AFS Grants

The 2025 AFS Grant for Feature Films will open for submissions via Submittable on April 16, 2025.

The AFS Grant for Short Films will open in the summer of 2025.

The AFS Grant awards funds annually to film and video artists in the state of Texas. Grants are provided to artists whose work shows promise, skill, and creativity. AFS is committed to fostering diverse and underrepresented voices in independent film with the intention of focusing on communities of color through an intersectional lens.

Since its inception in 1996, the AFS Grant has awarded more than $2.8 million in cash grants and more than $340,000 in-kind goods and services to 550+ Texas filmmakers to date, creating life-changing opportunities for artists traditionally underrepresented in the film industry and working outside large industry centers. In addition to grants for development, production, and post-production, we provide cash stipends to Texas filmmakers traveling to prestigious film festivals through its AFS Travel Grant program.

2025 APPLICATION UPDATES

• Submittable: This year, applications to the AFS Grant will be sent through Submittable. If you don’t already have a Submittable account, please create one before beginning your application.
• Smaller Essay Modules: In the application, instead of submitting a 2-page project description, we’ve broken apart this section into smaller essay modules. It is the same amount of overall content, it’s just organized in a way that we hope is more approachable.
• Accepting More Materials: We are now accepting pitch decks and lookbooks as optional materials in your grant application.

If you have any questions regarding the grant, please email us at filmmakersupport@austinfilm.org

Check out past grant recipients here.