(FORTUNE Magazine) – TEXANS ADMIRE independents, and not just the oil field variety. Lately they have been taking notice of FilmDallas, a small and innovative limited partnership with a $2.4-million kitty invested in pieces of low-budget movies. FilmDallas recently hit gushers when two of its four film investments, Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Trip to Bountiful, won Academy Awards. The Best Actor award went to William Hurt in the former and Best Actress to Geraldine Page in the latter. Box office receipts have soared, and FilmDallas has already more than doubled its investment in Spider Woman. That's better than wildcatters can hope for these days. Emboldened by success, FilmDallas expects to launch a bigger partnership later this year: FilmDallas II, with $10 million to $20 million. While ready to invest in Hollywood film ventures, the fund's sponsors believe they are in the vanguard of a burgeoning new moviemaking industry in Texas. Two dozen films were produced in the Lone Star State last year, nearly twice as many as in 1982. One of the state's attractions: the $35-million Dallas Communications Complex, with a Texas-size sound stage, built by real estate millionaire Trammell S. Crow, a FilmDallas limited partner. The funds are brainchildren of a Dallas trio: Sam Grogg, 39, a film critic and Woody Allen look-alike who once directed the city's annual USA Film Festival; Richard Kneipper, 42, a lawyer with the firm of Jones Day Reavis Pogue; and Joel Williams III, 38, founder of Bristol Group, an investment and mortgage banking firm. The first fund required investors to put up at least $50,000 each. To minimize risk, it put no more than $500,000 into each film; the film's total budget was not to exceed $2 million. All profits are quickly plowed into new pictures. By the time FilmDallas disbands at the end of 1987, it hopes to have invested in a dozen or so movies, doubling its partners' money. The investing guidelines for FilmDallas II have not yet been worked out. Says Grogg: ''The rollover of money is the key. While our initial capital base was not gigantic, we are able to reinvest more than once and thereby improve our odds for success.'' Grogg, the only full-time partner, has his antennae out for promising films. Each week he pores through about 100 films and scripts. In most cases FilmDallas's participation has made the crucial difference in getting a movie made. The partnership bankrolled Bountiful, one of its films produced in Texas, by financing such costs as equipment rentals and shooting. FilmDallas financed a third of the cost of U.S. distribution rights for Spider Woman. Choose Me put the money into advertising and promotion. Dirt Bike Kid used | FilmDallas's help to cover production expenses. The recently released film, also Texas-made, appears on its way to hitting pay dirt.