AFS names grant recipients

The Austin Film Society has announced this year’s grant recipients, with $10,000 awards to two narrative features and two documentaries.

Austin director Berndt Mader got a $10,000 grant for his narrative feature “Booger Red,” about a reporter who’s investigating a child-sex ring in East Texas. And Austin filmmakers Travis Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris received $10,000 for “Nakom,” which deals with a medical student who returns to Ghana after the death of his father.

Alvaro Torres-Crespo of Austin received $10,000 for the documentary “In the Shadows,” which deals with six gold panners in Costa Rica. And Nicole Marie Tavares and Shams-Tabraiz Muzaffar of Richardson got a grant for the documentary “Son of a Bug,” which looks at the the first Pakistani rock band named the Bugs.

A panel of filmmakers and curators from outside of Texas determines the recipients of the AFS Grant. On this year’s jury were: Aaron Katz, the co-writer/director of “Land Ho!,” documentary producer and director Angela Tucker and curator and film journalist Tom Hall.

In total, the Austin Film Society awarded $90,000 for production, post-production and distribution to 25 projects from emerging Texas filmmakers under the AFS Grant program. The AFS also awarded $10,000 in goods and services from MPS Camera Austin and $5,000 worth of Kodak film stock.

The film society’s Travel Grant program also awarded $10,000 in cash in travel stipends to 14 Texas filmmakers, bringing AFS’s total grant amount to $115,000 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit www.austinfilm.org.