kicks).

SXSW 2026 runs from March 12-18 in Austin, Texas. The full schedule is here.

A Cowboy in London

Considering Charlie Crockett may not be returning to Canada anytime soon, A Cowboy in London shouldn’t be missed by any Canadian country fans heading down to SXSW.

Directed by Jared L. Christopher, A Cowboy in London promises a cinéma vérité style look at the prolific country singer Charlie Crockett as he spends a whirlwind promotional week in London, England.

In additional to the films screenings, Crocket is also set to perform a number of sets during SXSW, including a headlining show at Stubb’s on March 18th.

LOS LOBOS NATIVE SONS CREDIT: PIERO F. GIUNTI

Los Lobos Native Sons

L.A. legends Los Lobos finally get the documentary treatment in Los Lobos Native Sons. Directed by Doug Blush and Piero F. Giunti, the film traces the band’s history from their roots in the early East L.A. punk scene to their global breakout in the 80’s and their current standing as genre-defying rock icons. 

Featuring interviews with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Danny Elfman, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos, and more, the film will also be bolstered by a couple of Los Lobos live appearances during SXSW. 

Mile End Kicks CREDIT: JOE FUDA

Mile End Kicks

As a native Montrealer, I would be remiss not to include director Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks, a romantic comedy set amidst Montreal’s indie-music boom in the early aughts. 

Barbie Ferreira stars as Grace Pine, a young music journalist who moves to Montreal to write a book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. As she immerses herself in the Montreal scene, she quickly befriends two members of the indie band Bone Patrol (hey, it was a different time) and becomes ensnared in a love triangle while acting the band’s publicist. 

Praised following its premiere at TIFF last fall, Mile End Kicks looks like the rare narrative film that accurately nails a specific time and place in our recent musical and cultural history. 

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel CREDIT: COURTESY OF NETFLIX

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel

As the band has been very quick to point out, The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel  is not a documentary about the band.

Director Ben Feldman instead focuses on early Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak, who tragically died of a drug overdose just a few years before the band broke into the mainstream with 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik album.

Featuring interviews with Flea and Anthony Kiedis, the film looks to highlight the wild early days of the band and the long-lasting influence of Slovak, who helped shape the sound of the band from their earliest days. 

Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story CREDIT: DESSIE JACKSON

Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story

Like The Shaggs, who are similarly the subject of a documentary at SXSW this year (see below), X-Cetra is a band that was also brought back to life by music nerds. 

Formed by four pre-teen girls in the summer of 2000, the group attempted to make the sort of commercial pop music that ruled MTV in that era but ended up creating something far stranger and more interesting. 

With eerie production that had more in common with trip-hop than The Spice Girls, the girls let their dreams of pop stardom pass by as they entered their teenage years and real life interfered to drive them further apart. 

Two decades later, their underground CD-R became an unexpected success and led to a re-issue with the prestigious Numero Group label. With interest in the band swelling, X-Cetra member Ayden Mayeri documents the now adult band as they reunite and try to recapture the innocence and creativity that spurred them on when they were young. 

We Are The Shaggs

We Are The Shaggs

Alternately decried as the “world’s worst band” by the Guardian and praised by Frank Zappa as “better than The Beatles,” The Shaggs are as polarizing as they come.

Coerced into performing by a father who had a psychic declare that his daughters would become successful musicians, The Shaggs (made up of teenage sisters Dorothy, Betty and Helen Wiggin) formed in the 1960’s to play youth dances in their rural New Hampshire area.

With their untuned guitars and strange sing-song rhythms, their music was as innocent as it was haunting, eventually becoming an underground sensation decades after the trio stopped performing.

Director Ken Kwapis charts the long and strange journey of the Wiggin sisters in We Are The Shaggs, an enthusiastic exploration of the band’s cult status and legacy that also hints at the darkness behind their unlikely career trajectory.

SXSW 2026 runs from March 12-18 in Austin, Texas. The full schedule is here.