Photo Credit: What Keeps You Alive

South by Southwest (SXSW) 2018 will kick off next Friday, March 9 in Austin, Texas and run through March 18. The event combines multiple tracks of programming covering the worlds of music, film, and interactive entertainment. This year’s SXSW Film Festival will run nearly the entire conference, March 9-17, and includes premieres and screenings of several LGBTQ-inclusive films! The documentary TransMilitary, the first feature length film project to receive funding from the GLAAD Media Institute, will make its world premiere at SXSW during opening weekend, March 10.

TransMilitary chronicles the lives of four American transgender troops defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own, and the larger efforts to bring an end to the ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military. Director Gabriel Silverman, Co-Director Fiona Dawson, and Producer Jamie Coughlin previously created the popular Emmy®-nominated 2015 New York Times Op-Doc “Transgender, at War and in Love.” Following the film’s premiere, there will be a Q&A with the film’s creators and transgender service members featured in the film.

For the first time, SXSW have also developed two days of queer and trans programming as part of their SXSW Conference. The “LGBTQIA+ Series of Sessions” will take place March 10 and 11, and examine a wide range of issues including community alliances and safe spaces, intersectionality in activism, LGBTQ representation in media, and the role of digital spaces in the LGBTQ community.

Below, check out the LGBTQ-inclusive films coming to SXSW this year. These are listed in alphabetical order, and synopses are taken directly from the SXSW website. We will update this post as further announcements are made.

1985
A young man goes home for the holidays and struggles to reveal a distressing secret to his loved ones. Cast: Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis, Jamie Chung, Aidan Langford, Ryan Piers Williams (World Premiere)

Anchor and Hope (Spain)
When the best friend of a bohemian lesbian couple agrees to be their surrogate, the three friends set out on an unconventional journey to start a family. Cast: Natalia Tena, Oona Chaplin, David Verdaguer, Geraldine Chaplin (North American Premiere)

Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Daughters of the Sexual Revolution is the never-before-told story of Suzanne Mitchell, the fiercely-loyal den mother of the original Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. (World Premiere)

First Match
Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that wrestling boys is the only way back to her estranged father. Cast: Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Jharrel Jerome, Jared Kemp (World Premiere)

Getting Over
A man discovers a box of interviews with his father, a lifelong heroin addict who died of AIDS in 1997. What he finds will uncover generations of family secrets, forcing him to redefine his own past, doubt his present, and question his future. (World Premiere)

Jinn
A shape-shifting, pepperoni-loving, black teenage Instagram celebrity explores her identity and sexuality in the midst of her mother’s conversion to Islam. Cast: Zoe Renee, Simone Missick, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Hisham Tawfiq, Kelly Jenrette, Dorian Missick, Ashlei Foushee, Maya Morales, Damien D. Smith (World Premiere)

Manivald
Manivald, a fox, is turning 33. Overeducated, unemployed and generally uninspired, he lives with his overbearing, retired mother and spends his days learning piano while she makes his coffee and washes his socks. It is an easy life, but not a good one. Their unhealthy co-dependence is about to collapse when the washing machine breaks down and Toomas, a sexy and adventurous wolf repairman, arrives to fix it, and them.

Martyr
For Hassane, a young man from an impoverished neighborhood, life has stopped making sense. All he has left is a close group of friends, brought together by a shared sense of marginalization and hopelessness. Hassane’s strange sudden drowning at Beirut’s rocky shore sparks a mob procession, and strips apart the bond of youth and friendship, forcing his friends to grapple with loss and powerlessness, and with the cold heavy truth of their friend’s dead body. The funeral is transformed into a heartfelt farewell to the beauty and sensuality of life, youth, friendship, and love. Cast: Carol Abboud, Hamza Mekdad, Mostafa Fahs, Hady Bou Ayash, Rachad Nassereddine, Rabih el Zaher, Raneem Mourad (North American Premiere)

Men Don’t Whisper
After being emasculated at a sales conference, gay couple Reese and Peyton decide the only way to regain their confidence and prove their masculinity is to sleep with some women. When they meet fellow conference attendees and pleasure seekers Beth and Dominique, it seems like a perfect match. Unfortunately sealing the deal is easier said than done.Cast: Charles Rogers, Jordan FIrstman, Bridey Elliot, Clare McNulty, Cheri Oteri

On My Way Out: The Secret Life of Nani and Popi
All families have secrets. Having survived the Holocaust, Nani and Popi raised a family in America, endeared themselves to a wide circle of friends, and built a successful business. Now at age 95, a deeply-held secret is revealed: Popi is gay, and finally free to explore his identity and seek the companionship he craves. After ups and downs, one thing is clear; love is complicated. But the revelation is not without repercussions, as the news sends Nani into physical decline, and their daughters scramble to understand their parents in a new light. Awkwardly humorous at moments, and filled with love, “On My Way Out” is a timeless story that anyone who’s been in a partnership can relate to. Cast: Ruth Blank, Roman Blank, Lili Gross, Susan Cohen, Cameron Cohen

Rukus
A hybrid of documentary and fiction, Rukus is a queer coming-of-age story set in the liminal spaces of furry conventions, southern punk houses, and virtual worlds.

SADIE
While her father is away serving in the military, Sadie battles to preserve his place on the home front when her mother takes an interest in a new man. Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Sophia Mitri Schloss, John Gallagher Jr., Danielle Brooks, Tony Hale, Keith Williams, Tee Dennard (World Premiere)

Shotgun
A young couple’s relationship develops quickly when one of them is diagnosed with a life-changing illness. Cast: Maika Monroe, Jeremy Allen White, DeRon Horton, Marisa Tomei, Sasha Lane, Joe Keery, Gina Gershon, Dean Winters, Olivia Luccardi (World Premiere)

Support The Girls
The general manager at a highway-side ‘breastaurant’ has her incurable optimism and faith–in her girls, her customers, and herself–tested over the course of a long, strange day. Cast: Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, Shayna McHale, James LeGros, Dylan Gelula, AJ Michalka, Brooklyn Decker, Lea DeLaria, Jana Kramer, John Elvis (World Premiere)

The Gospel of Eureka
Faith, love and civil rights collide on voting day in a small Southern town that hosts a famous performance of the last days of Christ and an infamous gospel drag show. The new documentary by the award-winning directors of October Country. (World Premiere)

The Things You Think I’m Thinking
A black male burn-survivor and amputee goes on a date with a regularly-abled man. After the bar, they go back to his apartment, where he faces his demons as he attempts to experience intimacy for the first time since his accident, ten years ago. Cast: Prince Amponsah, Jesse LaVercombe.

The Unicorn
Facing the fourth year of their engagement, an indecisive couple is thrust into the most uncomfortable night of their lives by intentionally and unintentionally involving a third party in their relationship. Cast: Lauren Lapkus, Nick Rutherford, Lucy Hale, Beck Bennett, Dree Hemingway, Beverly D’Angelo, John Kapelos, Maya Kazan, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Kyle Mooney (World Premiere)

Tooth and Nail
A dysfunctional family reunites after the son, Matt, is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Matt and his sister Kate make a pact. He agrees to give her his sperm for future use with a partner if she agrees to come out to the family that night. Cast: Rebecca Henderson, Alex Kramer, Shae D’Lyn, Lee Wilkof, Lynn Cohen (World Premiere)

TransMilitary
At a time when transgender people are banned from serving in the U.S. military, four of the thousands of transgender troops risking discharge fight to attain the freedom they so fiercely protect. (World Premiere)

We Forgot to Break Up
After a few years absence, Evan unexpectedly returns one night to face his now-famous former bandmates. The surprise reunion is bittersweet, in this intimate depiction of the knotty complexities of relating to old friends after everything has changed. Cast: Sofia Banzhaf, Cara Gee, Grace Glowicki, Steven McCarthy, Mark Rendall, Dov Tiefenbach, Jesse Todd  (U.S. Premiere)

We’re Still Here
Aiden ShortCloud, a Two-Spirit artist and historian in Boise, Idaho, struggles to preserve and revive his heritage in a race against time. Two Spirit is a cultural term describing the fluidity of gender identity and sexuality with respect to traditional tribal roles across First Nations. Fewer than 10 Two Spirit elders remain, and Aiden’s story represents the struggle to learn, educate, and pass down their wisdom. (World Premiere)

What Keeps You Alive
Majestic mountains, a still lake and venomous betrayals engulf a female married couple attempting to celebrate their one-year anniversary. Cast: Hannah Emily Anderson, Brittany Allen, Martha Macisaac, Joey Klein, Charlotte Lindsay Marron (World Premiere)

Wild Nights With Emily
Molly Shannon plays Emily Dickinson in Wild Nights With Emily,  a humorous drama. This independent film explores her vivacious, irreverent side that was covered up for years — most notably Emily’s lifelong romantic relationship with another woman. Cast: Molly Shannon, Amy Seimetz, Susan Ziegler, Brett Gelman, Jackie Monahan, Kevin Seal, Dana Melanie, Sasha Frolova, Lisa Haas, Al Sutton (World Premiere)