Austin Film Society Announces 2016 Grants- Program gives much-needed funds to Texas filmmakers

Providing some of the financial fuel to the flames of Texas filmmakers' passions, today the Austin Film Society released the projects they are funding this year, as part of their AFS Grant program.

Formerly the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund (launched in 1996), the AFS Grant program awards various monies to Texas filmmakers' production, post-production, equipment, and travel grants, so they can rep their film at various festivals around the world. This year, AFS gave out $105,000 in funding and $64,000 in goods and services. That makes the tally up to $1.6 million in cash handed out since its inception.

This year's panel (administered by AFS head of film and creative media Holly Herrick), included Dennis Lim (programmer for the Film Society of Lincoln Center and noted David Lynch scholar), Grace Lee (a Peabody Award-wining documentarian), and Daniel Patrick Carbone (one of the directors of SXSW titlecollective:unconscious and the upcoming Phantom Cowboys). You can read all about them here.

The recipients this year offer up some familiar faces, with Tower director Keith Maitland getting $10 grand to help fund his doc on Michael Brody Jr., an eccentric millionaire who caused a stir when he offered up $25 million to anyone who could potentially bring about world peace. Scott Stark, of Experimental Response Cinema, received a $2,500 production boost for his experimental film The Epiphanists, a very intriguing film consisting of found film trailers pieced together to tell a story of a dystopian future (is there any other kind?).

Longtime Linklater editor Sandra Adair (now a director in her own right) secured $4,000 for her doc on local artist Lance Letscher, and dynamic duo Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas were awarded with not only some funds for their next doc short "Skip Day," but also some traveling cash to send them across the shore to the BFI London Film Festival for their award-winning doc "The Send-Off."

Congratulations to all the recipients, and we can't wait to see what marvelous films are created.

Here's the full list:

NARRATIVE SHORTS

"Atlantic City" Miguel Alvarez (Austin) Collaborator Narrative Short Film Grant, co-sponsored by TXMPA: $5,000 cash for Production and an in-kind package worth $33,000 including a Panavision camera package, Assimilate Software, Final Draft Software, and GoPro Hero 4 Black Camera. "Atlantic City" is a short film that examines family and loss as told through the eyes of two homeless day laborers drifting through San Antonio, Texas.

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