November 11, 2025 10:18 AM PST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thin Line Fest Opens 2026 Documentary Film Submission Season � October 1 through January 20, 2026
DENTON, TX � Thin Line Fest � Texas� longest running documentary film festival � has officially opened submissions for its 2026 Documentary Film Program. The submission window runs October 1, 2025 through January 20, 2026.
Thin Line Fest is built for nonfiction filmmakers who want real audiences, real context, and a large-format theatrical exhibition environment; not low-stakes digital feed consumption.
Every accepted documentary screens inside a historic downtown theater with high-touch production, premium projection, and a room full of humans experiencing non-fiction cinema together.
Deadlines + Fees
- Regular Deadline:�November 30
- Late Deadline:�December 31
- Extended Deadline:�January 20
Fees increase at each deadline tier. Students receive 50% off across all deadlines.
The Festival
Thin Line Fest takes place in Denton, Texas: a cultural-heavy, artist-forward, university-driven, independent city strategically located in the fast-ascending North Texas I-35 creative corridor.
Thin Line Fest is the only U.S. festival that fully integrates�Documentary Film + Music + Photography�as co-equal pillars; resulting in uniquely high value cross-medium audience attention, crossover fanbase transfer, and deeper long-tail discovery.
Filmmaker Experience
Selected documentary filmmakers receive:
- VIP festival credentials
- VIP hospitality
- Invitation-only programming + mixers
- High-touch filmmaker care
- Strategic networking opportunities
- Priority access to music program + photography program
- And Thin Line Fest will cover a portion of hotel costs for selected filmmakers traveling in
This is not an assembly-line festival experience. This is a curated, built-for-humans, built-for-art, built-for-outcomes festival environment.
Why Strategic Filmmakers Pick Thin Line
2026 is a stress test year for mid-tier festivals nationwide. Many will not operate or will collapse inward into digital-only. Thin Line is scaling in the opposite direction.
We are doubling down on in-room, present-tense cinematic experiences. We are increasing investment into nonfiction filmmakers, not cutting it.
Thin Line Fest curates documentary films with cultural stakes, identity clarity, point of view, rigor, and artistic consequence. We prioritize films that permanently shift perception, not films that temporarily amuse.
Categories
Thin Line Fest accepts:
- Feature Documentary
- Short Documentary
- Music Video�(a nod to Thin Line�s Music Festival � and a doc-adjacent visual storytelling form that performs extremely well in this environment)
Works-in-progress are accepted if you expect to be exhibition-ready at festival date.
Programming Approach
Thin Line Fest invests in:
- long form nonfiction with meaningful stakes
- documentary shorts that hit like lightning
- doc-based music driven visual storytelling
- bold visual experimentation that matters and means something (not chaos for chaos sake)
- storytelling rooted in lived truth
- documentaries that reveal, expose, challenge, or emotionally land
Submit on FilmFreeway
Thin Line Fest uses FilmFreeway exclusively. Submit directly here:�https://filmfreeway.com/ThinLine
Media Contact
Media / Press / Partnership
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thin Line Fest Opens 2026 Documentary Film Submission Season — October 1 through January 20, 2026
DENTON, TX — Thin Line Fest — Texas’ longest running documentary film festival — has officially opened submissions for its 2026 Documentary Film Program. The submission window runs October 1, 2025 through January 20, 2026.
Thin Line Fest is built for nonfiction filmmakers who want real audiences, real context, and a large-format theatrical exhibition environment; not low-stakes digital feed consumption.
Every accepted documentary screens inside a historic downtown theater with high-touch production, premium projection, and a room full of humans experiencing non-fiction cinema together.
Deadlines + Fees
- Regular Deadline: November 30
- Late Deadline: December 31
- Extended Deadline: January 20
Fees increase at each deadline tier. Students receive 50% off across all deadlines.
The Festival
Thin Line Fest takes place in Denton, Texas: a cultural-heavy, artist-forward, university-driven, independent city strategically located in the fast-ascending North Texas I-35 creative corridor.
Thin Line Fest is the only U.S. festival that fully integrates Documentary Film + Music + Photography as co-equal pillars; resulting in uniquely high value cross-medium audience attention, crossover fanbase transfer, and deeper long-tail discovery.
Filmmaker Experience
Selected documentary filmmakers receive:
- VIP festival credentials
- VIP hospitality
- Invitation-only programming + mixers
- High-touch filmmaker care
- Strategic networking opportunities
- Priority access to music program + photography program
- And Thin Line Fest will cover a portion of hotel costs for selected filmmakers traveling in
This is not an assembly-line festival experience. This is a curated, built-for-humans, built-for-art, built-for-outcomes festival environment.
Why Strategic Filmmakers Pick Thin Line
2026 is a stress test year for mid-tier festivals nationwide. Many will not operate or will collapse inward into digital-only. Thin Line is scaling in the opposite direction.
We are doubling down on in-room, present-tense cinematic experiences. We are increasing investment into nonfiction filmmakers, not cutting it.
Thin Line Fest curates documentary films with cultural stakes, identity clarity, point of view, rigor, and artistic consequence. We prioritize films that permanently shift perception, not films that temporarily amuse.
Categories
Thin Line Fest accepts:
- Feature Documentary
- Short Documentary
- Music Video (a nod to Thin Line’s Music Festival — and a doc-adjacent visual storytelling form that performs extremely well in this environment)
Works-in-progress are accepted if you expect to be exhibition-ready at festival date.
Programming Approach
Thin Line Fest invests in:
- long form nonfiction with meaningful stakes
- documentary shorts that hit like lightning
- doc-based music driven visual storytelling
- bold visual experimentation that matters and means something (not chaos for chaos sake)
- storytelling rooted in lived truth
- documentaries that reveal, expose, challenge, or emotionally land
Submit on FilmFreeway
Thin Line Fest uses FilmFreeway exclusively. Submit directly here: https://filmfreeway.com/ThinLine
Media Contact
Media / Press / Partnership
[email protected]
