Established in 2014, the Texas Independent Film Award was created by the Houston Film Critics Society to spotlight the quality of local independent film. Each year we welcome submissions of films shot in Texas and which have been financed outside the major studio system by small investors and/or independent production companies. 

A nominating committee of HFCS members screens all candidates and presents five finalists to the general membership during year-end voting. From these nominees, two awards are bestowed: the Texas Independent Film Award itself (honoring the most impressive achievement taken as a whole), and the Texas Visionary Award (honoring the filmmaker whose particular voice and vision we cannot wait to see more of).

The winners are announced at our annual awards show at the beginning of January. 

Is Your Film Eligible?

To be considered, a film may be either documentary or narrative but must be of feature length, independently financed, and with its majority filmed in Texas (shot in Texas vs. set in Texas). It is not required to have been picked up by a major distributor though it certainly may be, or go on to be in a later year; it may, however, be submitted for consideration only once.

We appreciate receiving your film as early in the year as possible, and the final deadline for submission is October 31st. It may be submitted either via physical DVD or electronic link (with enough copies/links/link-uses for each member of the nominating committee).

Please contact TIFA Coordinator Joshua Starnes with any questions or to arrange delivery of your film. Congratulations on your achievement, and we look forward to experiencing it!

Submit Your Film