your 2026 festival lineup WAS LIT!
4 days.
15 film screenings.
24 filmmakers + artists.
750 festival fans.
We spent four days in August at AFS Cinema with a room full of people who love music films as much as we do. Oscar winner Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck revisited Shut Up & Sing: The Chicks with an Austin audience twenty years after making it. Hometown filmmakers Joe Salinas and Andrew Leeper sold out the house for You Can Color Outside the Lines: The Big Boys Story, with Austin punk legends Tim Kerr and Chris Gates in the room. Mama Duke brought Feels So Good to Be You and owned the red carpet. It was our first year as a fully independent Austin festival, and it turned out to be exactly the festival we wanted to build. 💖
Thanks to everyone who showed up.
Can’t wait to see you again next summer.
Don't Forget Me: Eddie Cochran
The rock and roll pioneer who died at 21, remembered by Keith Richards, Roger Daltrey, Linda Perry and the family that never let his story fade.
Janis Ian: Breaking Silence
The songwriter who broke silence at seventeen finally tells her own story, with Joan Baez and Lily Tomlin along for the ride.
You Can Color Outside the Lines, The Story of the Big Boys
Meet the Austin punk band whose skate culture, drag, and DIY chaos still shapes the city's music scene today.
Post Screening Q&A - Directors Joe Salinas, Producer Andrew Leeper, Artist Tim Kerr
Moderator - Marc Fort, KUTX On-air Host
The Song of Hiawatha: The Life and HIGH Times of the First Black Hippie
He's been called the first Black hippie, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith can vouch, and now he's showing up to tell the story himself.
Post Screening Q&A - Director Jeffrey Wengrosfsky, Producer Steven Blush and Artist Hiawatha Bailey
Moderator - Dash Donato, Filmmaker, Festival Co-Producer
Super Awesome kickass shorts program
Six wildly different music stories in one sitting, from an “America’s Got Talent” hometown hero to a cochlear implant coming of age.
Post Screening Q&A - Directors Mama Duke, Maria Mealla, Lauren Yap and Artists/Cast Tim Mateer, Gretchen Phillips, Esmerald Rose, Addy Villereal,
Moderator - Taylor Wallace, KUTX Morning Host
BP Fallon: Rock'n'Roll Wizard
The man who helped make Led Zeppelin and T. Rex icons finally steps into the spotlight himself.
Post Screening Q&A - Director Alan Leonard, Producer Niall Carver
Moderator - Dash Donato, Filmmaker, Festival Co-Producer
Sara Bareilles: Good Grief
A Grammy winner turns raw grief into her most personal album yet, and lets the cameras watch it happen.
Post Screening Q&A - Director Josh Alexander
Moderator - Fiona Dawson, Writer, Director, Advocate
The Chicks: Shut Up & Sing
One sentence sparked a firestorm, and the band turned it into one of the most defiant comebacks in country music.
Post Screening Q&A - Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck
Moderator - Debbie Hiott, Former General Manager, KUT/KUTX