EXCLUSIVE: The Austin Film Society has appointed veteran producer Elizabeth Lodge Stepp as Senior Program Director for a new Texas film financing initiative.
In this role, Stepp will help build on AFS’s nearly 30-year track record of funding independent films via the AFS Grant and shape a new fund and financing program for films in the region, connecting Texas-based filmmakers and projects to both grant opportunities and equity investment funding.
Stepp brings a combination of experience in film production and finance to the role at AFS. As an independent producer, in her previous roles at Terrence Malick’s production company and then as co-founder of the production company Department of Motion Pictures, she worked with artists on both fiction and documentary features, having begun her career as an investment banker.
“With her rare blend of experience in independent film production and investment banking — and her close relationship with the filmmaking community in Texas — Elizabeth is the ideal person to help AFS launch our new film financing initiative,” said AFS CEO Rebecca Campbell. “We believe there is great opportunity for funders to deepen their support for Texas voices and look forward to shaping the program with Elizabeth’s insight.”
Stepp’s latest documentary, Carrying, provides a lens into adoption from the untold perspective of its central figures: birth moms. The project is currently in post-production. Her prior film, Users, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. Stepp was also a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Grantee with Users and a Sundance Feature Film Creative Producing Fellow with Monsters and Men, which won Sundance’s Special Jury Award for Outstanding First Feature in 2018. Other credits include producing Brimstone & Glory, which was named one of 2017’s Top 5 Documentaries by the National Board of Review; Kerri Walsh Jennings: Gold Within, which premiered on NBC in 2016; and co-producing Malick’s films Knight Of Cups and Song to Song.
“After launching my filmmaking career as a graduate of AFS’s internship program (now called AFS Creative Careers), I’m honored to return to the Austin Film Society,” said Stepp. “This new film finance initiative represents a bold step toward expanding access to capital for Texas filmmakers — one that recognizes the immense talent in our region and the need for new models of support. I look forward to building a program that not only invests in visionary storytelling but also helps make Texas a true home for independent cinema.”
The Austin Film Society’s film financing initiative aims to offer career advancement and networking opportunities for independent, diverse filmmakers, strengthening Texas as a regional hub for indie production. News of Stepp’s appointment comes as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has allowed a bill to become law that increases the state’s film subsidy from $200 to $300 million every two years. Support for the Austin Film Society’s broader filmmaker programs and the development of a new film financing structure was provided, in part, by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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