South By Southwest (SXSW) has become one of the world’s most renowned festivals, since its establishment in 1987. Encompassing everything from tech, music, film, and television, it features over 375 screenings, all packed into 7 days. It’s a celebration of the arts in a major way, allowing for connection, networking, and, ultimately, creation. With SXSW right upon us, we take a look at what films the festival has to offer for 2026, and which ones you don’t want to miss.
Suhaila’s Picks
Dreamquil: Set in the not so distant future when poor air quality leads to people living mostly virtually lives. Carol, a dissatisfied career mother, leaps at the chance to get her life back on track by signing up for “DreamQuil”, an avant-garde digital wellness retreat. When she returns home however, she discovers a robot designed to help in her absence, and things take a mysterious and sinister turn.
Do You Love Me: A playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss.
The Peril at Pincer Point: A layabout sound designer desperate to prove himself is sent to the remote island to capture a sound powerful enough to elevate a film’s finale. Once there, eerie local fables surface: for years, ambitious and headstrong youth have lost their souls to a ghostly sea captain for. He can’t help but ponder the ever-confirming legend, and if recording it might just cost him more than his career.
They Will Kill You: A blood-soaked, high-octane horror-action-comedy in which a young woman must survive the night at the Virgil, a demonic cult’s mysterious and twisted death-trap of a lair, before becoming their next offering in a uniquely brazen, big screen battle of epic kills and wickedly dark humor.
Drag: Two sisters with a contentious relationship decide to rob a rural home in upstate New York. The simple robbery turns into a nightmare when one of them throws out her back and becomes immobilized. The night spirals out of control as they embark on a painful journey to make it out before the homeowner returns.
Dana’s Picks
Summer of ’94: “Summer of ’94” reveals the wild rise of the U.S. Men’s National Team on the road to the 1994 World Cup—and the history they were never meant to make. Armed with camcorders, the players documented it all. Featuring never-before-seen footage and new interviews, the film shares how chaos, chemistry changed US soccer forever.
American Dollhouse: A woman inherits her childhood home, seeking solace from a chaotic city life marked by addiction and debt. A psychotic neighbour becomes disturbingly obsessed with her due to a haunting resemblance to the neighbour’s deceased mother. As the fixation turns violent, her friends begin disappearing one by one.
Sparks: Cleo is new to Sparks, Nevada. She discovers a cigarette vending machine that inexplicably produces a book on Jean-Luc Godard. When she meets the Crop soon after, Cleo morphs into a cinephile. When she learns of the Crop’s reservoir visits, she’s certain that she could time-travel and meet Godard in 60s Paris.
And Her Body Was Never Found: A movie made with just two people, while camping, and a script based on their real arguments. Most couples would kill each other under those conditions. They are no exception.
Wishful Thinking: Julia and Charlie, a volatile couple in Portland, Oregon, are at a loss for how to repair their broken relationship. Julia, an ambitious game designer, and Charlie, a struggling musician are pushed by Julia’s friend into attending a couples-therapy seminar. The session triggers a karmic universal system that makes the state of their relationship affect the world around them. With earthquakes, the stock market, and entire nations at risk, Charlie and Julia must confront whether their love can survive amidst so much destruction.
South By Southwest (SXSW) runs from March 12th to 18th in Austin, Texas.
