Initiated by the Mayor's Film Task Force formed by Houston Mayor Annise Parker in 2012, and co-chaired by Franci Crane, Founder and Houston Cinema Arts Society Board Chair, and Sharon Adams, also Founder of HCAS and Chief Communications Officer for Houston First Corporation, the Houston Filmmaker Grant is a partnership program among the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Houston Film Commission, Houston First Corporation, Women in Film & Television Houston, and Houston Cinema Arts Society. The award was created by the task force to support and stimulate the growth of local narrative feature-length commercial motion picture production. 

Houston Filmmaker Grant 2013 - from its beginnings  

WIFT Houston is grantee of the project, with Houston Arts Alliance acting as fiduciary. Last year, while still president of WIFT/Houston, Jolene McMaster, a member of the Mayor's Film Task Force, wrote the grant in collaboration with Rick Ferguson, Executive Director of Houston Film Commission.  Once Mayor Annise Parker and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance approved the City's first such matching grant for a local emerging serious filmmaker in the category of narrative feature-length films, McMaster, with the assistance of Task Force members Rick Ferguson and Co-Chair Sharon Adams, applied to their employers Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau and Houston First Corporation respectively, for an additional $5,000 matching grant from each to supplement the City's $20,000 grant.  When all grants were approved, the competition began and ultimately five industry judges from across the country were charged with reviewing the complex submissions and selecting the best from among the applicants.  The decision of the judges was final.  The recipients of the $30,000 matching grant were announced on July 30, 2013.  Principal photography began in September, and the filmmakers expect completion of FLASHES in early 2014.  From the beginning we always anticipated that as a production update from the filmmakers would be included in the programming schedule of the 2013 Houston Cinema Arts Festival.  HCAS was  founded and is chaired by the Mayor's Film Task Force co-chair Franci Crane, and with a fine assist from HCAS Executive Director Trish Rigdon (a WIFT member and former WIFT board member), this recognition of the grant recipients, Theta Catalon and Amir Valinia, has indeed been included.  Buy your ticket now!      

Immediately following this prelude...it's the Texas Filmmaker Showcase 

Next, you'll enjoy viewing the 2013 selections from  Houston Film Commission's annual Texas Filmmaker Showcase, a collection of the Best of Texas-made short films.  "There is something for everyone," says Deputy Director Alfred Cervantes, "in this 90-minute Showcase comprised of six projects that represent the creative, bold filmmaking that comes from Texas. " For example, one of the selections is from Kat Candler whose short "Quarter to Noon" screened in WIFT's short film screenings of the 2008 Women In Film & Television International Women's Day celebration.  Her short presented in this Showcase is "Hellion." Ms. Candler's award-winning films have screened at Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, SXSW, Slamdance, Florida Film Festival, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Chicago International Children's Film Festival, The National Institutes of Health, and on PBS. She's currently in post-production on the  feature film of the same name, which was a Sundance Creative Producing Lab participant. Candler is also film Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin.  Come out and celebrate these fine shorts and their makers.