2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival Poster Gallery

7 Beats Per Minute

Documentary Feature

During a world-record attempt, freediving champion Jessea Lu blacked out and was lifeless for four minutes. Director Yuqi Kang’s documentary captures the descent of a lifetime, when Jessea returns to the site of her near-death experience to face the traumas of her past and find a way back to connection.

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A Crab in the Pool

Animated Short Competition

In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves. A young adolescent, Zoe is a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world. During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.

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A House Is Not A Disco

Documentary Feature

Situated fifty miles from New York City, this storied queer beach town finds itself in the midst of a renaissance as a new generation of Millennial homeowners reimagine The Pines for a new, more inclusive era. Filmed like a Wiseman movie on magic mushrooms, a large cast of unforgettable eccentrics, activists, drifters and first-timers reflect on the legacy of The Pines while preparing their beloved village for the biggest challenge it has faced since the AIDS crisis: rising seas caused by climate change.

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Adrianne & The Castle

Documentary Feature

A true story of love and loss, Adrianne & The Castle documents the unique life of the St-Georges who built a castle to their love in rural Illinois. Now facing the future without the love of his life, Alan grapples with his grief through creative musical re-enactments of their story, transporting him into the fantasy world they created together.

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Dickweed

Documentary Feature

After a series of men go missing in a seaside town, Chappell Roan meets a mysterious Siren on the beach and instantly falls in love. However, as they begin a relationship, Chappell realizes that the creature is more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.

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Dissolution

Narrative Short Competition

Dissolution is a film chronicling my parents’ divorce after forty-eight years of marriage. Starring my parents as themselves, this hybrid short combines archival home video footage with new footage based on the events surrounding their recent divorce and my father’s battle with alcoholism.

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Doppelgängers³

Documentary Feature

"Doppelgängers³" draws on the experience of diasporas to challenge the commercialisation of the moon. Through encounters with doppelgängers and meetings with scientists, visionaries and cultural inventors, Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian and her doppelgängers offer an experimental vision and template for a future diaspora beyond Earth.

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Dream Creep

Midnight Short Competition

A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice.

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Dreaming of Lebanon

XR Experience

Lebanon has been facing one of the most severe economic downfalls in the world since 2019. But despite the hardships, there is hope for a better future. Meet and engage with three young Lebanese who stayed in the country despite the hardships. The documentary utilizes cutting-edge volumetric video, stereoscopic 360 and 3D animation technologies that enable viewers to engage in an holographic interview with young Lebanese from various walks of life.

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Girls Will Be Girls

Narrative Feature

In a strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas, 16-year-old Mira discovers desire and romance; but her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself.

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Doppelgängers³

Narrative Feature

Based on Mason Deaver's novel, the film follows Ben DeBacker, a non-binary teen who is thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas. Struggling with anxiety, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their art teacher, Ms. Lyons, while trying to keep a low profile at their new school. Ben's attempts to survive junior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. With the help of Nathan, and his friends Sophie and Mel, Ben discovers themselves and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.

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Doppelgängers³
Narrative Feature

Based on Mason Deaver's novel, the film follows Ben DeBacker, a non-binary teen who is thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas. Struggling with anxiety, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their art teacher, Ms. Lyons, while trying to keep a low profile at their new school. Ben's attempts to survive junior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. With the help of Nathan, and his friends Sophie and Mel, Ben discovers themselves and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.

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Inner Demons

Midnight Short Competition

Mya's world takes a harrowing twist when pills meant to alleviate depression unwittingly unleash a nightmarish entity that embodies her inner turmoil. Mya finds herself entangled in a relentless battle against her own psyche, fighting not just for her mental well-being but her very survival.

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Ismay - 'Stranger In The Barn'

Music Video

Stranger in The Barn is a nordic musical fantasy on strings; an allegory of human beings stricken with fear, choosing love in times of crisis.

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Joseph Rouleau: Final Encore

XR Experience

An immersive animated biopic, based on the archives of opera singer Joseph Rouleau. Through a posthumous conversation with director Emilie Rosas, the work aims to dust off the world of opera and reveal Joseph Rouleau, a great pioneer of operatic art in Quebec. The experience tells his story, revisiting his personal archives, memoirs and greatest solos.

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Los Mosquitos

Narrative Short Competition

Aby, a 15-year-old Honduran teen, navigates the complexities of her life in the US alongside her newly arrived cousin, Nata. As Thanksgiving Day unfolds, Aby's rebellious spirit clashes with the expectations of her caregiver, Aunt Magda, intensifying her desire to distance herself from her suffocating circumstances.

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Lullaby

Midnight Short

A refugee is forced to confront her guilt.

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Malta

Narrative Feature

Mariana is a systematic girl. She studies English and German at a language school. She works in a call center as many hours as possible and saves everything she earns. To entertain herself a little, she looks for men in bars with whom she only plans to spend one night. Why compromise if she just wants to travel? That is Mariana's plan, to go away and what better than to an island in the Mediterranean. But Gabriel, an unlikely boy who keeps getting into her life with bad jokes and uncomfortable questions, forces her to look at herself and wonder what she wants to run away from.

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Maya: The Birth of a Superhero

XR Experience

The story of a South Asian girls coming of age and the awakening of her sexuality. She must overcome her own shame and fear to find her inner strength and true super-powers. With the arrival of her first period Maya’s world is turned upside down as she is confronted by the restrictive traditions of her conservative family and a world of hidden shame, stigma and taboo in contemporary London.

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My Tomato Heart

Narrative Short Competition

Madeleine is forced to quit her position at the neighborhood grocery store. Except that her job is her whole life; her colleagues, her only family. The quinquagenarian spends her last days of work fighting to save what is near and dear to her heart…

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Plastic People

Documentary Feature

This feature documentary investigates our addiction to plastic and the growing threat of microplastics on human health. They drift in the air, float in the water and sit in the soil. And now, leading scientists are finding them in our bodies: organs, blood, brain tissue and even the placentas of new mothers. Ziya Tong, author and science journalist, makes it personal by visiting leading scientists and undergoing experiments in her home, on her food, and on her body.

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Preconceived

Documentary Feature

Two women navigating unplanned pregnancies while inadvertently finding themselves at facilities discouraging them from abortions. The film is a window into these enigmatic centers that some call “pregnancy resource centers” and others call “fake clinics.” Shedding light on how many of these centers are a part of a movement striving to make abortion unthinkable and illegal, the documentary explores the complex role of deception, finances, faith, and privacy.

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Resynator

Documentary Feature

Inventor Don Tavel died suddenly when his daughter was ten weeks old. Growing up surrounded by mythical stories of her “genius” father, Alison’s life is consequently absent from any true connection to him. Resynator is a narrative documentary that begins when Alison rescues Don’s synthesizer prototype from her grandmother’s attic and starts a curious resurrection project that turns into an insatiable globe-trotting quest.

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Sangre Violenta / Sangre Violeta

Documentary Short

In September 2022, a series of document leaks revealed that the Mexican government labeled feminist groups as a bigger threat than Mexico's deadliest cartels. In a country where 10 women are murdered every day, how can a movement advocating for women’s safety become a target of the government? Sangre Violenta / Sangre Violeta highlights stories of activism and loss from a radical feminist collective, an inspiring survivor, and a grieving father. These narratives illustrate the depths of gender violence in Mexico and question the future of women’s rights in the country.

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Sasquatch Sunset

Narrative Feature

In the misty forests of North America, a family of Sasquatches—possibly the last of their enigmatic kind— embark on an absurdist, epic, hilarious, and ultimately poignant journey over the course of one year. These shaggy and noble giants fight for survival as they find themselves on a collision course with the ever-changing world around them. Starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg, acclaimed directors David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) bring you the greatest Bigfoot story ever told.

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Shadowtime

XR Experience

To exist in the virtual world is to have two bodies, four hands, two hearts. In “Shadowtime”, a guide to this double world leads you through questions around the climate crisis, irreconcilable realities, and the virtual as a place to take shelter. The VR installation is accompanied by the directors' previous short film “Our Ark.” Together, these projects present a diptych of a rapidly changing world: one chronicles the desire to digitally preserve, and the other critiques the allure of the virtual and its impact on our physical realities.

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Tadpole

XR Experience

Polly's house is inhabited by 39 versions of herself: each one year apart, living and growing older to replace the next, reliving the same life in a never ending cycle. And this is a day like any other...

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Tennis, Oranges

Animated Short

In a pandemic-era hospital, a robotic vacuum, bored by its repetition, decides to quit. Seeking a more meaningful existence, it ventures to a quiet Chinatown street. There, it encounters two solitary rabbits, each trapped in their own repetitive routines. As the vacuum befriends one of these characters, it finds a sense of community and begins to explore a broader purpose beyond its programmed tasks of cleaning. A dance ensues and for a time things are good. But all good things in life can't last.

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The Bleacher

Midnight Short Competition

Frugal Wash, a self-service laundromat, draws a diverse, often unhappy crowd, including Rita Riat, "The Bleacher". Rita's hunt for her missing sock spirals into a crisis, suspecting either the oddball patrons or the faulty machines. Her search leads her inside a washing machine, plunging her into her subconscious. Here, she encounters a dolphin-man in a limbo of lost socks. Their surreal interaction, a mix of seduction and discovery, distorts reality, revealing the stark truth behind Rita's life and the crucial, blood-stained sock she must recover.

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The Imaginary Friend

XR Experience

The Imaginary Friend invites you to take part in the vivid imagination of Daniel, a grieving eight-year-old struggling with the line between reality and fantasy. Become Daniel’s imaginary friend and let him share his world with you. Discover his joys and anxieties, even help him fight his demons head-on. However, as you spend time together, Daniel’s surroundings don’t quite understand. Why is he talking to himself? Is he crazy? When his father intends to fix him, Daniel needs to figure out his feelings before disconnecting from reality completely…

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The Last Brunch

Narrative Short Competition

Sometimes you don't realize how thirsty you are until it's right in front of you.

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The Puzzle Palace

Documentary Short Competition

In a Boca suburb, a couple retire to a second marriage of freedom, play, and the world’s largest puzzle collection.

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The Rainbow Bridge

Narrative Short Competition

Tina and her elderly dog, MeeMoo, visit "Rainbow Bridge Enterprises," a mysterious clinic offering human-to-pet communication. The esoteric Dr. Bailey Picadello and her burnout partner, Herb, detect a cosmically strong bond between their new patients, triggering a journey across time and space where Tina and MeeMoo can properly say goodbye in their final, fantastical forms. Chaos ensues as Tina is abruptly thrust back to reality while MeeMoo is left behind in the transcendental Rainbow Realm.

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The School of Canine Massage

Documentary Short Competition

The Ojai School of Canine Massage provides professional training in the art and science of dog massage therapy. With a mix of whimsy and tenderness, “The School of Canine Massage” offers a portrait of this unique school and its dog-loving participants — revealing how people heal dogs and dogs heal people.

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The Vortex Cinema

XR Experience

"The Vortex Cinema" is a time-travelling, genre bending VR shooter where you enter the world of black and white movies, stepping into the shoes of a hard-boiled detective at the center of a film noir murder mystery. Uncover an elaborate conspiracy surrounding a scientist that spontaneously combusted, a red-eyed raven, a corrupt police department and a mafia underworld that holds the city in its grip.

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The World According to Allee Willis

Documentary Feature

Take one look at award-winning songwriter / artist Allee Willis and you see someone unafraid to be themselves. Dressed in a cacophony of prints and colors, her signature asymmetrical haircut and famed parties at her real-life PeeWee’s Playhouse, Allee didn’t waste any opportunity to tell you what she was about. But privately, Allee struggled with not fitting established gender and sexual norms.

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This is a Film About The Black Keys.q

Documentary Feature

This is a film about The Black Keys traces Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney's journey from a jamming session in a basement in Akron, Ohio, to rock ’n’ roll super-stardom. They barely knew each other when they made their first recordings, yet quickly realized they shared a powerful musical connection and a drive to succeed. 24 years later, they’re tighter than ever, still making great music and still asking what’s next.

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This is TMI

Animated Short Competition

Big boobs vs. small boobs, who has it worse? A group of women, over a drink, discusses in what ways being a part of a conservative society affects how we feel about our own breasts- which, at the end of the day, are just lumps of fat.

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Toll

Narrative Feature

Suellen, a Brazilian toll booth attendant and mother, falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat. In doing so, she realizes she can use her job to raise some extra money illegally for a so-called noble cause: to send her son to an expensive gay conversion workshop led by a renowned foreign priest.

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Wakhri

Narrative Feature

Wakhri is about a widowed school teacher in Pakistan who becomes a viral sensation overnight when she accidentally unleashes her unabashed opinions on social media. This newfound fame as an unlikely influencer comes with its own challenges as she has to navigate archaic mindsets and secret identities while raising her ten-year-old son in a world where women's right to have a voice and own their own space, physical or online, is a constant challenge.

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We Can Be Heroes

Documentary Feature Competition

Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the deeply accepting environment has given neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed "nerdy" teenagers the space for self-discovery that they have never found anywhere else. As the campers immerse themselves in this imaginative world, they discover inner strength, heal from traumas, and emerge as heroes, both in the fantasy realm and in real life.

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We Ride for Her

Documentary Short

"We Ride for Her" follows the dual narratives of two Indigenous women: Lorna and Heather. Lorna is part of an Indigenous motorcycle group and sisterhood called The Medicine Wheel Riders. The sisters organize a ride every year called The Medicine Wheel Ride that brings the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the largest motorcycle rally in the United States. Heather is a travel nurse and devoted mother to her son Khalid. Khalid is in his final year of college and is dedicated to becoming an activist for Indigenous rights. Both Heather and Khalid are searching for their sister and aunt Susan, who went missing a little over a year ago.

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SXSW 2024 Day 9 Recap

SXSW 2024 Day 8 Recap

SXSW 2024 Day 7 Recap

SXSW 2024 Day 6 Recap

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