Golden Globes’ Producers Support Long Beach State Filmmakers
LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 26, 2018) – Student filmmakers at Long Beach State University will continue to benefit from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s financial support for narrative and documentary films.
The Association, which co-produces the Golden Globes, has granted $65,000 to the Long Beach campus’ Department of Film & Electronic Arts for the current academic year. That total is the sum of $60,000 for scholarships to finance current students’ work and $5,000 to build an endowment for scholarships.
The scholarships create opportunities for students to pitch ideas to campus faculty. A winning pitch can earn $3,000 to help pay the bills for short films that students may go on to enter into film festivals.
“Hollywood Foreign Press Association funding allows our students to put learning into practice by creating original films from the seed of an idea to completion,” Film and Electronic Arts interim chair Anne D’Zmura said. “This funding affords our students an opportunity to share their unique and timely stories that are reflective of our larger society. We are deeply grateful for the association’s support in developing the next generation of diverse, socially aware, dedicated and talented filmmakers.”
Long Beach State filmmakers, who have benefited from Hollywood Foreign Press Association Support, are behind two documentaries —“For Vivian” and “Lurker” — that are finalists for awards to be handed out in October during the California State University Media Arts Festival.
The association’s financial support helped the filmmakers who made “For Vivian” cover such costs as color correction and sound design work. “If we didn’t have the funding, the film would not be at the level that it is,” editor and co-director of photography Nicole Gomez said.
“For Vivian” tells the story of director Samantha Hernandez’s aunt.
Another scholarship helped “Lurker” director Charles Watson work with Super 8mm film and cover travel costs to places like San Francisco and Palm Desert to tell a street photographer’s story. “It was very critical for what we envisioned,” Watson said.
The association has provided the Department of Film & Electronic Arts more than $760,000 worth of support since the 2005-06 school year. In addition to financing for scholarships, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has also helped the department obtain sound-mixing and documentary equipment.
Hollywood Foreign Press Association scholarship recipient Sean Geisterfer wrote and directed “The Sound of Love,” a short film honored with the Best in Show, Best Narrative and Audience Choice awards at the 2017 California State University Media Arts Festival.
Two other Hollywood Foreign Press Association scholarship recipients, Laura Aika Tanimoto and Daniel Alvarado, also earned plaudits during the 2017 event. Tanimoto’s “HapPINEness” received recognition as the Best Experimental film, and Alvarado’s “'Bobby' by Hannah" won recognition as the festival’s Best Music Video.
The 2018 awards ceremony for the California State University Media Arts Festival is scheduled to take place Oct. 16 at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
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About the campus:Long Beach State University is a teaching-intensive, research-driven university committed to providing highly valued undergraduate and graduate degrees critical for success in the globally minded 21st century. Annually ranked among the best universities in the West and among the best values in the entire nation, the university’s eight colleges serve more than 37,500 students. The campus values and is recognized for rich educational opportunities provided by excellent faculty and staff, exceptional degree programs, diversity of its student body, fiduciary and administrative responsibility and the positive contributions faculty, staff, students and more than 300,000 alumni make on society.
About the Hollywood Foreign Press Association:The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s annual Golden Globe Awards have enabled the non-profit organization to donate more than $29 million in the past thirty years to entertainment-related charities, as well as funding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals. In the year 2017, the donations reached a total of over $2.8 million in grants destined to non-profits, institutions, and charities.
