April 27,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  John Pavlik - (310) 247-3000

Beverly Hills, CA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is looking for two film scholars. When it finds them, it will give them $25,000 each.

The new Academy program, launched last year, awards grants of $25,000 to each of two film scholars selected by the Grants Committee of the Academy Foundation to help fund a work of scholarship proposed to the Academy.

The inaugural scholars selected last December were Tino Balio, professor of film in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Donald Crafton, professor of communication and theatre at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

Applications for the 2001 program will be accepted through August 31, according to Program Coordinator Greg Beal, who said the 2001 scholars will be selected in November.

Only established scholars, writers, historians and researchers with a significant record of achievement will be considered for the grants, Beal said. Grants are not available to students.

The program was created in April 2000 by the Grants Committee of the Academy Foundation to "stimulate and support the creation of new, innovative and significant works of film scholarship about aesthetic, cultural, educational, historical, theoretical or scientific aspects of theatrical motion pictures."

Applicants must propose a new work of film scholarship encompassing some aspect of theatrical motion picture art, science, commerce, history or theory. Works solely exploring television, video or other media arts themes are not eligible.

The proposed projects may be for books, multimedia presentations, curatorial projects, electronic disks or Internet sites, and must be in English. Proposals for the creation of films, television programming or videos will not be considered.

The first two scholars both are working on books. Balio's "A Radically Different Cinema: Foreign Films in America, 1948 to the Present" is a comprehensive institutional history of foreign films and their influence on American film culture. Crafton is undertaking an analysis of animated cartoon shorts entitled "Shadow of a Mouse: Animation and American Culture in the 1930s."

Application forms are available at the Academy, by mail or on the Academy's web site at <http://www.oscars.org/foundation/filmscholars> Applications may not be obtained or submitted by fax or e-mail. To obtain an application call the Academy at 310-247-3000, ext. 165.