This just "IN" : Academy Awards $455,000 to U.S. Film Festivals in 2012

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded $455,000 to 25 U.S. film festivals for the 2012 calendar year.

The Cleveland International Film Festival will be the recipient of a multiyear grant for its Focus on Filmmakers program. It will receive a total of $150,000 over a three-year period. The Chicago International Film Festival is in its second year of a multiyear grant, receiving $150,000 in total for its World Cinema Spotlight program.

While the grants are awarded for a variety of festival programs, organizers are encouraged to submit proposals intended to make festival events more accessible to the general public, provide greater access to minority and less visible filmmakers, and help strengthen the connection between filmmakers and the general public.

The 2012 film festival grants allocations are as follows:

$50,000

• Chicago International Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program
• Cleveland International Film Festival – Focus on Filmmakers

$30,000

• Los Angeles Film Festival – Free Screenings program
• San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival – World Cinema Spotlight program

$20,000

• Ann Arbor Film Festival (MI) – 50th Anniversary Archival program
• Chicago International Children's Film Festival – Directors in the Schools, Educational
  Curriculum Development and free tickets
• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, NC) – Thematic program
• Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – "30 Years of Outfest" retrospective program
• Palm Springs International ShortFest – Filmmaker Forums
• Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Field Trip to the Movies program
• True/False Film Fest (Columbia, MO) – Visiting Filmmaker program; SWAMI Mentoring program; Film Academy Student Track; Outreach to Students and Minorities
• Virginia Film Festival (Charlottesville) – Community Outreach and Education program

$15,000

• RiverRun International Film Festival (Winston-Salem, NC) – 2010 Spotlight program: Landmark Science Fiction Films
• St. Louis International Film Festival – Women in Film Sidebar

$10,000

• Athens International Film and Video Festival (Ohio) – "Let's Talk About Water" screening and seminar program
• Berkshire International Film Festival (Great Barrington, MA) – Talent Campus
• Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, MT) – Retrospective Programming and the
  Reel Sounds Sidebar
• Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC) – Voices program
• Indie Memphis Film Festival – Visiting Filmmakers and Community Outreach
• Maryland Film Festival (Baltimore) – New Waves in World Cinema program
• Pan African Film Festival (Los Angeles) – StudentFest

$5,000

• New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival (New York City) – Retrospective Program
• South East European Film Festival (Los Angeles) – Audience Development
• Tallgrass Film Festival (Witchita, KS) – Filmmaker Hospitality

Since its establishment in 1999, the Academy's Festival Grants Program has distributed 277 grants totaling $4.85 million in funding. For more information on the grants program, visit http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/.

The Academy Foundation – the Academy's cultural and educational wing – annually distributes 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.