San Francisco Film Society Announces Call for Entries for Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants, Part of SFFS' Expanded Filmmaker Services

$25,000 in Grants to Be Awarded to Bay Area Filmmakers Augments Slate of Recent Initiatives Created to Support Bay Area Filmmakers

November 10, 2008

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Film Society announced today the call for entries for the inaugural Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants, part of the continuing expansion of the Film Society’s Filmmaker Services programs. The grants, designed to foster the creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers, will present awards totaling $25,000 to Bay Area filmmakers.

The Herbert Family Filmmaking Grants will provide critical support at any stage of each project—narrative and documentary—from development and production through postproduction and outreach. The grants, ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 each, are made possible through the generosity of the Herbert family of San Francisco.

Grant applications are available at www.sffs.org. Applications must be received by December 8. Grant recipients will be announced in early 2009.

Additional initiatives created by the Film Society since August to bolster Bay Area filmmakers are SFFS FilmHouse Residencies, a partnership with the San Francisco Film Commission, that offers production offices—free of charge—to local filmmakers in various stages of production; SFFS Filmmakers Advisory Board, an active group of established Bay Area film professionals whose role is to aid in further developing SFFS Filmmaker Services; and SFFS Film Arts Forum, a new large-scale monthly evening screening/conference/networking event that brings together and showcases Bay Area filmmakers and filmmaking, the first of which will take place Monday, November 10.

More information about the Film Society’s Filmmaker Services programs is available at www.sffs.org/filmmaker_services.

The San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating film and the moving image in all its glorious forms. SFFS year-round programs and events are concentrated in four core areas: Celebrating Internationalism; Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Digital Media. The Film Society shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas; presents the longest-running film festival in the Americas, the SF International (April 23–May 7, 2009), publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, with broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film and media; and annually reaches more than 7,000 students ages 6–18 with its acclaimed media literacy programs, among many other activities.

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