The Oak Cliff Film Festival announced the dates and theme for their next installment (June 19-22, “Images”) this morning, and also dropped something of a bomb of an announcement. Next year’s festival will inaugurate the “Muybridge Filmmaking Award,” a new grant which will be given out to a local filmmaker for starting funds on a new project.
Why is this significant? Well, no such award exists in Dallas, the kind of grant that, as the Austin Film Society has proved through their long-established granting program, can have a transformative effect on both individual film productions and regional film scenes as a whole. The Dallas Film Society awards large grants to the winners of its filmmaking categories each year, but these funds aren’t specifically earmarked to the production of specific films from a specific place. The new OCFF grant is a starting point. It will mean that each year a film will be made because of the festival, and it will provide real and tangible support to a filmmaking community that is on the move.
There’s no word just yet on how much the grant will be for or what the criteria or process will be for application.
Here’s the full release.
