Lone Star Film Festival marks 20 years with a Nov. 4-13 run and more than 70 short films, nearly half from Texas

The Lone Star Film Festival returns to Fort Worth next week for its 20th edition, with screenings spread across the city from Nov. 4 through Nov. 13.

The lineup has upward of 70 shorts, drawn from many countries, and close to half of them come from Texas filmmakers, a bigger share than in past years, festival technical director and programmer Anderson William told the Fort Worth Report.

Features on the schedule include Jesse Eisenberg's musical comedy "The Debut," starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, as well as "Rehearsals for a Revolution," which won the L'Oeil d'or for best documentary at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

The festival's presenter is the Fort Worth Film Commission. An all-access pass costs $350, and tickets for individual screenings are also sold.

From a thin film scene to year 20

When the festival started two decades ago, Fort Worth had little in the way of an independent film scene, said Chad Mathews, executive director of the Lone Star Film Society. The founders, he said, were film lovers who wanted local audiences to be able to see strong independent work.

William said reaching the 20-year mark stands out because many festivals fold within their first five years, and this one kept going through the pandemic. Over the past decade, he said, the quality and inventiveness of work from first-time and emerging filmmakers has grown, and he wants the program to be as varied as possible.

A screening at a festival, Mathews said, can help independent filmmakers, who often spend heavily on a project with no promise of distribution, build an audience and the momentum to finish a film or make the next one. He encouraged first-time festivalgoers to pick something they would not normally watch or sit in on one of the festival's Coffee Talk sessions about filmmaking.

"This is your film festival," he said, describing it as the city's festival and saying residents should feel they own it.

The Fort Worth Report, which first reported the anniversary lineup, notes that it is a partner of this year's festival.

Sources

fortworthreport.org