Austin Film Festival 2026 Dark Matters Slate: Oddities, Remote

Austin Film Festival has released its full 2026 schedule, and the Dark Matters section brings a run of horror, thriller, and sci-fi premieres to the 33rd annual event, running October 29 through November 5, 2026.

Leading the genre block is Oddities, a Texas Premiere written and directed by Tyler Savage and starring Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Creepshow), Lilimar, Lovie Simone, and Xander Berkeley. Two self-destructive best friends accidentally kill their drug dealer and flee town, then pull off at a seemingly sleepy roadside antique shop that turns out to be worse than the trouble they left behind.

Remote, a World Premiere from writer-director Steven DeGennaro, stars Adrianne Palicki, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Josh Cruddas. A lonely woman who passes the time watching live webcam views from her trailer witnesses a murder and uses her tech expertise to unmask the killer while staying alive. Also premiering is All the Way Down, directed by Collin Davis and Matthew Valdez-Litwiller, in which a burned-out composer (Teri Wyble) retreats to her estranged grandfather’s lake house and finds a family secret and an otherworldly sound that may bring inspiration or drive her to madness. Troy Baker (The Last of Us) and Hugo Armstrong co-star.

The rest of the section includes Brother Save Us, Jesse Behrenwald’s dystopian Midwest story of a lonely boy and a mysterious AI farm bot, starring Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead), and Frank Stein M.D., a brainy comedy from Rowen Kahn about a neurosurgeon forced to bring his mad-scientist father back to life. Three Years Gone, from John Gutierrez, follows a kidnapped 12-year-old and her war-veteran father on a road trip away from the demons that followed him home.

Genre also surfaces elsewhere on the schedule. Omi, directed by Emily Lerer, finds a millennial possessed by the spirit of his dead Yiddish grandmother, and Little Audrey sends a child psychologist into a Vatican investigation of a comatose girl said to be a “victim soul.”

This year’s program features 197 films from 24 countries. Badges and passes are on sale now, including a new Student Film Pass for $43, and individual film tickets go on sale the week of October 12. Full details are at austinfilmfestival.com.