In this paper, the effects of grain orientation on preferred abnormal grain growth in metallic films with hcp ((c/a) <1.633) structure have been analyzed with respect to strain energy. The calculated results showed that the lower strain energy densities were corresponding to those grains with lower I and higher equaled It and k plane oriented parallel to the plane of the film surface. It was predicted that, from strain energy minimization solely, the preferred orientations or textures in metallic films with hcp ((c/a) < 1.633) structure, such as in alpha-Ti, alpha-Zr, alpha-Hf, Y and Rn, should be with lower I and higher equaled h and k. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.