About Borders | No Borders Short Film Competition
Submit your film by August 10, 2026!
Houston Cinema Arts Festival’s short film competition: Borders | No Borders is back for the seventh year to celebrate the rich stories of Texas and the regions that surround it.
Borders | No Borders is open to short narrative and documentary films with strong ties to Texas. Filmmakers from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mexico, New Mexico, or Oklahoma, or filmmakers whose work is connected to these regions, can submit for a chance to be featured at the 2026 Houston Cinema Arts Festival and win cash prizes.
The competition opens on June 1st with a submission deadline of August 10. Finalist films will be announced as part of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2026 lineup in September and will be screened during the festival happening October 1 through 11, 2026.
This film program is generously supported by the Independent Media Arts Foundation.
For questions, please contact Borders | No Borders Programmer Autumn Johnson at autumn@cinemathtx.org.
Cultural exchange is often thought of as happening between countries, but it can also take place between cities, states, and even neighborhoods — anywhere a border is perceived or imposed. Houston is the most diverse city in the United States, and Texas, in addition to being the largest state in the continental U.S., shares borders with Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mexico, each with its own distinct culture and identity. These regions inform Houston’s past, present, and future with their cultures, histories, cuisines, ancestral and contemporary sacrifices, injustices, unceded lands, art, music, dance, theater, film, and storytellers. Borders | No Borders celebrates the complexity of Houston and its neighboring communities, all of which contribute to H-Town’s je ne sais quoi.
Borders | No Borders invites residents of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Mexico as well as filmmakers with meaningful ties to these areas to submit narrative and documentary short films. Films in all languages are welcomed and encouraged, but we request that films that are not in English be submitted with English subtitles to ensure that the translations best represent the filmmaker’s vision. The winners for Best Narrative Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film will each be awarded a prize of $1,000. There will be two additional Jury Prizes of $500 selected by a panel of six jurors. Past jurors include: Damon Davis, Kimberly Rivers Roberts, Sumie Garcia, Liz Purchell, Sergio Lira, Raymond Arturo Perez, Keisha Knight, Francis Almendarez, Kolby Webster, Casey Baron, David Lee Huynh, and Eugenio del Bosque.
