The South by Southwest Film and TV Festival (SXSW) returns to Austin, Texas from March 7 to 15, showcasing twenty-one categories of media projects including films, television pilots, and immersive experiences. We have rounded up the science and technology-themed feature-length films to look out for, with descriptions excerpted from the festival’s programmers.
Among the titles below, we recommend Cristina Costantini’s Sloan-supported documentary SALLY, screening as part of the Festival Favorite section.
HEADLINER
ASH. Dir. Flying Lotus. World Premiere. “A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.”
DROP. Dir. Christopher Landon. World Premiere. “A widowed mother, on her first date in years, arrives at an upscale restaurant where she meets her handsome date. But their chemistry curdles as she begins being irritated and then terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone.”
Still from DROP. Courtesy of SXSW.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION
THE PYTHON HUNT. Dir. Xander Robin. World Premiere. “Every year, the Florida government asks the general public to compete in an invasive python removal contest in the Everglades. For ten nights, an eclectic group of hunters confront the dangerous terrain, nocturnal creatures and their own tiny demons.”
THE SECRET OF ME. Dir. Grace Hughes-Hallett. World Premiere. “19-year-old Kristi discovers a secret her doctor and parents have kept from her all her life. Her search for truth uncovers a radical psychology experiment on a pair of identical twins that led to a global medical scandal.”
SHUFFLE. Dir. Benjamin Flaherty. World Premiere. “Through the lens of his own recovery, a filmmaker offers an intimate look inside the billion dollar addiction treatment industry where young people are bought and sold for their insurance policies and ushered into a system designed to keep them sick.”
THE SPIES AMONG US. Dir. Jamie Coughlin Silverman, Gabriel Silverman. World Premiere. “Thirty years after the Cold War ends, a former political prisoner of the East German secret police searches for the truth after learning his brother spied on him for the regime, and discovers the lasting effects of living in a surveillance state.”
NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
AMERICAN SWEATSHOP. Dir. Uta Briesewitz. World Premiere. “Daisy, a young woman who works what has been called ‘the worst job in the world’ – purging overtly hateful, sexual, and violent content from social media – and ends up fundamentally changed by her encounters with the darkest corners of the internet.”
LIFEHACK. Dir. Ronan Corrigan. World Premiere. “Four teenage slackers attempt a multi-million-dollar Bitcoin heist from their bedrooms, only to spiral into the darkest corners of the internet—and a danger beyond their computer screens.”
Still from LIFEHACK. Courtesy of SXSW.
$POSITIONS. Dir. Brandon Daley. World Premiere. “Blue-collar Midwesterner Mike Alvarado attempts to save his family from the throes of poverty by investing their savings into speculative cryptocurrencies. A twitchy, hyper-contemporary comedy with equal doses of laughs and panic attacks.”
DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT
THE AGE OF DISCLOSURE. Dir. Dan Farah. World Premiere. “An unprecedented film –featuring 34 senior members of the U.S. Senate, House, military and intelligence community– revealing a cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life and a secret war to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin.”
Still from THE AGE OF DISCLOSURE. Courtesy of SXSW.
DEAR TOMORROW. Dir. Kaspar Astrup Schröder. World Premiere. “In Japan, where loneliness has become a national crisis, the film follows three individuals battling isolation. Through a volunteer chat service, compassionate connections, and government initiatives, they find hope and paths to reclaim their lives.”
DEEPER. Dir. Jennifer Peedom. World Premiere. “In the deepest, darkest cold-water cave system in the world, a reluctant hero explores a dangerous obsession.”
DEEPFAKING SAM ALTMAN. Dir. Adam Bhala Lough. World Premiere. “HARTBEAT partners with Vox Media Studios and Telemarketers' Adam Bhala Lough for a comedic documentary about AI. Follow Adam as he seeks answers about the buzzy new tech and explores what it means to be human in an increasingly AI generated world.”
SNOW LEOPARD SISTERS. Dirs. Ben Ayers, Sonam Choekyi Lama, Andrew Lynch. World Premiere. “In Nepal’s remote Dolpo region, two Indigenous women form an unlikely friendship to save one of the planet’s most mysterious and vulnerable wild cats: the snow leopard.”
SPREADSHEET CHAMPIONS. Dir. Kristina Kraskov. World Premiere. “Students from around the world give it their all in the greatest competition you've never heard of, the Spreadsheet World Championships.”
Still from SPREADSHEET CHAMPIONS. Courtesy of SXSW.
STARMAN. Dir. Robert Stone. World Premiere. “Legendary NASA robotics engineer and best-selling science fiction author, Gentry Lee, has spent a lifetime seeking an answer to the ultimate cosmic question: Are we alone in the universe? At age 82 he has come to a revelatory conclusion.”
VISIONS
GHOST BOY. Dir. Rodney Ascher. “Martin Pistorius slipped into a coma at the age of 12. Three years later he woke up but was unable to communicate and no-one realized he was fully aware. This is the true story of his remarkable journey back to life.”
GLOBAL
GLORIOUS SUMMER. Dirs. Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak. World Premiere. “A sun-drenched renaissance palace. Three women remain in a carefree state of limbo, tended to by an unseen, all-providing system. But as cracks in the paradise begin to appear, they are faced with a choice: escape or remain in the perfect illusion?”
Still from GLORIOUS SUMMER. Courtesy of SXSW.
FESTIVAL FAVORITE
SALLY. Dir. Cristina Costantini. Texas Premiere. “Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.”
Still from SALLY. Courtesy of SXSW.
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