(Zr,V)N thin films with different V contents were deposited by reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering. Their chemical composition, microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties were investigated by EDS, XRD, XPS, nanoindentation and tribometer. The results indicated that the fcc crystal structure of ZrN has not been changed by adding vanadium added, but the preferential orientation of films change from (200) to (111). As the V contents increased, the hardness of (Zr,V)N thin films decreased slowly after increased slightly, and decreased rapidly when V contents increased over 25.8 at.%. With increasing V contents, the coefficient of friction of (Zr,V)N thin films decreased slightly. The V2O3 was firstly found in the film of (Zr,V)N at 300 ℃ and when the temperature was increased over 500 ℃, the presence of V2O5 was found. Moreover, with the increase of the temperature the content of V2O5 increased, and the coefficient of friction of films decreased with the formation of V2O5.