The third Round Top Film Festival runs Thursday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 15, across six venues in Round Top. Standard day passes cost $225, and weekend passes run $425 to $725. People who live here have a cheaper way in. Single seats go on sale at the door for $20 each, and two events on the schedule need no ticket. One of those two is the only program on the weekend made by students who took the festival's own filmmaking camp this summer.
What a Pass Buys
The official pass page lists two weekend passes. The Silver Screen pass costs $425 and the Luminary pass costs $725. Both cover films, panels, honoree tributes, the Saturday awards ceremony and the intermission entertainment. The Luminary pass adds priority entry plus the opening-night and Saturday-night parties. Day passes for Friday, Saturday or Sunday cost $225 each. Students under 26 and military veterans can buy a day pass for $80 with ID. Tax and service fees are not included in any of these prices.
Passholders are guaranteed a seat at any screening, panel or special presentation as long as they are in line at least 15 minutes before it starts. Single tickets for individual screenings are not sold in advance at any price. That leaves three ways in for someone who doesn't want a pass:
Way in | Cost | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
Day pass | $225, or $80 for students under 26 and veterans | That day's general screenings and events, with a guaranteed seat if you're in line on time; parties and industry events are not included |
Rush ticket | $20, credit card only | One screening, if seats are left after passholders are inside |
Non-ticketed events | Free | Friday-morning live music and the Sunday camp shorts showcase |
One event sits outside all three. The Saturday Singer/Songwriter Series at The Halles runs from 4 to 5:30 p.m. It is the festival's first official music programming, presented with Nashville's Bluebird Cafe and Vinyll Studios. It needs its own limited ticket, and a pass does not cover it.
How the Rush Line Works
According to the festival's planning page, rush tickets are sold at the venue on the day of the screening. Sales start only after every passholder has gone in and been seated, and only if seats remain. They cost $20 each and can be paid by credit card only. The rush line doesn't take cash or mobile payments, and a rush seat is never guaranteed. Sales open in the final minutes before showtime, so a neighbor who arrives a quarter hour early is in the best position.
The rule favors screenings that passholders are likely to skip. A morning shorts block at Market Hill or a Sunday-afternoon feature is a safer bet than opening night. Opening night is Heartland, a drama about a former country star searching Nashville for her missing niece. It screens at Festival Hill from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday and is followed by a conversation with director Shana Feste.
Two Events With No Ticket at All
The schedule marks two events as non-ticketed.
The first is live music on the Festival Hill Terrace, Friday, Nov. 13, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The performers are listed as "Details Coming Soon." Earlier that morning, Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart screens at Festival Hill from 9 to 11.
The second matters more for anyone who follows what happens in town between festivals. The RTFF Summer Filmmaking Camp Shorts Showcase plays at 550 Dance Hall on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. It shows the short films students made at the festival's first summer camp, Making the Short: From Script to Screen, which ran June 8–14, 2026. Over that week, students worked alongside film professionals to write, direct, shoot, record sound for and edit their own short films. The festival's education page says the camp was led by Nell Teare, a native Texan who directs, writes, produces and acts. It describes the program's aim as film education and mentorship for rural Texas youth. The same page lists the festival's other student programs: a student movie screening on the first day of each festival and a free Student Screenwriting Workshop that meets in three monthly sessions.
The festival's big names are mostly passing through. The students in the Sunday showcase made their films at a camp the festival runs. Admission to their screening is free.
Familiar Buildings, New Programs
Some of the festival's venues will be familiar from other times of year. Festival Hill is the main screening venue. It is the 210-acre campus of the Festival Institute, which concert pianist James Dick founded in 1971, and its Concert Hall hosts the features plus intermissions with food for passholders.
Market Hill hosts the shorts programs. In October it was one of the Round Top Antiques & Design Show venues, opening on Oct. 12, and the show's fields along Highway 237 stayed open as late as Nov. 1. Less than two weeks later, the same grounds are screening films.
The 550 District at 550 N. Washington St. has one of Round Top's best-known honky-tonks. The festival will use the space as its second screening room and calls it the place "where honky tonk meets Hollywood." Most of the panels are scheduled there as well. The Halles hosts the songwriter session. The Compound hosts The Ranch at Round Top Opening Night Party, Thursday from 9 to 11:59 p.m.
A Short List for Rush-Line Regulars
These are picks from the festival schedule, in order, with a lean toward Texas subjects:
- Friday, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Market Hill: "The Backbone of Texas," four shorts about what holds Texas communities together. One follows families in Decatur who have gathered every summer since the Civil War. Another features civil rights attorney Jim Harrington.
- Friday, 10:30 a.m. to noon, Festival Hill Terrace: Free live music.
- Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Market Hill: The "Made in Texas" shorts block.
- Saturday, 2 to 3:30 p.m., Festival Hill: SONGWRITER: SHANE MCANALLY "Merry Go Round." At 2:30 at 550 Dance Hall, a panel titled "Made in Texas – The Story Behind Mattress Mack" runs at the same time.
- Sunday, 2:30 to 4 p.m., 550 Dance Hall: The free summer camp shorts showcase.
- Sunday, 6 to 8:30 p.m., Festival Hill: Closing night, Louis L'Amour's FLINT, starring Josh Holloway, Max Martini, Mike Vogel and Sarah Gadon.
Panels including "From Page to Screen," with moderator Leslie Zemeckis, and "From Combat to Camera: Veteran Voices in Film" round out the program. Rush tickets are sold for screenings, so these events may be reserved for passholders.
How a Town This Small Got a Film Festival
The festival started in November 2024. Round Top's own reporting on that first year says the first edition screened 48 films over four days, including seven world premieres and 17 Texas premieres, and drew about 600 locals and visitors. More than 100 people from the film industry attended. That year's awards were handed out on the final morning at a Veterans Day brunch in the historic Round Top Rifle Hall.
Co-founder Shanna Schanen described the first year this way to roundtop.com:
"They say it takes a village, and this village is one that took on the challenge of taking a small Texas town with a population under 90 and transforming it into the site of a world-class film festival."
Shanna Schanen is the festival's executive producer. Skylar Schanen, her fellow co-founder, is executive creative producer, and Rob Schanen is development director. In 2026 the festival is still billed as four days with more than 40 screenings, panels and special presentations. The additions are the summer camp and the first music programming.
Between Screenings
Henkel Square is an option for the gap between screenings. Country Sunshine there serves wood-fired pizzas, burgers and salads, and Grace by KW has taken over the square's former House of Yo space, according to CW33's October coverage of the fall show season. After the festival, the next big date at Festival Hill is Sounds of the Season on Saturday, Dec. 5. The town's Annual Lighted Christmas Parade is set for the Town Square that same evening, from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m.
If a weekend at Festival Hill has you thinking about the land around Round Top, and you're considering acreage or a country home nearby, the team at Southern District Sotheby's International Realty would be glad to show you the area. Connect with a Local Ranch & Lifestyle Specialist.
