April 17,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - Thirty-two college and community film programs across the United States will receive financial grants totaling $400,000 this year from the Academy Foundation, the educational and cultural arm of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

As in the past, the Academy's Grants committee, chaired by Janet MacLachlan, has chosen to support a number of programs that focus on bringing together students and professional filmmakers.

Following are the grants allocated for 2001-2002:

• $25,000 - American Film Institute - Directing Workshop for Women
• $24,000 - UCLA Film and Television Archive - Encyclopedia of Moving Image Formats project
• $20,000 - Film Arts Foundation (San Francisco) - 25th anniversary series of screenings with filmmakers in attendance
• $18,620 - Inner City Filmmakers (Los Angeles) - Support for summer filmmaking workshop for at-risk youth
• $15,000 - California Institute of the Arts - internships
• $15,000 - Columbia University - internships
• $15,000 - New York University - internships
• $15,000 - University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television - internships
• $15,000 - USC Professional Writing Program- internships
• $15,000 - California State University Northridge - internships
• $15,000 - Austin Film Society - internships
• $15,000 - North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem) - Visiting filmmakers
• $15,000 - Writers Guild Foundation (Los Angeles) - Seminar series and a visiting writer program
• $15,000 - Film Aid International - A screening series for and to be administered by refugees from Burundi, Congo, Rwanda and Sudan
• $12,800 - Friedman Occupational Center (Los Angeles) - Digital link for animation training program
• $12,000 - Boston Film/Video Foundation - Screening series with conversations with filmmakers
• $12,000 - College of Santa Fe (NM) - Summer adolescent girls film workshop
• $10,700 - Western States Black Research Center - Preservation of its collection
• $10,000 - Brooklyn Academy of Music - "Screening Prejudice" program
• $10,000 - Cinestory (Chicago) - Screenwriting seminars, workshops and retreat
• $10,000 - Cleveland High School (Los Angeles) - Summer filmmaking workshop for high school students
• $10,000 - IFP/West (Los Angeles) - "Project: Involve," a mentoring and training program for aspiring minority filmmakers
• $10,000 - Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley) - Literacy workshops for high school students and screenings for K-12 students
• $10,000 - Streetlights (Los Angeles) - Production assistant training and placement program for economically and socially disadvantaged men and women
• $10,000 - Yale University Film Studies - internships
• $10,000 - Foundation for Independent Video & Film (NY) - Master Class series featuring prominent independent filmmakers
• $8,000 - Squaw Valley Community of Writers - Screenwriting workshop
• $7,000 - Media Artists Resource Center (St. Paul, MN) - Access grants for female filmmakers
• $5,000 - Donna Reed Foundation (Denison, IA) - Acting and directing workshops
• $5,000 - Film Institute of Northern California (Mill Valley) - An outreach and educational film screening program.
• $5,000 - Film/Video Arts (New York) - A film screening series focusing on the work of emerging filmmakers
• $4,800 - University of Arizona - Visiting filmmakers

The Grants Committee has distributed more than $2.5 million since its inception in 1968. The Academy Foundation also distributes additional funds via other committees and programs.