Film distribution for Dallas filmmakers. Mann Robinson Distribution licenses independent features, TV, sitcoms and reality series to major streaming platforms and networks, including Tubi.
Mann Robinson Distribution works with filmmakers in Dallas and across North Texas, licensing independent films, television series, sitcoms and reality shows to major streaming platforms and networks, including Tubi. The company is an independent film and television distribution company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with presence in Detroit and Los Angeles. Dallas filmmakers submit finished projects through mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit.
A finished feature shot in Oak Cliff, Deep Ellum or out past Mesquite is submitted the same way as any other project. Submissions are made online, and every filmmaker gets a portal login showing impressions, CPM and earnings for each platform, along with statements and payment history.
Two things shape the Dallas market: a broad festival circuit, and a state incentive program that Texas rewrote in 2025.
The Dallas International Film Festival, produced by the nonprofit founded in 2006 as Dallas Film Society, reached its 20th edition in 2026 and screened more than 120 films drawn from submissions from over 150 countries. It is an Oscar qualifying festival, with qualifying Grand Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short and Best Animated Short, plus a separate DIFF Shorts event at Mockingbird Station.
The Oak Cliff Film Festival reached its 15th edition in 2026 and focuses on independent, experimental, non traditional and low budget cinema, centered on the Texas Theatre, the Oak Cliff landmark that opened in 1931. Together with the Austin Film Society, Ley Line Entertainment and filmmaker David Lowery, the festival backs the North Texas Pioneer Film Grant, $30,000 aimed at emerging Dallas Fort Worth filmmakers with underrepresented perspectives.
The rest of the calendar is broad for a single metro. The USA Film Festival, created in 1971 by L.M. Kit Carson and SMU professor Bill Jones, is one of the oldest film festivals in the United States. Dallas VideoFest, presented by the Video Association of Dallas, is among the longest running video festivals in the country. Add the Denton Black Film Festival, described as the largest Black film festival in Texas and the Southwest, the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, the Latin American Film Festival of Dallas, Thin Line Fest in Denton and the Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth, and a Dallas independent can build a full year of exhibition without leaving the region.
The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, administered through the Office of the Governor, was rewritten by Senate Bill 22, signed in June 2025. It directs $300 million into the incentive fund every two years through 2035, roughly $1.5 billion in total. Film and television projects need a minimum of $250,000 in Texas spending to apply. The rebate runs 5 percent for projects spending between $250,000 and $1 million, 10 percent from $1 million to $1.5 million, and 25 percent above $1.5 million, with stackable uplifts to a maximum of 31 percent. At least 60 percent of filming days must happen in Texas, and 35 percent of paid cast, crew and extras must be Texas residents.
A self financed Dallas feature spending under $250,000 in state sits below that floor, which means a project at that budget level is finished without the rebate and needs its own route to an audience. The Dallas Film Commission is the central point of contact for production in the city, and a filming permit is required when a shoot changes street traffic or uses City of Dallas property. The commission also runs Screen Dallas, which gives one feature documentary a fully sponsored week long theatrical release in a Dallas venue toward Academy Awards eligibility.
Production infrastructure sits on both sides of the metro. In Fort Worth, the 101 Studios and Hillwood production campus at Alliance is the largest in Texas at roughly 450,000 square feet and served as the production base for Landman. The area's film and media programs include the Meadows Division of Film and Media Arts at SMU, the ATEC school at UT Dallas and the Department of Media Arts at the University of North Texas in Denton.
Mann Robinson Distribution licenses finished independent projects to major streaming platforms and networks, then reports what those titles earn.
These are the terms of the agreement.
Typically about 90 days from signing. That window covers the work between a signed agreement and the title going live. For a filmmaker timing a release against the Dallas festival calendar, it means counting backward from the date that matters.
On ad supported platforms, earnings are impressions multiplied by CPM, not a flat amount per view. An impression is an ad served against the title, and CPM is the rate paid per thousand impressions, so earnings follow how much advertising a title carries and what that advertising pays. Those figures move over time.
Every filmmaker gets a portal login. The portal shows impressions, CPM and earnings broken out per platform, along with statements and payment history. Payments are made quarterly, and the 20 percent fee comes out of gross.
Finish the film and the paperwork before making contact. The items below are the materials a completed project travels with.
No. Mann Robinson Distribution is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with presence in Detroit and Los Angeles, and works with filmmakers in Dallas from there.
No. The filmmaker keeps ownership. The agreement licenses distribution rights for a two year exclusive term.
Yes. Films, television shows, sitcoms and reality series are all distributed.
Quarterly, with statements and payment history available in the filmmaker portal.
Submissions go through mannrobinsondistribution.com/submit. Filmmakers in Dallas and across North Texas can also reach Mann Robinson Distribution at distribution@mannrobinsonstudios.com with a finished feature, a series or an unscripted project.