Screen Dallas Aims to Give Documentary Films a Shot at an Oscar

In Texas, we do everything bigger, and now that Dallas has been designated one of just six Oscar-qualifying film markets in the country, that will soon include launching pads for Academy Award nominees.

With the advent of Screen Dallas, North Texas will hopefully become a destination for seeing some of the best documentaries before they hit big. The initiative is intended to help documentary films meet eligibility requirements for the Oscars by providing guidance and facilitating screenings.

Movies that screen in Dallas-Fort Worth and meet requirements laid out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can be submitted for consideration at the Oscars. Each year, Screen Dallas will select a documentary film and cover the cost of screenings in a theater for a week (the minimum to qualify for the Oscars). Additionally, they will provide support to ensure the filmmaker’s documentation is in order and guide them through the submission process.

To accomplish this, the film commission has partnered with stakeholders throughout Dallas. Such figures include Rebekah Louisa Smith, also known as the “Film Festival Doctor,” representatives from the Dallas International Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival and FilmFrog, with funding from the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District.

2025 is a pilot year for the program, with a focus on establishing the infrastructure to continue Screen Dallas for years to come and finding the best way to support and promote selected films. Screen Dallas’ inaugural selection is Shuffle, which won the Documentary Feature Competition at SXSW earlier this year. 

Directed by Benjamin Flaherty, Shuffle explores how addiction treatment centers often prioritize profits over patient health. Many have become a revolving door, “treating” and releasing patients with the expectation that they will relapse. If a patient does relapse, a predatory brokerage system has developed to identify these individuals and funnel them back into treatment. They go through the program again, the treatment center gets paid again, and the cycle starts over. This can happen dozens of times to an individual, racking up millions of dollars for bad actors while risking the health and well-being of those struggling with addiction.

“The issue is that it’s become real[ly] profitable to … engage in this process for people and ensure you’re going to have it happening in the shadows,” says Flaherty. “But what really alarmed me was how easily it can happen in broad daylight.”

The director says he has been in meetings with people who have been to treatment 25 times, but they assume the reason they have not been able to stay sober is because of their own faults. They blame themselves instead of a system that has seemingly been rigged against them.

Flaherty himself has struggled with addiction and went through a treatment program for alcoholism. His experience was a positive one overall and one that ended with a successful outcome. He attributes his journey with recovery as one of the main inspirations for Shuffle, which he began working on in 2019. The director wanted to understand how a process that was so beneficial for him could be hurting so many other people. In the Dallas Screens selection committee’s view, it not only had merit as a work of film, but it also had an important message for the community.

“We selected [Shuffle] through our advisory council because it was an impact documentary,” says Dallas Film Commissioner Katie Schuck.

Schuck hopes Screen Dallas will attract more filmmakers to this part of the country, giving North Texas audiences greater access to independent films.

Any documentary feature that plays at a film festival in Dallas moving forward will be eligible for Dallas Screens’ selection. While the current plan is to support one film per year, Schuck says they are open to bringing in additional sponsors to help multiple films a year become eligible for the Oscars.

”I think the assumption when people make a film that is well received at a festival [is] that you’re going to have people waiting to make you offers or make you deals,” says Flaherty.

The reality is far different, as even award-winning films can face an uphill battle to secure distribution or financial support in the current climate. The battle to get your film seen is one that all independent filmmakers face. Money, especially, can be a prohibitive factor for films trying to meet the 7-day theatrical screening requirement for Oscars eligibility. It costs a significant amount of an independent film’s budget to rent out a theater and host multiple daily screenings for a week straight. Flaherty says Screen Dallas will make that barrier more surmountable thanks to the support that he and his collaborators have received on the backend from industry vets like Smith.

Schuck says the Academy’s decision to make Dallas-Fort Worth an Oscars eligibility market reflects the strength of the city’s filmgoing culture.

”We have a committed fan base of people who are religiously going to the movies,” she says.

If Flaherty’s experience is any indication, Screen Dallas is meeting its goals.

A red carpet premiere event for Shuffle will take place at the Texas Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 6 p.m. Screenings are also being held at the Angelika Film Center this week.

Additional information about Shuffle can be found online with Flaherty’s social impact campaign, “Stop the Shuffle.”