Residual stress is a dominant obstacle to efficient production and safe usage of device by deteriorating the mechanical strength and failure properties. Therefore, we proposed a new thin film stress-analyzing technique using a nanoindentation method. For this aim, the shape change in the indentation load-depth curve during the stress-relief in film was theoretically modeled. The change in indentation depth by load-controlled stress relaxation process was related to the increase or decrease in the applied load using the elastic flat punch theory. Finally, the residual stress in thin film was calculated from the changed applied load based on the equivalent stress interaction model. The evaluated stresses for diamond-like carbon films from this nanoindentation analysis were consistent with the results from the conventional curvature method.