About Borders | No Borders Short Film Competition Submissions open now through August 10, 2026!
Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) brings back the regional short film competition Borders | No Borders for the seventh year to celebrate the rich stories of the southern regions surrounding Texas. This short film competition is a part of the annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival.
Borders | No Borders is open to short narrative and documentary films with strong ties to Texas, the states bordering Texas (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico) and Mexico. The competition opens on June 1st with a submission deadline of August 10. Finalist films will be announced with the Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2026 lineup in September and will be screened at during the festival happening October 1–11, 2026.
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, which each have their own distinct cultures and identities. 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.
Borders | No Borders is generously supported by Independent Media Arts Foundation.
For questions, please contact Borders | No Borders Programmer Autumn Johnson at autumn@cinemathtx.org.