Shot in Texas for November: festival deadlines, Houston's film plan and Selena's Alamodome day.

Shot in Texas is our monthly roundup: the most useful thing we published, three short items from the month, and one free file. It also goes out by email. Tick the subscribe box on any form on this site and the next one comes to you.

Every festival deadline left in November.

Our November festival ledger checked each deadline against the festival's own page or its live FilmFreeway listing on October 15. These are the ones still open from November 11.

November 11. SFFILM, Regular. The regular deadline for every category and the last call for shorts. A feature can still enter at the December 2 final.

November 12. The Academy, final deadline for General Entry, Animated Feature, Best Picture and the RAISE form, 99th Academy Awards.

November 13. Aspen Shortsfest, Late. $95, and it is the last tier there is.

November 15. WorldFest-Houston, Main. Late is December 15 and final is January 15.

November 15. Waco Independent, Regular. $65 for a feature, $40 for a short, $35 for a student short.

November 15. Cleveland, Final. $100 for a feature, $80 for a short.

November 15. Flickers' RIIFF, Earlybird. $50, or $35 for students, on a ladder that ends at $100.

November 18. Tribeca, official deadline for features. Extended is December 16. Shorts run their own ladder: December 2, then February 3.

November 20. Frameline, Early Bird. $35, on a ladder that climbs to $100 by March 1.

November 20. Florida, Late. $90 for a feature, $70 for a short.

November 27. Overlook, Regular. $90 for a feature, $75 for a short, $55 for a Louisiana short.

November 30. Sidewalk, Early Bird. $40 for a feature, $30 for a short.

Read the date first, then the fee. Festivals name their tiers however they like. Aspen's Late is its last tier. WorldFest-Houston's November 15 is its Main deadline, with Late a month behind it. Overlook calls every tier an Un-Deadline. Cleveland shows what the label costs: the list we started from had its final deadline on November 30, the festival's own date is November 15, and a feature that lands between the two pays $125 instead of $100. Dates move, so open the festival's page before you pay.

One Texas line from the same ledger: Austin Film Society has launched Texas Lights, invitation-only grants of $50,000 and up for features by mid-career Texas filmmakers who have held an AFS Grant before, per the Austin Chronicle's September 22 report.

Houston published a five-year plan for film.

Houston First's October 7 release launched a five-year plan, carried out through the Houston Film Commission, with “elevating Houston as the film capital of Texas” as its first priority. The same release says the city's feature incentive put nearly $400,000 into seven projects in its first year. For a producer, the useful part is how a shoot starts there: a Motion Picture/TV Registration Form before filming on City of Houston public property, a $1 million per incident certificate of insurance, and separate permits for parks and amplified sound. The people, the forms and the phone numbers.

The Texas grant is won or lost at hire.

The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program pays a cash grant after you wrap and pass verification. For film and TV, residency is two tests on the Texas Film Commission's own pages: 35% of paid crew and 35% of paid cast, extras included, must be Texas residents. The bar rises to 40% on September 1, 2027, and the date that counts is the start of principal photography. Productions lose the grant when residency paperwork gets collected at wrap, after people have gone home. Track both numbers from your first hire. How the residency tests are counted, and what we do on a Texas shoot. The Texas Film Commission decides who qualifies: (512) 463-9200.

Selena filled the Alamodome for the price of T-shirts.

On Sunday, September 15, 1996, about 34,000 unpaid extras filled half the Alamodome so San Antonio could play the Houston Astrodome. They took home posters, buttons and T-shirts. The budget was $20 million, per The Numbers, and Box Office Mojo records $35.8 million domestic. A crowd that size sinks most budgets. This one showed up because the production asked a community that wanted to be in the room. Where Selena was filmed.

If a festival says yes.

The last file between an acceptance and the screen is the DCP. Drop the master off in Austin, or send a link. Every order comes back with a measured picture-and-sound report you can forward to the festival's tech team. A 2K short up to 15 minutes is $119; a feature from 75 to 110 minutes is $325. DCP prices and the order form.

Free this month.

Where to send your film. The 41-page festival guide: how submission tiers work, what a fee waiver is worth, and a dated calendar through June 2027. Get it on the free downloads page.

Spot a date that moved? Write to info@goldsmithpictures.com and we will correct the ledger.