Bruno Chatelin of FilmFestivals.com is in from France to share with us Festival strategies and Finance Fun at the Westin Memorial City Lounge at 11 AM. Introducing panelists Doval Bacall (YOUR SCRIPT PRODUCED) and Jon Gosier (FILMHEDGE) Free and open to the public.

This is the halfway point for our Mini-Fest but there's so much more to enjoy! From The Indie Filmmaker Panel at the Westin Memorial City Lounge at 1PM to great screenings at Cinemark Memorial City to The Festival Club at the Westin Bar - we hope you'll enjoy our offering on #WorldFest55 Day Three!

7PM Films

PLAYING THE CREASE (USA) Dir. Jonathan Moch*

Sci-Fi Shorts*

TWO WOMEN OVER THE LAW (Italy) Dir. Raffaele Schettino*

9PM FILMS

THE MESSENGER (USA) Dir. Shawn Welling*

8 SUSPECTS (South Korea) Dir. Inchun Oh

A RAIN IN THE SUMMER (USA) Dir. Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio

*Denotes filmmakers in attendance!

All events are open to the public. Meet the Spielbergs of tomorrow, tonight! 

See you at the movies,

- Team WorldFest

During the 55th edition of the Festival, before the steak diner with the awards Winners.... All about discovering and celebrating the talents of tomorrow!

Welcome to WorldFest Day Four! A dazzling delight of films awaits you from 1 PM to 9 PM, so put on your festival lounge wear, prepare for popcorn and feast your eyeballs on this amazing line up of films! Check out the full synopsis of each film playing below.

1 PM Films

TOMORROW'S GAME (USA) Dir. Trevor Wilson & Jonathan Coria*

Animated Family Shorts*

SHALLOW WATER (USA) Dir. Mathew Robinson

3 PM Films

SHAMBALA (Kyrgyzstan) Dir. Artykpai Suyundukov

Documentary Shorts*

ABOUT ANTI-NATALISM (Japan) Dir. Wataru Shibata

5 PM Films

A PLACE CALLED HOME (USA) Dir. Kiel Thorlton

Sci-Fi II Shorts*

HARPER (USA) Dir. Kate Bohan*

7 PM Films

THE CHEATERS (Canada) Dir. Louis Godbout

BROKEN BLOOMS (Philippines) Dir. Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio*

NEON HEART (Brazil) Dir. Lucas Esteban Soares*

9 PM Films

NOW IS NOW (Hungary) Dir. Peter Szajki

MYSTERY SPOT (USA) Dir. Mel House* 

THE POSTMAN (HALKARA) (Nepal) Dir. Bikram Sapkota*

*Denotes filmmakers in attendance!

See you at the movies,

- Team WorldFest

Sharing some important tips on how to work Cannes, understanding the festival circuit and the importance of Film Markets (Berlin, Cannes AFM...), disrupting the film financing with www.filmhedge.com, understanding the fast success of your script produced empire...

The video has three parts enjoy!

Celebrating the success of the panel with some amazing steak ! 

The 56th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival is officially open for entries Aug 15th! WorldFest offers competition for Shorts, Documentaries, Feature Films, Music Videos, Experimental & Student Films on the Silver Screens of the wonderful Memorial City Cinemark Theatres, with hundreds of international filmmakers attending the 6-day International Film Festival!

Enter the festival that gave first honors to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Ang Lee, the Coen Brothers, Randal Kleiser, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, David Lynch, John Sayles, Robert Townsend, Deepa Mehta, Agnieszka Holland, John Frankenheimer, Richard Linklater, Jonathan Demme, John Boorman, Martin Brest, Lesli Linka Glatter, Hal Hartley, Will Vinton, Hugh Wilson, Michael Cimino, Gavin Hood, David Winning and John Lee Hancock!

This is America’s Discovery Film Festival – We’re Fiercely Independent!

Competition in 10 major categories with 200 sub-categories to ensure you are judged with your peers for the chance to win a coveted Remi Award!

Six great days in April, at the beautiful Memorial City Cinemark Theatres. Here’s a taste of what WorldFest-Houston has waiting for you: see your film on a big screen; network with filmmakers from more than 75 countries; enjoy the Festival Club every night at our headquarters hotel, the Memorial City Westin/Marriott, walk the Red Carpet; attend more than 150 new film Premieres; learn at 4 Master Classes on filmmaking, from Drone Photography to using Free NASA stock footage; relax at the VIP Police Escort Tour of NASA & Rocket Park; enjoy the Houston Yacht Club/Consular Regatta & Texas BBQ! 

See the largest survey in North America of New Asian & Chinese independent & major studio films from Beijing & Shanghai with Asian Filmmakers attending our remarkable 8th Annual Panorama Asia, the largest Major Spotlight on Asian & Chinese Cinema in the film festival world!

Enjoy great new films from Italy in our 17th Annual Panorama Italia, with the Italian Directors in person to intro the film and meet the audience! 

All at the 56th WorldFest-Houston Intl Film Festival, April 25-30, 2023.

Enter Here Today.​

This could be your film at the 56th WorldFest-Houston!

The 56th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival is now officially open for entries! WorldFest offers competition for Shorts, Documentaries, Feature Films, Music Videos, Experimental & Student Films on the Silver Screens of the wonderful Memorial City Cinemark Theatres, with over 1,000 international filmmakers attending the  International Film Festival! EarlyBird Deadline is Nov 15th!

Enter the festival that gave first honors to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Ang Lee, the Coen Brothers, Randal Kleiser, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, David Lynch, John Sayles, Robert Townsend, Deepa Mehta, Agnieszka Holland, John Frankenheimer, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Jonathan Demme, John Boorman, Martin Brest, Lesli Linka Glatter, Hal Hartley, Will Vinton, Hugh Wilson, Michael Cimino, Gavin Hood, David Winning and John Lee Hancock! The Remi Winners of today will be on this list next!

This is America’s Discovery Film Festival – We’re Fiercely Independent!

Competition in 10 major categories with 200 sub-categories to ensure you are judged with your peers for the chance to win a coveted Remi Award!

Six great days in April, at the beautiful Memorial City Cinemark Theatres. Here’s a taste of what WorldFest-Houston has waiting for you: see your film on a big theatre screen; network with filmmakers from more than 75 countries; enjoy the Festival Club every night at our VIP headquarters hotel, the Memorial City Westin/Marriott, parties at the VIP Hotel Zaza, walk the Red Carpet; attend more than 100 new film Premieres; relax at the VIP Police Escort Tour of NASA & Rocket Park; enjoy the Houston Yacht Club/Consular Regatta with Texas BBQ, Beer & Wine! 

See the largest survey in North America of New Asian independent & major studio films from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mongolia, Viet Nam, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Nepal - with over 200 Asian Filmmakers attending our remarkable 8th Annual Panorama Asia, the largest Major Spotlight on Asian & Chinese Cinema in the film festival world!

Enjoy great new films from Italy in our 19th Annual Panorama Italia, with the Italian Directors in person to intro the film and meet the audience! 

All at the 56th WorldFest-Houston Intl Film Festival, April 25-30, 2023.

Enter Here Today.​

Howdy from Houston!

Apologies for this very final reminder of our Main Entry Deadline!

We know you have a few other things on your mind!

Entries close TODAY- Thursday, December 15th! 

The 56th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival is April 25-30, 2023, 6 Great Days in April!

There is a Final Late Entry Deadline of  Thursday, January 15th, 2023, (with a Late Fee, natch!) just in case!

Wishing you great Joy, Happiness and Peace,

A Wonderful Christmas and a Very Bountiful New Year!

Most Sincerely,

Hunter, Kathleen, Katy, Lauren, Elease, Chandni, Adrienn, Josie, Sam, Henry, Brian, Catherine, Tom and All of us at Team WorldFest​!

WorldFest is ready to kick into high gear! 

The 56th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival (April 25-30, 2023) will announce its 2023 film line-up on April 5th on their website at www.worldfest.org Now celebrating ten years of amazing work by the creative team at López Negrete Communications, the premier Hispanic Ad Agency, WorldFest is delighted to announce that López Negrete was awarded a Best-in-Show ADDY for their work for the 2022 WorldFest campaign! Kudos to López Negrete for their well-deserved Award!

All screenings will be held at Cinemark Memorial City in SW Houston. Please check beginning on April 5^thwww.worldfest.org for trailers, times and ticketing.

WorldFest opens this year with Festival Resident Artist and longtime Alum, Director Shawn Welling with his new film, Mission from Outer Space. The film includes a very special star of the Silver Screen and Television, none other than Lee Majors (The Six Million Dollar Man), who will be on hand opening night to help WorldFest really kick things off on the red carpet as The Bayou City Band plays popular show tunes! Way Out from China is our second Opening film starting at 7:30PM with Director Sophia Han & her lead Actress, Lin Zhao, planning to attend.

WorldFest’s 56^th edition is a delicious cornucopia for true cineastes offering 8 World Premieres from 36 selected features; among them, 7 female directors hailing from such far flung places as Denmark, Nigeria and China. The annual Italian Panorama is slimmed down to a few shorts and two features (Italo Disco& Cinque Stanze) so we shall still say, “Allora prendi i popcorn e spegni le luci!”

WorldFest offers a great array of other foreign films such as Black Moon, Mexico, Clear Shadows, Portugal; The Great Man, India; Miró, Spain; The Namessime, France/Switzerland; Let the Party Begin, Israel; Black Stone, Greece; September Babies, Switzerland; She’s From Another Planet, S. Korea; Strangers, Nigeria; A Time for Summer, Poland;The Whirlpool, Slovenia as well as Snow White Dies at the End, Macedonia.

A very special film included in this year’s Documentary line-up is “Finding Purpose: The Brookwood Story” with ex-Houstonian Director Ariel Levy here to personally present an eye-opening video journey on the challenges that the Adult Disability Community is overcoming and the remarkable gifts that this unique and amazing group of humans has to give.  A really rare occasion is to celebrate Christmas in April and you can do so by coming to see the return of acclaimed director David Winning, a long-time festival favorite, who is bringing his 25^th Hallmark film for a Special Courtesy Screening of Blake Shelton’s Executive Producing of Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas.

 Closing out this year’s line-up will be the World Premiere of When Houston Had the Blues which poignantly and musically depicts how Houston’s legacy of mega-talented Blues musicians struggled to make their way in the industry. Many directors will attend this year’s premieres at WorldFest and conduct “Question & Answer” sessions right after their screenings. Come on down and ask them just how they got the dog to kneel & bark on cue.

WorldFest Artistic and Program Director, Kathleen Haney, stated, “We are thrilled and delighted to present such an exceptional line-up of independently produced films!

Each year, we are amazed by what filmmakers create in spite of incumbent challenges. The caliber of Indie films just keeps getting better and better.”  Haney continued “Our work is so gratifying to witness the cycles of growth in filmmakers who begin with a script, progress to a short then culminate with a feature-length film coming on back to WorldFest through the years. We love to shine a light on their creative persistence and excellence.”

WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 64 brand new shorts. This is the festival that gave top honors at the start of their careers to Spielberg, Lucas, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Randal Kleiser, Spike Lee, Agnieszka Holland, Ang Lee, Leslie Linka Glatter, John Lee Hancock, Oliver Stone, and David Lynch, among many others! Few other festivals have such a “discovery” track record. WorldFest is the third oldest film festival in North America and the oldest in the South.

WorldFest began in August 1961, as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society. It began screening independent, foreign & art films. It became an officially competitive International Film Festival seven years later, in April 1968, and has been in continuous operation since. It is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two events. Following WorldFest was Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Seattle. Now with more than 1,000 USA film festivals of various types, levels & quality, most  being simply non-competitive screening events! WorldFest is International, competitive and invites filmmakers worldwide.

The 56^th annual WorldFest offers International Competition in; Features, Shorts, TV production, TV commercials, unproduced Screenplays & Teleplays, Experimental, Student, Documentary, Business & Industry, New Media, and Music Videos. WorldFest is the largest film & video competition in the world, in sheer number of actual category entries, with more than 4,100 category entries received in 2023. There are over 200 sub-categories for competition, allowing each film to compete in its own individual genre.

WorldFest-Houston is sponsored by Boxer Properties, the State of Texas, City of Houston, Space Center Houston, CINEMARK Theatres, Houston Yacht Club, The Hotel Marriott Westin at Memorial City, Memorial City Mall, Masterpiece Inl., López Negrete Communications, Action Limo, UOFF and Houston Arts Alliance (HAA).   www.worldfest.org

Dear WorldFest Film Fans! 

Get ready to strut down the red carpet with our wonderful opening night films! You'll see everything from blue jeans to ball gowns at this fiercely independent opening night event. Catch "Mission from Outer Space" or "Way Out" at Cinemark Memorial City and join us for a champagne toast immediately following the 7pm & 7:30pm screenings (nearby location announced at screening). 

See you at the movies!

- Team WorldFest

Download the Catalog / program of WorldFest 56th edition

BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS NOMINATIONS!

WORLDFEST 56

Opening Night April 25!

Dear WorldFest Film Fans! 

Get ready to strut down the red carpet with our wonderful opening night films! You'll see everything from blue jeans to ball gowns at this fiercely independent opening night event. Catch "Mission from Outer Space" or "Way Out" at Cinemark Memorial City and join us for a champagne toast immediately following the 7pm & 7:30pm screenings (at the Westin Memorial City Lounge).

See you at the movies!

- Team WorldFest