Academy grants $500,000 to film and cultural organizations

May 12, 2009 by Ian Evans

As we say every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is much, much more than the hosts of Hollywood’s biggest nights. In fact, it’s the proceeds of the Oscars® that help to fund a lot of AMPAS’ activities throughout the year.

Once again, the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded a total of $500,000 to 64 film-related nonprofit organizations — including universities, museums and career development programs — throughout the United States and Canada.

“One of our primary goals is to increase access to professional opportunities in the motion picture industry,” said Grants Committee Chair Andrew Marlowe. “These grants will not only support internships, fellowships and workshops, they will also help institutions reach out to the public with film programs and events.”

The Academy Foundation’s Grants Committee selected the following programs for 2009—2010:

Internship Programs

  • $10,000
    • California Institute of the Arts (Valencia)
    • Columbia University School of the Arts (New York City)
    • Emerson College (Boston)
    • New York University — Kanbar Institute of Film & Television
    • Stanford University
    • University of California, Los Angeles — Film & Television Program
    • University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
    • University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem)
  • $9,500
    • New York University — Moving Pictures Archive and Preservation Program
  • $7,500
    • Arizona State University (Tempe)
    • Columbia College Hollywood (Tarzana, CA)
    • Florida State University (Tallahassee)
    • Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles)
    • The University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
    • University of North Carolina (Wilmington)
    • Workplace Hollywood (Hollywood, CA)
    • Yale University Film Studies (New Haven, CT)
  • $5,000
    • Hampshire College (Amherst, MA)
    • Penn State University (University Park)
    • Pitzer College (Claremont, CA)
    • Southern Illinois University (Carbondale)

Institutional Grants

  • $25,000
    • American Film Institute (Los Angeles) — Directing workshop for women
  • $20,000
    • FilmAid International (New York City) — Refugee screening program
  • $15,000
    • Friends of the Chinese American Museum (Los Angeles) — Hollywood Chinese exhibit
    • Streetlights (Los Angeles) — Job training program
  • $12,500
    • Inner-City Filmmakers (Los Angeles) — Job training program
  • $10,000
    • American Documentary (New York, NY) — History of Documentary film project
    • Berklee College of Music (Boston) — Visiting artists program
    • Film Independent (Los Angeles) — Project: Involve
    • Writers Guild Foundation (Los Angeles) — Education Program
  • $7,500
    • Austin Film Festival, Inc. — Writers’ Ranch and seminar series
    • Center for Asian American Media (San Francisco) — Fellowship program
    • Chapman University (Orange, CA) — Visiting artist program
    • Cornell Cinema (Ithaca, NY) — Visiting filmmaker program
    • Facets Multi-Media (Chicago) — Facets Film School and Facets CineChat
    • The Flaherty/International Film Seminars (New York, NY) — 55th Flaherty Film Seminar
    • Harvard Film Archive — Visiting artist program
    • IFP (New York, NY) — Independent filmmaker labs
    • Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe) — Summer film workshop
    • The MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH) — Filmmaker residencies
    • Media Arts Center San Diego — Screening program
    • Museum of the Moving Images (New York, NY) — The Filmmaker Series online programming
    • National Association of Latino Independent Producers (Santa Monica, CA) — Latino Producers Academy
    • Salt Lake City Film Center — Visiting artists program
    • Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) — Visiting artist program
    • Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) — Guest speakers’ program
  • $5,000
    • Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York, NY) — Muslim Voices screening series
    • Brooklyn Museum (New York, NY) — First Saturdays screening series
    • California Film Institute (San Rafael, CA) — Visiting artist program
    • California State Summer School for the Arts (Los Angeles) — Visiting artist residency
    • Outfest (Los Angeles) — Access LA Seminar Series and Screenwriting Lab
    • Paramount Center for the Arts (Peekskill, NY) — Music and Film screening series
    • San Francisco Cinematheque — Restorations and Preservations archive project and screening series
    • Southern Arts Federation (Atlanta) — Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers
    • The Autry National Center of the American West (Los Angeles) — Native
    • American visiting filmmaker program
    • The Kentucky Film Lab (Lexington) — Filmmakers’ Studio production workshop
    • University of Colorado Foundation (Boulder) — Brakhage Symposium
    • University of Houston — Visiting filmmakers
    • Visual Communications (Los Angeles) — Armed with a Camera Fellowship
    • Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) — Filmmakers in Conversation program
    • Winnipeg Film Group (Manitoba, Canada) — Aboriginal artist-in-residence program
  • $3,000
    • Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles) — Microcinema screening series
  • $2,500
    • IFP Minnesota — Independent Producers Conference
    • Northeast Historic Film (Bucksport, ME) — Summer film symposium

Since its establishment in 1968, the Academy Foundation has distributed more than 637 institutional grants totaling more than $5.8 million in funding. For more information on the program, visit http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/.

The program is one of the many activities of the Academy Foundation — the Academy’s cultural and educational wing — which annually grants more than $1 million to film scholars, cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. The Foundation also presents the Academy’s rich assortment of screenings and other public programs each year.