Published by SXSW

Mar 18, 2026

Helping creative people share ideas and achieve their goals since 1987. SXSW 2026: March 12-18 | Austin, TXSouth by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By,...

sXSW dailies March 18, 2026

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION MAR

11:15AM – 12:53PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 1

PLANTMAN & BLONDIE: A DRESS UP GANG FILM: After a run-in with the rogue vigilante known as Plantman, Cory’s world turns upside down. The socially isolated thirty-something year old must now decide how far he’ll go within in this floral underground network he has been thrust in to.

11:45AM – 1:12PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 7

MALLORY'S GHOST: After joining her boyfriend on a retreat to Maine, Mallory becomes convinced she’s haunted by the ghost of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. What started as something harmless soon becomes a trip that jumps between the past and present, rivalry and affection, melancholy and creativity.

2:30PM – 4:15PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 5

WISHFUL THINKING: At a loss for how to save their relationship, Julia and Charlie are pressured by Julia’s friend to take a twin healer run couples’ therapy. However, a karmic universal system triggered during their session combines the state of their relationship with real world consequences. The couple must confront the reality of their love all while surviving natural disasters, stock market crashes, and mass destruction.

2:45PM – 4:19PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 9

SENDER: Receiving a mysterious series of packages, all of which contain items that eerily relate to her past, Julia a recently fired and sober woman begins to fall down a rabbit hole in the hopes of finding the identity behind who’ssending her these packages.

3:00PM – 4:23PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 2

SEAHORSE: Crashing her bike into her now unhoused estranged father; Nola, a sous chef striving for stability, must now take him in. However, as a result of this collision, Nola must now face long-buried trauma, and a reckoning with forgiveness, and grief with the slight possibility that her and her father's relationship may strengthen.

3:15PM – 4:44PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 7

THE SNAKE: Jamie, the ungovernable middle-aged wild child, is left evicted and single after an explosive collision with her mother, Anne.

HEADLINER

11:00AM – 12:34PM at the PARAMOUNT THEATRE

THEY WILL KILL YOU: Unbeknownst to her, a woman takes a job as a housekeeper to a building shrouded in mystery and disappearances. Now, she must survive a demonic cult if she ever hopes to make it out alive, instead of becoming their next offering.

FESTIVAL FAVORITES

12:00PM – 1:35PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 4

BUDDY: Finding themselves in a kid's television show, a brave girl and her friends must now escape their new reality.

6:30PM – 8:01PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 3

CHASING SUMMER: Hoping to be able to safely retreat to her small Texas hometown after losing her job and her boyfriend, Jamie’s life is turned upside down when she is faced with friends and old flings from high school.

9:30PM – 11:08PM at the STATE THEATRE

THE SHITHEADS: While transporting a wealthy teen to rehab, two rock-bottom incompetent drivers find themselves in a spiraling down a path of drugs, danger, and crime.

6:45PM – 8:27PM at the ALAMO LAMAR / ALAMO LAMAR 5

INDEPENDENT TV PILOT PROGRAM: Screenings of pilot episodes from new independent talent.