Jordan Peele's US is Announced as the 2019 SXSW Film Festival Opening Night Film

SXSW has announces the world premiere of Jordan Peele's Us as the Opening Night film for the 26th edition of the SXSW Film Festival on Friday March 8, 2019. After sending shockwaves across contemporary culture and setting a new standard for provocative, socially-conscious horror films with his directorial debut, Get Out, Academy Award®-winning visionary Jordan Peele returns with another original nightmare.

"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, Director of Film at SXSW, "We honestly couldn't imagine a more perfect film to kick off the 2019 SXSW Film Festival."

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, 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 going to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), 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.

Peele produces for his Monkeypaw Productions, alongside Monkeypaw creative director Ian Cooper, in the company's first solo production venture. Also producing are Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum. Written and directed by Peele, Us will be released by Universal Pictures on Friday, March 15, 2019.

SXSW Film Festival will release its Feature slate on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 (except for Midnighters and Festival Favorites). Midnighters, Festival Favorites, Shorts, Episodic Pilot Competition, Virtual Cinema, Music Videos and Title Design Competition will be announced on Wednesday, February 6, 2019.