SXSW Film Alumni Releases — February and March 2021

Even though the SXSW Film Festival and a packed 2021 slate is almost here, this month’s alumni releases include comedies that delight and inspire alongside a buffet of existential terrors and supernatural thrills.

Catch more alumni films already in theaters or streaming from our previous releases to add to your watchlist. Subscribe to SXSW Film Community Newsletters to stay up to date with Film news and more.

Lapsis

World Premiere, Narrative Feature, 2020

In a parallel present, delivery man Ray Tincelli is struggling to support himself and his ailing younger brother. After a series of two-bit hustles and unsuccessful swindles, Ray takes a job in a strange new realm of the gig economy: trekking deep into the forest, pulling cable over miles of terrain to connect large, metal cubes that link together the new quantum trading market. As he gets pulled deeper into the zone, he encounters growing hostility and the threat of robot cablers, and must choose to either help his fellow workers or to get rich and get out.

On Demand and Virtual Cinema, February 12.

I’ll Meet You There

World Premiere, Narrative Feature, 2020

A modern and moving portrait of three generations of a Muslim-American family, I’ll Meet You There follows Majeed, a Chicago policeman, and his teenage daughter Dua, a gifted ballerina, who are unexpectedly visited by Baba, Majeed’s long-estranged father from Pakistan.

VOD February 12.

The Last Cruise

World Premiere, Documentary Short, 2021

Using intimate footage recorded by passengers and crew, The Last Cruise is a first-person account of the nightmare that transpired aboard the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship, which set sail from Japan on the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Streaming on HBOMax, March 30.

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil

World Premiere, Documentary event, 2021

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil is a powerful YouTube Originals documentary event, exploring every aspect that led to Lovato’s nearly fatal overdose in 2018, and her awakenings in the aftermath.

Streaming on Youtube, March 23.

Bad Trip

World Premiere, Narrative Feature, 2020

From a producer of Jackass and Bad Grandpa, this hidden camera comedy follows two best friends as they go on a cross-country road trip full of hilarious, inventive pranks, pulling its real-life audience into the mayhem.

Streaming on Netflix from March 26.

Ghost Stories

North American Premiere, Midnighters (2018)

Professor Phillip Goodman, psychologist and skeptic, has his rationality tested to the hilt when he stumbles across a long-lost file containing details of three terrifying hauntings.

IFC VOD Release on March 26.

Lucky

World Premiere, Midnighter (2020)

Lucky follows May, a self-help book author with all the answers, who suddenly finds herself stalked by an elusive masked man, and caught in a struggle to get help from the people around her and maintain control over her own life.

Streams on Shudder from March 4.

Shithouse

World Premiere, Narrative Competition Winner (2020)

Lonely college freshman Alex (writer/director Cooper Raiff) has closed himself off from his peers, who all appear to have this whole "college thing" figured out. Everything changes one night when Alex takes a leap and attends a party at Shithouse, where he forges a strong connection with Maggie (Dylan Gelula, First Girl I Loved).

IFC VOD Release from March 10.

The Toll

World Premiere, Midnighter (2020)

In the film, a young woman (Jordan Hayes) and her rideshare driver (Max Topplin) break down on a dark forest road. Each sees the other as a threat. But as strange phenomena begin occurring around them, they gradually realize they’ve become trapped in the world of a terrifying supernatural being: The Toll Man.

In limited theaters, on digital and on VOD platforms from March 26th.