Jordan Peele’s Us Will Open SXSW Film 2019

Get ready for terror: SXSW has just announced that Us, the fervently awaited sophomore shocker from writer-director Jordan Peele, will receive its world premiere as the film festival’s opening night film.

Back in 2017, Peele’s blockbuster breakout horror masterpiece Get Out exploded into cinemas just a couple of weeks before SXSW; otherwise, it would have seemed a sure thing for the film festival. This time around, the festival snagged a global first for Friday, March 8 – exactly one week before Us gets its national release on March 15.

“We are crazy excited to world premiere the most anticipated film of 2019, from the creative powerhouse that brought us Get Out,” said Janet Pierson, SXSW Director of Film. “We honestly couldn’t imagine a more perfect film to kick off the 2019 SXSW Film Festival.” 

Here’s the full synopsis:

Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us stars Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway. Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is about to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends the Tylers (Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon, and Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home to discover the silhouettes of four figures standing in their driveway. Us pits an ordinary American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.

Us is the first solo production for Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, and is produced by Peele and Monkeypaw creative director Ian Cooper, as well as Get Out producers Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum.

This is the first of many films to be announced for SXSW 2019. Expect the full feature slate (except for Midnighters and Festival Favorites) on Jan. 16, and the rest of the lineup (including shorts, the episodic pilot competition, virtual cinema, music videos, and the title sequence competition) on Feb. 6.