Clay Liford's SXSW hit Slash was an Austin Film Society Grant recipient: You could be next.

Life can be tough for an independent filmmaker. That’s why, every year, the Austin Film Society gives out the Austin Film Society Grants. The good news for all you aspiring movie dreamers is that the society is now taking applications for 2016.

Clay Liford’s SXSW hit Slash was an Austin Film Society Grant recipient: You could be next.

Know all those fancy galas and big screenings the AFS hosts? This is what those tickets pay for, to get hungry young creators rolling.

While the program (formally known as the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund) is administered by AFS, it is open to any filmmaker who has been resident for at least one year prior to the June 2, 2016 deadline. That said, this is about supporting Texas filmmakers, so the project doesn’t even have to be shot in-state. There’s no application fee, so just go over to the FAQ page to find out what you need to do to apply.

The program was originally founded in 1996 as a replacement for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Regional Regrants. Since then, AFS has given out over $1.7 million to filmmakers ($1.5 million in cash, $212,000 in goods and services) to filmmakers (and that doesn’t even include the essential travel grant program, which helps directors accompany their movies to festivals and sales markets.) Plus, grants have been awarded at every stage in the life cycle of a film, from preproduction right through to distribution.

The grants vary from simple payments to in-kind donation of Kodak film stock, the AFS Powered by Dell Grant (basically a complete post-production suite, including computer and software), the MPS Camera and Lighting Austin Grant for free production services from MPS Camera, DCP conversion, and the Collaborator Narrative Short Film grant, co-sponsored by the Texas Moving Picture Association.

Even a few thousand can be a big leg up for a small production. Previous grant recipients include Keith Maitland for his documentary Tower, Steve Mims’ Starving the Beast, Clay Liford for modern sex comedy Slash (all of which played at SXSW this year), Andrew Bujalski’s Results (which played at SXSW in 2014), Carleton Ranney’s Other Worlds Austin title Jackrabbit, Austin Film Festival fave Booger Red – and that’s just a tiny slice of the class of 2014.

Find out more, and apply for a grant, at www.austinfilm.org/afsgrant

This article appears in Our Next (P)resident.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.