MISSION & OBJECTIVE

One of the oldest and most respected festivals and film arts organizations in the U.S., the 56-year old USA Film Festival is a Dallas-based, 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in the film and video arts. Through its YEAR-ROUND "live cinema" programs and special events, the USA Film Festival provides an opportunity for the public to discover new films and sheds new light on familiar films by facilitating discussion and encounters with master, mid-career and emerging filmmakers. Programs include a major annual film festival, now in its 56th year; the International Short Film & Video Competition; the annual KidFilm festival, the oldest and largest-attended children's film festival in the U.S.; tributes and retrospectives organized around important themes and filmmakers; and extensive educational community outreach activities. With the exception of special member screenings, all events are open to the public.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

56th Annual USA Film Festival (April 22-26, 2026)

A curated event featuring only the best new features & shorts; U.S. and foreign films; Tributes to master artists; International Short Film & Video Competition with awards administered by national jury. Filmmakers present their works and discuss them with the audience; If your short film is also selected to play in the curated showcase, air travel (U.S. filmmakers) and lodging (all filmmakers) are provided to enable you to be with us to present your film. (Air vouchers and hotel are limited quantities; We distribute as films are booked until the resources are exhausted.)

Master Artist Tributes
Tributes & retrospectives honoring master artists including directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, art directors, editors and more.

Since its inception in 1971, the USA Film Festival has presented the world, national or regional premieres of thousands of studio and independent feature films and short experimental, animated, documentary and dramatic films. The full roster of filmmaker guests numbers in the thousands and is too long to list in total, but includes ACTORS Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Benjamin Bratt, Brian Cox, Thomas Haden Church, M. Emment Walsh, Chris Cooper, Peter Fonda, John Turturro, Andy Garcia, Dakota Fanning, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Alfred Molina, Christopher Walken, Tommy Lee Jones, James Earl Jones, Ed Asner, Jimmy Smits, Jodie Foster, Marcia Gay Harden, Richard Dreyfuss, Audrey Hepburn, Diane Baker, Dennis Hopper, James Stewart, Robert Duvall, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, Jackie Chan, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Richard E. Grant, Josh Lucas, Wanda Sykes, Martin Short, Charles Durning, Stephen Tobolowsky, Harry Shearer, Dennis Quaid, Gregory Hines, Terry Jones, Ray Liotta, Rene Auberjonois, Timothy Busfield, Melissa Gilbert, Rupert Everett; SCREENWRITERS/WRITERS George Axelrod, Robert Towne, Buck Henry; James V. Hart, Paul Rudnick; EFFECTS WIZARDS Dennis Muren; VOICE ARTISTS June Foray, Will Ryan; ANIMATORS Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Michael Sporn, John Dilworth, Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, Ray Harryhausen, Henry Selick; AUTHORS John Grisham, Kimberly Willis Holt, Cari Best, Rosemary Wells, Richard Condon, John Boyne, Dominick Dunne; PRODUCERS Bernie Brillstein, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Polly Platt, Christine Vachon; COMPOSERS Mark Mothersbaugh, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Hans Zimmer, Paul Williams; EDITORS Dede Allen; Dennis Virkler; CINEMATOGRAPHERS Owen Roizman, Conrad Hall, Laszlo Kovacs; ART DIRECTORS Henry Bumstead, Richard Sylbert; CRITICS/FILM WRITERS Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin, Mike Clarke, Stephen Rebello; DIRECTORS Milos Forman, Danny Boyle, Mark Herman, Neil LaBute, Ken Russell, Ismail Merchant & James Ivory, Albert Maysles, Peter Greenaway, Blake Edwards, Robert Benton, Michael Apted, Wim Wenders, Norman Jewison, Arthur Penn, Alan J. Pakula, Paul Mazursky, Sydney Pollack, Stanley Donen, Paul Schrader, Martha Coolidge, Mel Stuart, John Waters, Andy Warhol, Charles Burnett, Budd Boetticher, Robert Altman, Oliver Stone, Atom Egoyan, John Frankenheimer, Martin Ritt, Alan Rudolph, Michael Powell, Chuck Jones, Richard Brooks, Frederick Wiseman, John Cassavetes, Frank Perry, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Wise, Rouben Mamoulian, Sidney Lumet, George Cukor, King Vidor, Mervyn LeRoy, William Wyler, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Raoul Walsh, Frank Capra, George Stevens, Whit Stillman, and many more.

ORGANIZERS
Ann Alexander (Managing Director)

Tori Collatos (Program Coordinator)

The festival is open to professional and nonprofessional filmmakers.

Awards & Prizes

International Short Film & Video Competition Award Categories

Narrative/Fiction
Includes narrative works, dramatized events and adaptations of literary or dramatic works.

Nonfiction
Includes documentaries or portraits of actual persons or events.

Animation
Includes animation of graphics or three-dimensional objects. When submitting your work, please specific the method/s used (e.g. AI, illustration, stop motion, etc.)

Experimental Award
Works that explore personal experience or film and video forms in innovative ways (can employ elements of animation, fiction or documentary). PSAs, music videos, industrials and educational films may also be submitted in this category.

Texas Award
Works shot in Texas, or made by current residents of Texas and filmmakers with ties to Texas are eligible for this additional award.

Student Award
Works eligible for this award must have been completed while enrolled as a student; please include the name of your school/university with your submission.

Special Jury Awards
The National Jury also recognizes various works at will for special achievement in any category.

Rules & Terms

CATEGORY RULES

ALL SHORT FILM SUBMISSIONS

All entries must be under 60 minutes in length. Running time is calculated by timing the head frame to the last frame on the end credits.

The appropriate entry fee must accompany each entry. This nonrefundable fee covers screening and handling costs and will not be returned.

Select ONE MAIN CATEGORY (Narrative/Fiction, Nonfiction, Student, Animation, Experimental, Texas) for your film's submission.

If submitting an animated film, please include the specific the method/s used (e.g. AI, illustration, stop motion, etc.) with your submission.

All short films/videos must have been completed between January 1, 2025 and February 15, 2026.

Films/videos using uncredited, non-licensed, copyrighted musical or literary properties without legal permission and appropriate attribution credits are not eligible.

The competition is open to professional and nonprofessional filmmakers.

Entries must be submitted in the completed form in which they will be judged.
(Please note: We do accept work-in-progress films, but the final version of the film must be submitted by our Late Deadline of February 1st.)

The decisions of the Jury are final. The Jury reserves the right not to select a winner in any given category. The Jury reserves the right to change a category to the benefit of the film.

The JURY TIMELINE is as follows:

February 2026 - March 2026
Pre-screenings take place to (1) identify potential Finalist** films and (2) to identify films The Festival might play in the curated showcase. **National Jurors have final say in determining awards.

Early March - Early-April 2026
Filmmakers that are selected to screen in the "Curated Showcase" are contacted and confirmed. (The Curated Showcase is separate from the Competition. To be considered for the Curated Schedule, the film cannot have premiered in North Texas before the Festival.)

April 22-26, 2026 (During Festival Dates)
Nat'l Jurors begin judging all Finalist films

Day After Festival Concludes
Announcement of winning films.

Note -- All Competition films REMAIN IN COMPETITION process until the National Jurors make their final selections. A list of all winning films is provided to all submitting filmmakers after the program in May. PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE FESTIVAL TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE STATUS OF YOUR FILM.

Eligible finished formats include 70mm, 16mm and 35mm film, DVD, Beta SP, DigiBeta, IMAX, HDCAM, DV/DVCAM, DCI, and Blu-Ray in the standard American NTSC format. (It is understood that there exists a multitude of shooting formats for video production.)

FEATURE SUBMISSIONS

The appropriate entry fee must accompany each entry. This nonrefundable fee covers screening and handling costs and will not be returned.

USAFF accepts feature films in all genres; U.S. and foreign works accepted; any length feature works accepted.

For our purposes, feature films are generally not less than 60 minutes in runtime.

Professional and nonprofessional film and video-makers may submit works.

All shooting formats are accepted.

The film or video must have been completed between January 1, 2024 and February 15, 2026. Work-in-progress films will be accepted, HOWEVER the final version of the film must be completed by March 1st.

The film cannot have premiered in the North Texas area before the Festival.

All screenings will take place in Dallas during the 56th Annual USA Film Festival.

Filmmakers are eligible to receive air travel and local lodging during their stay. (Air vouchers and hotel are limited quantities; we distribute as films are booked, until the resources are exhausted.)

Filmmakers are honored during the festival with nightly receptions following all screenings and on-stage discussion of their work.

The USA Film Festival is a NONCOMPETITIVE event. Feature films accepted for inclusion are not prevented from being considered for subsequent competition in the Cannes Film Festival or other competitive events.

49 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • David Cormican

    ★★★★★
    Something Pointless had its world premiere at USA Film Festival in Dallas — USAFF's reputation precedes it: one of the oldest and most respected film festivals in the United States, with a programme that has consistently championed short film with the same seriousness it brings to features.

    To have our film selected for its world premiere here was an enormous validation, and the response from Dallas audiences confirmed what we hoped — that this story travels.

    Since premiering at USAFF, Something Pointless has gone on to win Best Short Film (United Kingdom) at iDEAL International Film Festival, and received nominations for Best Short Film Made in Wales (the John Hefin Award) at Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Yorkton Film Festival (Canada's longest-running film festival, now in its 79th edition), and Best Short Film at the International Sound & Film Music Festival in Croatia — with the festival run continuing well into 2026/27.

    Tori and the USAFF team were professional, welcoming, and clearly devoted to the art of short filmmaking. For any filmmaker serious about launching a short film campaign with credibility and care, USAFF is the gold standard.

    — David Cormican, p.g.a., Producer, Co-Screenwriter, Something Pointless

    May 2026
    Helpful
  • Chris Bongirne

    USA FF is a must. Us filmmakers are treated like royalty and the festival team is great to deal with. Expect packed screenings and enthusiastic knowledgable audiences! Would love to come back!

    May 2026
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  • Sandra Luckow

    I have been attending this festival with my films over the past 30 years. This year I was there with Vanishing: A Love Story. The festival's hospitality and care of filmmakers are outstanding. The enthusiasm of the audience is humbling and infectious. Filmmakers feel celebrated. They offered free tickets to the target audience of my impact campaign. It's rare these days for a festival to show in a professional theater with a huge screen, so it is definitely worth it -- the Q&A's and talkbacks are insightful and interesting..

    April 2026
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  • Richard James Allen

    Delighted that Physical TV's BREAKING PLATES, directed by Karen Pearlman, was a FINALIST: U.S. and International Short Films - Nonfiction.

    July 2025
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  • Yixin Zhang

    So grateful that MEGA FOUNDRY received the Jury Prize in the Experimental Category at the 55th USA Film Festival. it feels like real encouragement for telling stories that cross borders and go beyond the usual rules.
    Huge thanks to the festival team for creating such an inclusive and supportive space.

    May 2025
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