SXSW FILM AND TV FESTIVAL
FILM
SXSW Film & TV Festival Adds 50+ Projects to Its 2026 Lineup
SXSW 2026. Photo by Tico Mendoza.
SXSW has announced a new wave of programming for its 2026 Film & TV Festival, bringing the lineup to more than 100 feature films alongside episodic premieres, short films, music videos, and immersive XR experiences. The festival returns to Austin from March 12 to 18.
AUSTIN, TX. Teens Media Network®
With 82 world premieres confirmed, the scale of this year’s selection reflects a screen industry increasingly shaped by international voices, hybrid storytelling formats, and projects willing to take formal risks.
Among the newly announced films, several titles signal where contemporary filmmaking continues to move.
Beast Race (Corrida dos Bichos), directed by Fernando Meirelles, Ernesto Solis, and Rodrigo Pesavento, places dystopian fiction inside a fractured Rio de Janeiro marked by class conflict and spectacle. The project suggests the ongoing global appetite for socially grounded genre cinema.
Director Alex Prager brings Dreamquil, a near future psychological story examining identity, technology, and domestic space, while Ben Wheatley’s Normal, written by Derek Kolstad, leans into violent confrontation inside a small town forced to face its hidden history.
Beast Race, directed by Fernando Meirelles, Ernesto Solis, and Rodrigo Pesavento.
In The Saviors, director Kevin Hamedani explores suspicion and intimacy when an estranged couple begins to question the intentions of the guests renting their home. Elsewhere, Hokum, directed by Damian McCarthy, enters darker territory as a writer retreats to a remote inn only to encounter visions tied to his past.
Documentary filmmaking also arrives with strong thematic focus. Your Attention Please, directed by Sara Robin, looks at growing resistance to addictive technologies and asks whether human connection can still be reclaimed in an increasingly engineered attention economy. Summer of ’94, directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker, revisits the FIFA World Cup’s transformative arrival in the United States, capturing a moment when the country attempted to define its relationship with the world’s most popular sport.
Music driven storytelling remains central to the program. Jack Johnson: SURFILMUSIC, directed by Emmett Malloy, traces the artist’s path from surfer to filmmaker to globally recognized musician, highlighting the creative ecosystems that often exist between disciplines. In Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, director Amy Scott follows the performer’s rise while observing how contemporary country artists negotiate authenticity and scale.
Summer of ’94, directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker.
Television also returns with notable projects, including the third and final season of The Comeback, created by Michael Patrick King and starring Lisa Kudrow, arriving two decades after the series first aired and pointing to the durability of character centered comedy within an evolving distribution landscape.
Beyond traditional screens, SXSW continues to expand its XR Experience program, emphasizing immersive works that challenge how stories are experienced and remembered. As technological language becomes increasingly embedded in visual culture, these formats are moving from experimentation toward narrative legitimacy.
Now in its 33rd edition, SXSW continues to operate as a space where discovery and industry intersect, gathering filmmakers, artists, press, and cultural observers from around the world.
Read more about our SXSW coverage on the TMN® blog.
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