More films will be announced soon, so stay tuned!
MARQUEE
THE SAME STORM – Opening Night Film
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Peter Hedges
cast: Sandra Oh, Mary-Louise Parker, Elaine May, Noma Dumezweni, Moses Ingram, Alison Pill, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, Raúl Castillo, Jin Ha
THE SAME STORM is an intimate, emotional glimpse into the lives of twenty-four characters persevering over the spring and summer of 2020. The film focuses on our great ache for human connection and demonstrates our fierce determination to maintain relationships when familiar avenues we’ve long taken to touch one another are abruptly closed off.
DOWN WITH THE KING – SPOTLIGHT FILM (NEW)
North American Premiere
writer: Xabi Molia, Diego Ongaro
director: Diego Ongaro
cast: Freddie Gibbs, Bob Tarasuk, Jamie Neumann, David Krumholtz, Sharon Washington
Money Merc, a famous rapper disillusioned with the music industry and the pressures of being a celebrity, leaves the city and his career behind to find himself in a small-town farming community.
Spotlight Film Slot Details: Austin Film Festival’s Spotlight Film underlines exemplary filmmaking feats by rising creators behind and/or in front of the camera. As they launch their careers into orbit, we’re delighted to provide another platform for unique stories to find an audience.
THE HUMANS – CENTERPIECE FILM
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Stephen Karam
producer: Louise Lovegrove and Stephen Karam
cast: Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer, June Squibb, Jayne Houdyshell
Erik Blake has gathered three generations of his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare. The piercingly funny and haunting debut film from writer-director Stephen Karam, adapted from his Tony Award-winning play, The Humans explores the hidden dread of a family and the love that binds them together.
SPENCER – CLOSING NIGHT FILM
writer: Steven Knight
director: Pablo Larraín
cast: Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Sean Harris
The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. SPENCER is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days.
A CHIARA
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Jonas Carpignano
cast: Swamy Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Giuseppina Palumbo, Giorgia Rotolo, Salvatore Rotolo
Follows the story of 15-year-old Chiara whose close-knit family falls apart after her father abandons them in Calabria.
CAPTAINS OF ZA’ATARI
Texas Premiere
director: Ali El Arabi
cast: Mahmoud Dagher, Fawzi Qatleesh
Two best friends trapped in the Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan have an undying dream of becoming professional football players. When a world renowned sports academy visits the camp, they now have a chance to make this dream come true.
CICADA
US Premiere
writer/director: Chung-ryoul LEE
cast: Yang-hee LEE, Bo-bi JU, Yeon-woo SEO
A deeply wounded family faces each other right before their death and they try to heal their wounds.
THE COMMISSIONER OF POWER
World Premiere
writer/director/producer: Todd Sansom
cast: Terry Todd, Larry Pacifico, Mark Henry, Bill Kazmaier, Jan Todd, Lance Blanks, Connie Todd, Magnús Ver Magnússon, David Webster OBE, Bill Henniger, Brian Shaw, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Stephen Green-Armytage, Thomas Hunt, Tom Trimble, Odd Haugen, Bill Crawford, Bruce Evans
As a visionary and outlier, Terry Todd used his passion for writing, weight training and history to shape the Iron Game and its influence on people throughout the world.
C’MON C’MON
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Mike Mills
cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann, Scoot Mcnairy, Molly Webster, Jaboukie Young-White, and Woody Norman
Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and his young nephew (Woody Norman) forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they are unexpectedly thrown together in this delicate and deeply moving story about the connections between adults and children, the past and the future, from writer/director Mike Mills.
CUSP
Texas Premiere
director: Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt
producer: Zachary Luke Kislevitz, Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt
In a small military town in Texas, three wild-spirited teenage girls live out a fever-dream summer. Through their characters, photographers and debut filmmakers Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt share a fascinating glimpse into authentic American girlhood, when the strictures of adolescence clash with the growing desire for personal agency.
JOCKEY
Austin Premiere
writer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
director: Clint Bentley
producer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Nancy Schafer
Cast: Clifton Collins Jr., Molly Parker, Moises Arias
An aging jockey is determined to win one last championship, but his dream is complicated when a young rookie shows up claiming to be his son.
KARMALINK
Texas Premiere
writer: Jake Wachtel, Christopher Larsen
director: Jake Wachtel
cast: Leng Heng Prak, Srey Leak Chhith, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Cindy Sirinya Bishop, Rous Mony, Sveng Socheata
In near-future Phnom Penh, a teenage boy teams up with a street-smart girl from his neighborhood to untangle the mystery of his past-life dreams. What begins as a hunt for a Buddhist treasure soon leads to greater discoveries that will either end in digital enlightenment or a total loss of identity.
LARRY FLYNT FOR PRESIDENT
Texas Premiere
writer: Nadia Szold, Tchavdar Georgiev
director: Nadia Szold
producer: Ben Browning, Lauren Mekhael, Steven Prince, Ivan Orlic
“Larry Flynt for President” chronicles the wild ride of the Hustler Magazine publisher’s campaign for president in 1983. Told through never-before-seen footage, the film unfolds as an epic with plot twists stranger than fiction, dialogue more outrageous than parody and a love story between two outcasts, who in the end, couldn’t have been more American.
MASCARPONE
Texas Premiere
writer: Giuseppe Paternò Raddusa, Matteo Pilati, Alessandro Guida
director: Alessandro Guida, Matteo Pilati
cast: Giancarlo Commare, Eduardo Valdarnini, Gianmarco Saurino Michela Giraud
Antonio is a 30-year-old family man whose life takes an unexpected twist when his husband – whom he depends on both psychologically and economically – leaves him. Now he is forced to find a new place to stay, a job and a new purpose in life. Antonio finds a room in an apartment owned by Denis and starts to work in a bakery owned by Luca, while attending pastry school. Through this process he discovers that it was wrong of him to give up his independence for the sake of his relationship in the past.
MEMORIA
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
producer: Diana Bustamante, Julio Chavezmontes, Charles de Meaux
cast: Tilda Swinton, Elkin Diaz, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance.
ONE SECOND
Texas Premiere
writer: Yimou Zhang, Jingzhi Zou
cast: Yi Zhang, Haocun Liu, Wei Fan, Xiaochuan Li, Yan Li, Yunlong Liu
A movie fan in a remote farmland strikes a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
PETITE MAMAN
Texas Premiere
Sponsored by Community Impact
writer/director: Céline Sciamma
producer: Bénédicte Couvreur
cast: Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse
Nelly has just lost her grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods. One day, she meets a girl her same age building a treehouse.
THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Wes Anderson
cast: Benico del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson
The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city.
THE ONE YOU’RE WITH
Theatrical Premiere
writer/director: C. Bailey Werner
producer: Jon Michael Simpson, Jeff McQuitty
cast: Koko Marshall, C. Bailey Werner, Colton Dunn, Nicolaus Rutherford
A girl running from her past has a one-night stand with a guy who’s stuck in his ways, only to wake up the next morning to discover they are forced to live together due to a nation-wide state of emergency.
THE SOUVENIR: PART II
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Joanna Hogg
cast: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Ariane Labed, Jaygann Ayeh, and Richard Ayoade
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction. Joanna Hogg’s shimmering story of first love and a young woman’s formative years, The Souvenir Part II is a portrait of the artist that transcends the halting particulars of everyday life — a singular, alchemic mix of memoir and fantasy.
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Joachim Trier
cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørneby, Vidar Sandem, Maria Grazia de Meo, Lasse Gretland, Karen Røise Kielland
Julie is turning thirty and her life is an existential mess. Several of her talents have gone to waste and her older boyfriend, Aksel – a successful graphic novelist – is pushing for them to settle down. One night, she gatecrashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind.
TIME NOW
World Premiere
writer/director: Spencer King
cast: Eleanor Lambert, Claudia Black, Xxavier Polk, Paige Kendrick, Dwele
A young mother returns to her estranged hometown of Detroit after the sudden death of her twin brother and immerses herself in his friend group, soon discovering that his death is not what it seems.
ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS
Texas Premiere
writer: Jay Buim, Susan Juvet, Rachel Webster
director: Jay Buim
cast: Lexie Mountain, Nina Tarr, Asia Mulwray-Fraser, Yaz Perea, Khan Baykal, Alec Jones Trujillo, Drew Freed, Geoff Poppler, Robby Rackleff
A wellness startup settles in the Catskills to spread their knowledge through the power of Jilling Off, a mission to priotize female pleasure, which its members believe will heal Mother Earth.
CARDBOARD FORT
World Premiere
writer/director: Sam Hartshorn
cast: Ilirian Bushi, Jacob Garrett, Connor White, Mercedi Diabiza, Velton J Lishke, Hugh Headley Lewis, Lucy Brown, Toby Everett
When new-kid-on-the-block, Charlie, discovers his beloved cardboard fort has been burned to the ground, it shatters his developing friendship with Dom. Setting out to uncover the identity of the arsonist, he retraces the steps of his volatile summer.
GO TO KILL
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Nam Won Park
cast: Jung Yun Oh, Yoon Seul Choi, Moon Kyung Choi, A Young Ahn
After her husband falls into a vegetative state, a woman does everything in her power to make ends meet – even if that means cutting off chickens’ heads or becoming a hitwoman.
HE’S DEAD & SO AM I
Texas Premiere
writer: Gabe Martinez
director: Gabriel Casdorph & Gabe Martinez
cast: Melanie Stone, Gabe Casdorph, Aubrey Reynolds, Jason Marley Rain, Alex Gunter
Stuck in Purgatory for 30 years, a pair of degenerate ghosts try to scheme their way into Heaven by “helping” a living woman find her missing sister.
HOLIDAYS AT ALL COSTS
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Stevan Lee Mraovitch
cast: Oumar Diaw, Donia Eden, Benjamin Garnier, Antoine Schoumsky
It has been seven years since Frederic has taken his family away from Paris for a summer vacation. But this year, he is determined to offer them an unforgettable vacation at all costs.
REHAB CABIN
Texas Premiere
writer: Kate Beacom
director: Kate Beacom, Louis Legge
cast: Lacey Jeka, Scott Mandel, Alex Stebbins, Colin Quinn, Stormi Maya, Jessica Cherniak
Two best friends kidnap an alcoholic former child star in a well-intentioned, though poorly planned, attempt to save her and their friendship.
BRIEFLY
World Premiere
writer: Ernst van Wyk
director: Marinus Gubitz
cast: Arno Greeff, Jane de Wet, Ernst van Wyk
Things take a turn for the unexpected when up-and-coming actor, Simon Berg, receives an invitation to be part of the cast of world-renowned theatre director Andreas Vog’s latest Red Riding Hood reinvention.
CRAM
World Premiere
writer/director: Abie Sidell
cast: John DiMino, Carolina Đo, Conrado Falco III, Jane Bradley, Tobías Arizio, Marc Winski, Joel Brody, Sasha, Matthew Elijah Webb, Patrick Ball, Madeline Seidman, Rolando Chusan, Himself, Brandon E. Burton
We all do what we gotta do to pass – except Marc. Desperate to somehow finish his final final paper, he struggles to cram all night in the library. But the library has other plans for him…
GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS
World Premiere
writer: Tara Perry, Jordan Wayne Long, Sean Anthony Davis
director: Jordan Wayne Long, Matt Glass
producer: Tara Perry, Jordan Wayne Long, Matt Glass, Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette, Christina Arquette, Michael May
cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Angela Bettis, Thomas Hobson, Phil Morris, Tara Perry, David Arquette, Graham Gordy, David Aaron Baker
Set in a post-Civil War Arkansas circa 1866, the film follows a young black doctor who is summoned by his uncle to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover upon his arrival that the utopian paradise is not all that it seems to be.
IT HATCHED
World Premiere
writer/director: Elvar Gunnarsson
story by: Magnús Ómarsson, Elvar Gunnarsson
producer: Vilius Petrikas, Bent Kingo Andersen, Magnús Ómarsson, Birkir Sigurjónsson, Heimir Bjarnason, Búi Baldvinsson, Guðfinnur Ýmir Harðarsson
cast: Gunnar Kristinsson, Vivian Ólafsdóttir, Þór Túliníus, Björn Jörundur, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Halldór Gylfason, Darren Foreman, Magnús Ómarsson
Pétur’s and Mira’s plans about opening a guesthouse in remote West Iceland come to a halt when Mira lays an infant size egg and an ancient demon escapes from under the basement floor.
JACINTO
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Javi Camino
Jacinto is a nine-year-old child trapped in the body of a man near his fifties. He lives with his old parents in Mallou, a small village that lies in ruins in the middle of the Galician mountains. Far away from the modern world, Jacinto has built a fantasy world in which he is the absolute king. This world breaks in pieces when a couple of new neighbors arrives to the village.
LUCAS
North American Premiere
writer: Álex Montoya, Sergio Barrejón
director: Álex Montoya
cast: Jordie Aguilar, Irene Anula, Jorge Cabrera, Jorge Motos
Lucas just lost his father and everything around him is starting to crumble. One day he meets Alvaro, who offers him money in exchange for some innocent pictures. Álvaro will use them to create fake accounts in social media to “just talk,” he assures, with underage girls. Desperate for money, Lucas takes the deal.
SPAGHETTI JUNCTION
World Premiere
writer/director: Kirby McClure
cast: Cate Hughes, Tyler Rainey, Cam McHarg, Jesse Gallegos, Eleanore Miechkowski
A disabled teenager in America’s deep south encounters a traveler claiming to have supernatural origins. Together they embark on a journey of healing, romance, and conflict with a strange cult who attempt to consume them.
AFTER ANTARCTICA
World Premiere
writer: Don Bernier, Tasha Van Zandt, Sebastian Zeck
director: Tasha Van Zandt
After Antarctica follows polar explorer Will Steger’s life journey as an eyewitness to the greatest changes in the polar regions of our planet. After a lifetime of landmark expeditions across both poles, no one alive has seen more of the polar world.
BEFORE I’M GONE
writer/director: Cody Graham
After being diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer, racecar driver Dave Smith gets back behind the wheel. At 70 years old, he sets out to win his home town’s race, the infamous Canada 200.
BURIED: 1982 ALPINE MEADOWS AVALANCHE
Texas Premiere
writers/director: Jared Drake, Steven Siig
The story of an unprecedented avalanche that devastated a small mountain community and the forecaster responsible for predicting it.
CLEAN SLATE
Texas Premiere
director: Jared Callahan
Executive produced by Alex Lehmann (Paddleton, Blue Jay), Clean Slate follows two friends in a drug recovery program in the American South struggling to come to terms with their addiction and mental illness by making a short film about the pain they’ve caused their families.
HOLY FRIT
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Justin Monroe
A talented, yet unknown LA artist, wins the commission to create the largest stained-glass window of its kind, but he doesn’t know how to make it. After a desperate search, he finds someone who might have the answer…a famous glass maestro named, Narcissus Quagliata. From the moment Narcissus arrives, Tim quickly learns that his talent and humor can only take him so far. If he has any chance to make it to the end of the project and potentially achieve greatness, he has to put down his ego and submit to the life and artistic lessons of a complicated master who has already preceded him in greatness.
IMAD’S CHILDHOOD
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Zahavi Sanjavi
Imad is a five-year-old Yazidi child who is released from ISIS captivity after two and a half years. During this time, ISIS has brainwashed Imad and he considers himself one of the ISIS fighters. His eyes still emanate innocence, but he shows no feelings other than hatred for his mother and resentment towards those around him. Will Imad’s family be able to help him overcome his trauma and become again the child he once was?
IN A DIFFERENT KEY
Texas Premiere
director: Caren Zucker, John Donvan
A mother tracks down and befriends the first person ever diagnosed with autism, now an elderly man in rural Mississippi, to learn if his life story holds promise for her own autistic son.
NEW JACK
World Premiere
director: Danny Lee, Noah Lee
The infamous 90s ECW wrestler, New Jack, opens up about a damaging and violent childhood that led him to eke out a living performing for die-hard fans in community centers up and down the east coast.
THE AUTOMAT
Texas Premiere
director: Lisa Hurwitz
Featuring an original new song written and performed by Mel Brooks, The Automat tells the 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables.
THE KING OF NORTH SUDAN
USA Premiere
writer: Daniel Abel, Brett Blake
director: Daniel Abel
producer: Brett Blake
executive producer: Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Jody Hill
cast: Jeremiah Heaton
Farmer. Father. Monarch? “The King of North Sudan” chronicles one Virginia man’s brash quest to turn a desolate patch of African desert into his very own country – and get unspeakably rich in the process.
THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES
World Premiere
director: Matteo Robert Morales, Mattis Appelqvist Dalton
Despite the loneliness he experiences while living in New York, and the oceanic distance that separates him from his home, Miguel remains resiliently motivated to help his family he hasn’t seen in 13 years, sacrificing, again and again, his own aspirations. When Miguel opens a package from his mother, he discovers photographs that throw him back to his childhood in rural Mexico. These memories that have fueled Miguel’s ambitions and altruism are the same ones that keep him trapped in his past.
WITH THIS BREATH I FLY
World Premiere
director: Sam French, Clementine Malpas
producer: Leslie Knott, Sam French, Jeff Simbalist (Executive Producer)
At the height of the international occupation of Afghanistan, two women – Gulnaz, raped and impregnated by her uncle, and Farida, on the run from an abusive husband – are imprisoned on charges of “moral crimes” by an Afghan justice system that is supported by billions of dollars of aid money from the European Union.
Shot over ten years, “”With This Breath I Fly”” follows these two courageous women as they fight for their freedom against a patriarchal Afghan society determined to keep them bound to tribal culture, while exposing the complicity of the European Union in censoring their voices, and how the international press – and our documentary – forever alters the course of their lives.
With This Breath I Fly was produced in cooperation with the Afghan Film Project, a non-profit dedicated to fostering Afghanistan’s film industry and nurturing the next generation of Afghan filmmakers.
ATONEMENT
North American Premiere
writer/director: Mahesh Manjrekar
cast: Gauri Ingawale, Amol Bawdekar, Rohit Phalke, Pravin Tarde, Deepti Lele, Sulekha Talwalkar
Inspired by a short story by the renowned poet and author B. B. Borkar, Panghrun “Atonement” is a tragic tale of love, compassion, and ultimate sacrifice one will make, to have a shot at redemption that takes place after India’s independence.
A WORLD FOR JULIUS
Texas Premiere
writer: Rossana Díaz Costa (written for the screen by), Alfredo Bryce Echenique (based on the novel by)
director: Rossana Díaz Costa
cast: Mayella Lloclla, Fiorella de Ferrari, Nacho Fresneda, Augusto Linares, Rodrigo Barba, Pamela Saco, Fernando Bacilio, Antonieta Pari
Julius is a high-class child who lives in Lima, Peru in the 50‘s. He lives in a mansion with his aristocratic family and a lot of servants. He will lose his innocence little by little when discovering and never understanding a world full of inequalities and injustices.
DISFLUENCY
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Anna Baumgarten
cast: Libe Barer, Ariela Barer, Chelsea Alden, Dylan Arnold, Travis Tope, Kimiko Singer, Molly Hagan, Ricky Wayne, Diana De La Cruz, Wayne David Parker
After failing her final college class, Jane returns home to her family’s lake house and comes to terms with the confusing trauma that derailed her senior year.
DON’T GO TO SCHOOL TOMORROW
World Premiere
writer: Diego Barragan
director: Diego Barragan
cast: Paco García, Krystian Huerta, Luz Garcia, Said Sandoval, Jony Perdomo
A friendship story of two teenagers that takes place the afternoon before a school shooting.
EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED TO TELL MY DAUGHTER ABOUT MEN
World Premiere
director: Lorien Haynes, Barbara van Schaik, Maryam d’Abo, Susannah Harker, Jodhi May, Erin Richards, Robin Gurney, Katie Flynn, Laura Merians, Amy Gardner, Gia Carides, Talia Balsam, Tara Fitzgerald, Kate Danson, Sienna Guillory, Saffron Burrows, and Lucy Brown
writer: Lorien Haynes
cast: Jason Isaacs, James Purefoy, Nathan Fillion, Richard Wilson, Ben Lawson, Alex Desert, Alan Cumming, Lex Shrapnel, Charlie Field, Jonathan Firth, Joe Sims, Belinda Stewart Wilson, Issy Knopfler, Clara McGregor and Lorien Haynes
A woman tells her daughter about every man she’s ever been with – in the hope her daughter won’t make the same mistakes.
I CAN FEEL YOU WALKING
World Premiere
writer/director: Rachel Lambert
cast: Rachel Lambert, Milton Katz
Two neighbors form an unlikely bond despite their vulnerable meeting after one of them overdoses on their shared porch.
MY DEAD DAD
Texas Premiere
writer: Pedro Correa, Fabio Frey
director: Fabio Frey
cast: Raymond Cruz, Steven Bauer, Simon Rex, Chris Pontius, Courtney Dietz, Pedro Correa
A young burnout discovers his estranged father is dead and has left him an apartment complex.
RAGGED HEART
World Premiere
director: Evan Mcnary
writer: Evan Mcnary, Debrah Mcnary
producer: Debrah McNary
cast: Patterson Hood, Josh Mikel, Jim White, Kate McManus, Eddie Craddock
A rusted out, supernatural drama set in the rural town of Athens, Georgia. After his estranged daughter tragically dies, a washed-up musician comes to believe her ghost is haunting him with a request. Desperate to redeem himself in her eyes, he sets out on a mission that will (hopefully) let her rest in peace.
RANGE ROADS
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Kyle Thomas
When her parents are suddenly killed in a car accident, television actor Frankie King returns to her hometown in rural Alberta to face this tragedy after being estranged from her family for 20 years.
SONS OF THE SEA
Texas Premiere
writer/director: John Gutierrez
cast: Roberto Kyle, Marlon Swarts, Brendon Daniels, Nicole Fortuin, Sylvia Esau
A teenager from an impoverished fishing community is pressured by his brother to steal two bags of abalone from a dead man. Tracked by a corrupt government official, the boys’ mission to sell the goods turns into a fight for their own survival.
THE BIG BEND
World Premiere
writer/director: Brett Wagner
producer: Aaron Brown
cast: Jason Butler Harner, Virginia Kull, David Sullivan, Erica Ash
Two families, the Prices and the Talbotts, meet for a long overdue reunion in the remote West Texas desert — where events quickly don’t go as planned. Harboring secrets and facing private crises, they explore one of the wildest places in America, testing the boundaries of marriage, friendship, and parenthood, and doing their best to survive the experience.
THE FALCONER
Texas Premiere
writer/drector: Seanne Winslow, Adam Sjoberg
cast: Rami Zahar, Rupert Fennessy, Noor Al Huda
The carefree friendship between Tariq, the Lebanese-born son of a poor beekeeper, and Cai, a privileged Westerner, is challenged when Tariq promises to help his sister escape from an abusive marriage.
THE GRAND BOLERO
World Premiere
writer: Gabriele Fabbro, Ydalie Turk
director: Gabriele Fabbro
cast: Lidia Vitale, Ludovica Mancini, Marcello Mariani, Filippo Prandi
During the Covid-19 lockdown in Italy, a gruff middle-aged pipe organ restorer struggles to control her obsessive attraction to her new 20-year-old mute assistant.
TORAO
World Premiere
writer/director: Kazuya Murayama
cast: Torao Nishimura, Sakiko Kato, Ayano Ogata, Tomoya Kono, Masaaki Kono, Kazue Minami
While conducting research for a college project, Kayako befriends a lonely retired detective who can’t stop pondering his unsolved case out loud, Torao. Taking an interest in the case, the two embark on a journey to solve the mystery of a small town.
UNSILENCED
World Premiere
writer/director: Leon Lee
cast: Sam Trammell, Anastasia Lin, Wu Yi-Ting, Wang Tzu-Chiang
When the Chinese Communist Party launches a brutal crackdown on its citizens, a team of innocent students risks everything to expose the deadly propaganda and fight for freedom.
WHEN MEN WERE MEN
World Premiere
writer: Aidan Dick, Izzi Rojas
director: Izzi Rojas, Aidan Dick
cast: Izzi Rojas, Paula Mclinchey, Tim Casey, Aidan Dick, Maragrita Murphy, Chloe Steele, Mark Byrne, Aidan Joseph, Fiana Toibin
In a heavily religious Irish society, a young actor struggling with gender identity has to let go of his idea of masculinity before he loses sight of who he is and those he loves.
ACID TEST
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Jenny Waldo
producer: Anna Tran, Eddie Rodriguez, Hillary Felice, Jenny Waldo, Kerianne Parker
cast: Juliana DeStefano, Brian Thornton, Mia Ruiz, Reece Everett Ryan, Mai Le, Sara Gaston
Set in 1992 and inspired by true events, Jenny launches a coming-of-age rebellion fueled by Riot Grrrl music, her dysfunctional family, and LSD.
ADDICT NAMED HAL
Texas Premiere
writer/director: Lane Michael Stanley
producer: Lowell Blank, Thane Swigart
cast: Ray A. Roberts II, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Donato De Luca, Daniela Vidaurre, Beth
When Amy is sent unwillingly to a halfway house by her mom, she thinks she is different from everyone else – until Hal, a heroin addict returning to the house from jail, convinces her to give recovery a try. But Amy soon learns that her drinking won’t just disappear, and she may have a bigger problem than she thought.
BUCK ALAMO
North American Premiere
writer/director: Ben Epstein
producer: Ben Epstein, Chase Joliet , Mike Blizzard , Kelly Phelps Epstein, Wilson Smith (co), Chris Sibley, Andrew Penczner
cast: Sonny Carl Davis, Bruce Dern, Lorelei Linklater, Lee Eddy, Kriston Woodreaux, Chase Joliet, CK McFarland, Blake Webber, George Ensle, James Epstein
Unloading its existential chamber like a Texas folk song, BUCK ALAMO is a psychodramatic dream western about a modern day musical Outlaw (Davis) as he duels with Death (voiced by Bruce Dern).
RANCH WATER
World Premiere
writer/director: Sophie Miller
producer: Sophie Miller, Chris Luner, Aubrey Elenz
cast: Aubrey Elenz, Sam Bilinkas, Karly Seeley, Simone Black, Siena D’Addario, Annie Hoeg, Gabriel Elizabeth Kadian
The Sterling sisters and their once close-knit group of friends reunite for a weekend at the family ranch in small town Texas before it’s sold. Long simmering conflicts come to a head as they confront the uncertainty of their lives without the connection of home to bind each other.
SWAMP LION
World Premiere
writer/director: Torben Bech
producer: Magnus Kristiansen
cast: Michael Ray Escamilla, Bre Blair, Luis Bordonada, Karen Sours Albisua, David Barrera
After their son is diagnosed with advanced cancer, a trucker driver and supermarket cashier – Jim and Bee – struggle to climb the mountain of medical bills. In their greatest hour of need they are forced to come up with $ 250,000 in order to afford treatment. In this emotional and financial crisis, Jim ultimately decides to traffic drugs across the US/Mexican border.