Anima @SXSW 2026

Set to premiere at the 2026 edition of the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, Anima is the latest sci-fi comedy from director Brian Tetsuro Ivie, blending speculative technology with offbeat human connection. The film centers on Beck, an anti-social engineer who has just been laid off from her robotic companion start-up, only to land at an even stranger company promising to preserve human consciousness in the cloud. What begins as a professional reset quickly spirals into something far more existential when she’s handed her first assignment: escort the company’s most valuable client to his final appointment.

That client is Paul, a lonely button manufacturer preparing to upload his consciousness into a digital afterlife. As the unlikely pair embark on their journey, Anima mines humor from awkward silences, generational disconnects, and the absurdities of tech culture, while quietly probing deeper questions about mortality, legacy, and what it truly means to be remembered. With its sharp wit and heartfelt core, Ivie’s film promises to be a standout genre entry at SXSW, balancing laugh-out-loud moments with poignant reflections on connection in an increasingly virtual world. FERNTV says if science-fiction is your world then this film is for you.