Houston Cinema Arts Festival

HCAF 2024 will feature a wide variety of curated feature films with a focus on the diverse cultural community of Houston, Texas.

HCAF 2024 will also see the tenth Anniversary of CineSpace, our annual short film competition with NASA, as well as the fifth annual regional short film competition Borders - No Borders.

Our full festival lineup has been announced. Check out the schedule to discover the incredible films, performances, and special guests we have in store!

Schedule of Events:

7:30 pm: Reality Bites

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Houston-filmed cult classic, HCAF presents REALITY BITES with screenwriter Helen Childress in attendance for a special post-film discussion.

Reality Bites

The children of Coca-Cola and divorce, Gen X discovers reality bites in this now classic slacker comedy about friends, credit cards, and decaf from screenwriter Helen Childress. The iconic Winona Ryder is Lelaina, a recent college graduate and aspiring filmmaker who turns her camera on friends and roommates Troy (Ethan Hawke), Vicky (Janeane Garofolo) and Sammy (Steve Zahn) in a bid to create the next great American documentary before meeting uptight television exec Michael (Ben Stiller). Between cigarette drags, trips to the Gap, and calls to the Psychic Friends hotline - expect sex, break-ups, make-ups, Schoolhouse Rock, and an honest look at growing up after you've already grown.

Director: Ben Stiller
Runtime: 98 minutes

9:00 pm: Harmonie

For those who think FANTASTIC PLANET is tame comes the interstellar saga of Jésus Pérez, space explorer from Planet Earth. He is determined to unravel the mysteries of Harmonie, a bizarro exoplanet reminiscent of a Bosch painting on acid: from wolf-turtle hybrids to an *** with eyes, all creatures that live here can utter the words "yes" and "no" with a musical voice and reproduce with each other with no limitations. A lo-fi, 3D animated masterpiece of astronomical proportions from the mind of Bertrand Dezoteux, a self-described "amateur anthropologist, an observer of life in virtual worlds."

Director: Bertrand Dezoteux
Runtime: 74 minutes