The Austin Film Society Announces it is Now Accepting Applications for the 2026 AFS Grant for Feature Films
AFS Also Announces Seven New Members Joining its Filmmaker Advisory Committee
April 15, 2026, AUSTIN, TX— Today, the Austin Film Society opens applications for the 2026 AFS Grant for Feature Films. The AFS Grant awards funds annually to Texas-based filmmakers working in any style or genre. Filmmakers from all backgrounds who live in the state of Texas are encouraged to apply for up to $20,000 in cash for pre-production, production, or post-production. Concurrently, AFS will open applications for the Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund, which awards $2,500 to an undergraduate student making a short film that will complete a course or degree requirement at a four-year college or university. The deadline for both applications is May 20 at 6 p.m. CT.
In addition to opening these funding opportunities, the Austin Film Society announces seven new filmmakers joining its Filmmaker Advisory Committee, including Greg Kwedar and Monique Walton, two of the AFS-supported filmmakers behind the Oscar®–nominated film Sing Sing.
For more information about the AFS Grant and how applicants can apply, click here or visit austinfilm.org/afs-grants.
The AFS Grant for Feature Films also includes two special awards — the North Texas Pioneer Film Award ($10K–$20K) for emerging filmmakers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and surrounding counties, and the New Texas Voices Award ($15K) for first-time feature filmmakers bringing new and underseen perspectives to the screen — as well as sponsored in-kind awards for camera and lighting packages as well as digital cinema packages (DCPs). Austin Film Society’s Filmmaker Support team will host free webinars on Zoom to inform and answer questions about the 2026 AFS Grant for Feature Films.
- April 22 at 6 PM | AFS Grant for Feature Films Webinar
- April 23 at 6 PM | AFS Grant: Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund Webinar
- May 12 at 6 PM | AFS Grant for Feature Films Webinar
The AFS Grant is generously supported by grant partners Ley Line Entertainment, David Lowery, Oak Cliff Film Festival, the Warren Skaaren Charitable Trust, Kyle and Noah Hawley, South by Southwest, William Knox Holt Foundation, MPS Camera and Lighting, Stuck On On and TBD Post in addition to a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
The Austin Film Society also announces the seven new members of its Filmmaker Advisory Committee, whose terms will last until 2027. The FAC is an invitation-only, volunteer group of established regional film directors and producers chosen to lend their expertise to AFS’s filmmaker support programs. AFS board member and filmmaker Ya’Ke Smith will continue to serve as the committee chairperson. Joining him are Bethiael Alemayoh, Cassie Hay, Greg Kwedar, Sommer Garcia Saqr, Yen Tan, Monique Walton and Jessica Wolfson. Continuing their roles on the committee for another term are Lizette Barrera, Chelsea Hernandez, Keith Maitland and Bryan Poyser.
AFS relies on the expertise of the Filmmaker Advisory Committee to support its various filmmaker programs. The primary commitments of FAC members are to offer direct feedback and guidance to AFS’s program staff and AFS-supported filmmakers based on their experiences in the field. They act as peer advisors for participating filmmakers in AFS’s Works-In-Progress program, among other programs, and they are called upon as mentors or guest moderators throughout their term. Members of the committee serve a two-year term with a chairperson appointed from within the AFS Board of Directors.
Bios for AFS’s Filmmaker Advisory Committee members are below, and photos can be found here.
Bios for the AFS Filmmaker Advisory Committee 2025-2027
Ya’Ke Smith
FAC Chairperson
Ya’Ke Smith is a Professor of Film in the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also served as the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from 2019–2022. He is the youngest recipient of the Alumni of Distinction for Professional Achievement award from the University of The Incarnate Word, and previously the Morgan Woodward Distinguished Professor of Film at the University of Texas at Arlington. In 2020, Variety Magazine listed Smith as one of the top Film Educators from Across the Globe. An award-winning independent filmmaker, he has screened and won awards at over 150 film festivals. His work has been honored by the Director’s Guild of America, and he has been featured on NPR, CNN, Ebony Online, Indiewire, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, MovieMaker Magazine and Shadow&Act, among others.
Bethiael Alemayoh
Bethiael Alemayoh is an independent filmmaker who guides independent filmmakers through the public media distribution pipeline. In her role as Director of Content & Distribution at Austin PBS, she oversees the “Austin PBS Presents” slate, facilitating the national distribution of local films and television. Her mission is to demystify the distribution process by educating filmmakers on the public media model, thus empowering them to make informed decisions. Bethiael also oversaw the launch of Austin PBS’s inaugural grant programs: the Finishing Funds grant and the Digital Originals Grant. As a writer/director, her work often follows young Black women in the midst of their little misfortunes that cause big emotional impacts. After interning for Richard Linklater, she created/directed the short film series We Are, which was distributed by Issa Rae Productions and amassed over half a million views. Her work has screened with festivals and organizations, such as SXSW, BlackStar Film Festival, Palm Springs, The Bullock Texas State History Museum and more. Her feature film, I Didn’t Forget You, was selected for the 2025 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive.
Lizette Barrera
Lizette Barrera is a Texas-based filmmaker whose work explores human connection through the diaspora lens. Her films have screened at festivals and aired worldwide, including the HBO licensed shorts Mosca (Fly) and ¡Cóme! (Eat!), the ESPN documentary Mr. Pastor Jones and Chicle (Gum), which premiered at SXSW and earned jury recognition. She is developing her debut feature, Chicle (Gum), with support from the Austin Film Society Development Grant and the Artist Intensive hosted by Richard Linklater. She is also a recipient of the WarnerMedia OneFifty Grant and the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and a past Gotham Market participant for the anthology feature Untitled Texas Latina Project, co-created with four Texas Latina directors. She is currently producing the hybrid feature Rancho and the Latino Film Institute- and Netflix-supported short film And Everything Turned Itself Inside Out. Lizette also directs and produces branded work, earning Webby and Telly Awards and a Lone Star Emmy nomination. She holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and has taught filmmaking at UT Arlington.
Cassie Hay
Cassie Hay is an Austin-based filmmaker and producer working across documentary and narrative film and television. With over 20 years of experience, she has held key production leadership roles with credits for HBO, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros, Blumhouse and independent features. Her work as a director has screened at SXSW, Austin Film Festival and other festivals, and has been distributed via Amazon Prime and Hulu. Her latest documentary, Queens of Pain, won the New York WIFT Excellence in Directing Award. She is currently developing Interpreter, a feature centered on Deaf music interpreters and supported in part by an Austin Film Society Development Grant. A longtime AFS supporter, Cassie is honored to serve on the Filmmaker Advisory Committee and contribute to the continued growth of Texas cinema.
Chelsea Hernandez
Chelsea Hernandez is a national Emmy-nominated director whose work centers community, representation and social justice. Her debut feature, Building the American Dream (SXSW, PBS), and second feature, Breaking the News (Tribeca, PBS), have earned national acclaim, including the 2023 David Carr Award for Truth in Nonfiction Filmmaking. Named one of Texas Monthly’s “filmmakers ushering in a new Golden Age,” she is a Warner Media 150 Artist, Firelight Media Doc Lab fellow and co-founder of Tejanas in Film, a collective uplifting Latine filmmakers in Texas.
Greg Kwedar
Greg Kwedar is a two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker. His film Sing Sing garnered three Oscar® nominations, along with nods at the BAFTAs, Critics’ Choice and Independent Spirit Awards. It won the NBR Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Greg co-wrote and executive produced creative partner Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. The decorated film went on to win the Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture, the NBR for Best Adapted Screenplay and received four Oscar® nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Greg has spoken to thousands of students across the country and sat on panels about his work at SXSW, Sundance, UNESCO, the United Nations and more. In 2024, Bentley and Kwedar launched their production company, ETHOS, to develop their own original, individual and joint projects, and to champion artists under the innovative and equitable financing model that they pioneered on Jockey and further developed with Sing Sing.
Keith Maitland
Keith Maitland is the Emmy & Critics Choice Award-winning director/producer of Tower (2016), A Song For You: The Austin City Limits Story (2016) and Dear Mr. Brody (2021). Keith is the founder of Go-Valley, a production company in East Austin developing fiction, animation and nonfiction projects, as well as DocWalks, a podcast about doc filmmaking that Keith co-created and co-hosts.
Bryan Poyser
A two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee, writer/director Bryan Poyser has made four features that have premiered at major festivals like Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and BFI London. He has also made numerous short films as well as projects for Comedy Central, the USA Network, Ridley Scott Associates and HBO. Bryan’s most recent feature, Leads, recipient of an Austin Film Society Grant, world premiered in the US Narrative Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. His second feature, Lovers of Hate, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards. His first feature Dear Pillow was also nominated for a Spirit Award in 2005. Bryan’s third feature, Love & Air Sex, premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and was released by Tribeca Films. His work for television includes directing the pilot Overanalyzers for Comedy Central and writing an episode of the Duplass Brothers HBO series Room 104. His 2022 short film, Don’t You Go Nowhere, screened at 40 festivals and won 18 awards. Bryan lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter and teaches filmmaking as an Associate Professor of Practice at Texas State University.
Sommer Garcia Saqr
Sommer Garcia Saqr is a Mexican-American and first-generation Palestinian-American filmmaker from Houston, Texas. She has gained recognition as an emerging independent producer with a pair of award-winning short films and the feature Carnage Radio, which screened at Panic Fest in 2024 and won Best Texas Feature at the 2025 Austin Revolution Film Festival. She is a 2022 Fellow of New Orleans Film Society’s Southern Producers Lab and a 2024 recipient of Houston Arts Alliance’s Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant. Sommer also has a notable acting background, working with directors Ron Howard in the film EdTV and Gregory Nava in American Family: Journey of Dreams, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated PBS drama that holds the distinction of being the first American broadcast series to feature an all-Latino cast. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California and has a master’s degree in film and media production.
Yen Tan
Yen Tan is a Malaysian-born writer, director, and graphic designer. He premiered the critically acclaimed Pit Stop at Sundance 2013. It was nominated for a John Cassavetes Award at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. His NYT Critic’s Pick feature, 1985, premiered at SXSW 2018 and was inspired by his Short of the Week of the same title. His latest feature, All That We Love, premiered at Tribeca 2024 and was released by Vertical. Yen has been a fellow of Austin Film Society’s Artist Intensive, IFP’s Film Week and Film Independent’s Fast Track. He was Out Magazine’s OUT100 of 2018. Yen is based in Austin, where he also works as an award-winning key art designer for independent films and documentaries.
Monique Walton
Monique Walton is the 2024 recipient of the Film Independent Spirit Producers Award. Most recently, she produced Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing, which was nominated for three Academy Awards®. Before that, she produced Annie Silverstein’s award-winning debut feature Bull, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. In 2022, she produced the documentary feature Hollow Tree, directed by Kira Akerman, which premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Louisiana Film. Walton’s films have been supported by The Sundance Institute, Cinereach, San Francisco Film Society, Austin Film Society, International Documentary Association and Film Independent. She was a 2016 Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, a 2020 Rotterdam Producing Fellow and a 2024 Film Independent/Netflix Amplifier Fellow.
Jessica Wolfson
Jessica Wolfson is an award-winning filmmaker and producer whose work spans documentary, narrative and branded content. Her films and series have appeared on Paramount+, Discovery, PBS and ESPN, with projects screening at major festivals including Sundance, Tribeca Festival, SXSW and DOC NYC. She began her career at IFCtv Originals, where she developed and produced innovative nonfiction and comedy programming. Jessica has directed acclaimed films such as Radio Unnameable (Kino Lorber) and Play a Round with Me (ESPN), and produced documentaries including Life & Life, Sacred and Hot Grease. Named one of DOC NYC’s “20 Under 40,” she is also a 2020 participant in the Realscreen Pathways Mentorship Program and a dedicated mentor herself, supporting filmmakers through workshops, teaching and working with international arts programs. Beyond filmmaking, she has led marketing campaigns with media companies and cultural organizations to bring powerful stories to wider audiences. As the Executive Producer of Indeed’s Creative Agency, Jessica led production for branded content, creative campaigns and social media across multiple platforms. She drove initiatives like Rising Voice, which championed emerging storytellers. Jessica is currently the Executive Director of the WAVE Grant at Wavelength Productions, supporting emerging narrative filmmakers.
About the AFS Grant
The AFS Grant awards funds annually to talented emerging film and video artists in the state of Texas. Grants are provided to artists whose work shows promise, skill and creativity. The AFS Grant is an essential program that embodies the mission and vision of AFS and underscores the organization’s commitment to fostering diverse and underrepresented perspectives and voices in independent film. Since its inception in 1996, the AFS Grant has awarded more than $3 million in cash grants and more than $340,000 in-kind goods and services to 570+ Texas filmmakers to date, creating life-changing opportunities for artists working outside large industry centers, and often supporting filmmakers who come from backgrounds that are largely underrepresented in the film industry. In addition to grants for development, production and post-production, AFS provides cash stipends to Texas filmmakers traveling to prestigious film festivals through its AFS Travel Grant program.
Some of AFS’s most successful program alumni over the years have received grants from AFS. Filmmakers Kat Candler (former showrunner of O Network’s Queen Sugar, Hellion, 13 Reasons Why), David Lowery (The Green Knight, Pete’s Dragon, A Ghost Story), Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth), Andrew Bujalski (Support The Girls) and Oscar® nominees Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley (Sing Sing, Train Dreams) were all awarded support through the AFS Grant Fund. Most recently, the AFS Grant-supported film Shuffle by Benjamin Flaherty won the documentary feature competition at SXSW 2025.
About the AFS Filmmaker Advisory Committee
The Filmmaker Advisory Committee is a team of volunteer filmmakers organized to assist with AFS Filmmaker Resources programs through event moderation, direct mentorship and review of program applications, including AFS Works-In-Progress screenings.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
