Kickin’ It With Tyree recaps SXSW 2026 with interviews, red carpets, and standout films shaping the future of film, music, and culture.

Kiana Naghshineh discusses her SXSW animated short IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT, a personal film about grief, memory, and confronting mortality through animation.

At SXSW 2026, Australian writer and director Renee Marie Petropolis joins actor Emily Grant to discuss Souvenir, a nostalgic yet unsettling short set during the summer of 2008. Shot at a resort frozen in time, the film explores queer identity, blurred consent, and the power dynamics behind image control in the early days of digital cameras and social media. Together, they unpack how teenage memory, vulnerability, and control collide in a story about recognizing and reclaiming

At SXSW 2026, Dutch documentary filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus premieres How to Catch a Butterfly, a deeply personal exploration of yellow fever, racialized desire, and the performance of identity. Sparked by the Atlanta spa shooting, the film moves beyond headlines to examine how fetishization operates as a mirror, inviting audiences to reflect on their own roles within systems of attraction, shame, and power.

At SXSW 2026, writer and director Kit Steinkellner premieres Are We Still Married?, a sharp genre bending independent pilot that uses a vampire premise to explore trust, reinvention, and the emotional negotiations of marriage. Inspired by a real life bat bite and years spent in development, Steinkellner steps behind the camera to create a contained, cinematic story about what happens when love reaches an impasse.

At SXSW, animation director Anna Ginsburg premieres HAG, a bold hand drawn short about feminine rage, fertility pressure, and reclaiming the word monster. Inspired by Medusa and modern dating culture, the film explores what happens when a woman refuses to shrink herself to fit society’s expectations. In this conversation, Ginsburg breaks down the personal breakdown that sparked the story and how transformation becomes liberation.