Winner of the 2024 AT&T Untold Stories competition in collaboration with Tribeca, HONEYJOON from filmmaker Lilian T. Mehrel is a hilarious, relatable, and bittersweet portrait of love and loss. Mother and daughter duo June (Ayden Mayeri) and Lela (Amira Casar) embark on a vacation together following the loss of a family member, only to discover that their expectations for the trip differ greatly from reality. With the help of a charming (and handsome) tour guide, both women begin to see each other and themselves in a new light as they navigate grief, tension, and the complicated process of moving forward.

Five narrative and documentary films spotlight the work of Texas filmmakers and artists. WINTER CEREMONY brings together a divorced couple as they celebrate their daughter's college graduation. A young woman buys a baby conception dream, a TAEMONG of peaches, from her photographer. In HOW WE GRIEVE, siblings Meghan and Justin Ross process the death of their aunt with the one of the few tools they have: comedy. An Iranian-American girl dreams of contacting her dad who is lost behind the digital blockade of Iran's FIREWALL. Festival alum Xinyan Yu bring us the poetry of Austin-based poet CINDY TRAN: FROM HERE TO HERE, finding literary imagery in all things, small and large and everything in-between, from Yelp reviews to family trauma.

SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner for his 2018 feature PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE, Hao Wu continutes his examination of the digial apparatus with the most talked about app: TikTok. After TikTok faced a nationwide ban over security concerns, three TikTokers took action in the fight to court. The larger fight over political power, free speech, and people’s livelihood are all captured in a hysterical energy that matches the twists and turns in and out of the court. An essential documentary bound to spark many conversations with policymakers and children about who controls the narratives behind social media.

Teenaged introvert Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel) lives in a Toronto apartment complex with her aunt and uncle, keeping insistently aloof from them and the rest of the local Tibetan community—which she prefers to surreptitiously view through a camcorder, scored in one of her many compulsive thefts. But Passang (Sonam Choekyi), a new arrival accompanied by her much older husband (Lobsang Tenzin), exercises a special fascination for Kunsel. The two young women bond and Kunsel is drawn ever deeper into the morass of Passang's life, including her troubled marriage and a risky scheme that might at last force Kunsel off the sidelines.

Filmmaker Colette Ghunim collages her parents’ histories of their homes in Mexico and Palestine. Ghunim’s camera intricately meditates the generational trauma and grief that bounds her family. TRACES OF HOME functions as a reminder that while "home" as a physical site may be eroded by geopolitical shifts or the passage of time, its essence persists and reconstructs within the daily rituals, emotional landscapes, and oral histories of the diaspora. A knockout debut feature that's as much an external quest as an internal one.

In this compelling block of short documentaries, vulnerable filmmakers pursue personal and political history to reveal what it means to leave a legacy.

A startling debut executive produced by world-renowned Jia Zhangke, director Rafael Manuel’s unsettling survey of a golf course in Manila’s outskirts is both engrossing and insidious. Seventeen-year-old tee girl Isabel's peace is interrupted in what seems like paradise. A true feast for the eyes with gorgeously lush landscapes complementary to its fantastical vibe. FILIPIÑANA is a slow-burning swing at capitalism that won the World Cinema Dramatic Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance this year.

As a dual citizen, Korean American Jinwoo (Andy Koh) is exempt from the military service normally required of South Korean men. He nonetheless returns to Seoul and voluntarily enlists, hoping to join the Korean forces serving abroad in some unspecified crisis zone. On his last day before reporting for duty, Jinwoo reconnects with old friends—chief among them Minji (So-yi Kang), for whom he carries a long-burning torch—and his emotionally-distant father (Gwang-rok Oh, of Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" trilogy). But as the hours tick down to his induction, Jinwoo's determination flags, and his motivations look hazier even to himself.

Saturday night brings two features from Pakistan: GHOST SCHOOL directed by Seemab Gul and LALI directed by Sarmad Sultan Khoosat. Come early at 5pm for a Samosa break!

In this compelling block of narrative shorts, these stories uncover the impossible choices women, from adolescence to motherhood, are forced to make between desire and survival.

In the U.S., Shantha became a well-paid university graduate and suburban family man, only to be waylaid by less auspicious developments: the death of his first wife, the collapse of the Texan aerospace industry, and a string of unsuccessful business ventures. With THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT, Shantha's daughter Karla—while pondering her own circuitous route to motherhood in New York City—uses home movies and phone conversations with her father to explore how this son of middle-class Bangaloreans wound up decades later on the night shift at a Texas gas station. In the process, she illuminates both her family history and the immensurable promise of cross-generational understanding.

The Not-So-Short Shorts block returns, this time with fantastic documentary films that celebrate our human connections in the face of arduous challenges.

In just 76 minutes, multidisciplinary artist Lana Daher makes a striking impact with DO YOU LOVE ME. Constructed entirely from archival materials including footage from fiction and nonfiction films, newsreels, art installations, home movies, television, photographs, and music; the film weaves together a sweeping emotional and political tapestry. Moving fluidly between images of war, celebration, intimacy, and unrest, the editing is seamless, with each moment melting effortlessly into the next. Reminiscent of Chantal Akerman’s NEWS FROM HOME and Heiny Srour’s LEILA AND THE WOLVES, DO YOU LOVE is deeply poetic, thought-provoking, and profoundly timely.

Drawn to the small town of Luomu by a cryptic postcard from her ex Wang (Wang Chuanjun), Xiao Bai finds ghostly traces of Wang and drifts among assorted locals, most notably a world-weary, day-drinking innkeeper (Liu Dan) and her happy-go-lucky suitor (Huang Jianxin). Though semi-improvised in the wake of Zhang's previous film MOTHERTONGUE (made with the same principal cast), GLOAMING IN LUOMU is no mere afterthought but a masterly evocation of mood and place, permeated with the bouquet of wine and the texture of cobblestoned streets.