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: Basquiat (Black and White 4K Restoration)

Whether you're seeing it for the first time or not, you've never seen BASQUIAT like this - in black and white and fully restored in 4K. From visual artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel comes an evocative personal rendering of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, told in a series of vignettes tracing his turn from street kid graffiti artist to one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

A touchstone of '90s independent cinema, announcing the arrival of a great talent (Jeffrey Wright in his first starring role), it remains a benchmark for biopics and an illuminating portrait of the artist and his creative process. Featuring a veritable gallery of film icons: Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Benicio del Toro, Parker Posey, Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, and David Bowie as Andy Warhol.

Director: Julian Schnabel
Runtime: 107 minutes

7:30 pm: All, or Nothing at All [Version 1]

Jiajun "Oscar" Zhang is undoubtedly an ambitious filmmaker. His debut feature ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL is not one film but arguably two, and will be presented as such at the 2024 Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

All, or nothing at all

In the vast 270,000 square meters of retail sprawl of Shanghai's Global Harbor, two pairs of young adults traverse the loneliness of contemporary China, first as a lovestruck amateur filmmaker and the object of his obsession, a cosmetics salesgirl, then as an aspiring architect enamored with a dance instructor. Using an innovative two-part conception which can be played in any order, Chinese director/co-writer Zhang and South Korean co-writer Hee Young Pyun capture the emptiness reflected in the sheen of the shopping mall's marble halls with a script that moves as an escalator, delivering the viewer to whichever conclusion they prefer to arrive at.

Director: Jiajun 'Oscar' Zhang
Runtime: 124 minutes