A version of this story first appeared in the May 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which earns about $10 million annually from its Golden Globe Awards, is pledging $2 million to Los Angeles City College’s cinema and television department. As a nonprofit, the journalists organization has handed out more than $20 million in grants to various industry charities, but the commitment to LACC — which will be paid out over multiple years through the LACC Foundation — is the largest gift it has ever made, surpassing the previous record of $350,000 that it donated to The Film Foundation.
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The funds will go toward scholarships as well as to upgrade studio, postproduction and theater facilities at the school, which will be renamed the HFPA Center for Cinema and Television at LACC.
“We are dedicated to providing resources to students who have a passion for the film and television industry so they can become the next great generation of writers, producers, cinematographers and directors,” says HFPA president Theo Kingma. “This is much more than a donation; this is a commitment to these young scholars for many years to come.”
The LACC Foundation was created in 1968 to develop private support for LACC. Through a combination of revenue-generating enterprises and traditional fundraising activities, the foundation works to fill the needs of students striving to improve their lives through higher education. The foundation directs 100 percent of all donated funds to support for the college and to financial assistance for the students of LACC. During the 2013-14 academic year, the foundation provided more than $600,000 to more than 1,000 students in the form of scholarships, textbook vouchers, emergency loans and grants. Additionally, the foundation provided more than $230,000 to the campus for support of its department initiatives, and an additional $1.6 million in grants from private foundations for various programs across the campus.
“The LACC Foundation is truly honored to be the recipient of this extraordinary gift from the Hollywood Foreign Press,” said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the foundation. “This donation will be transformational in its impact, not only in the upgrade of facilities at the college’s cinema and television program, but also in the effect that this will have on the lives of the more than 1,500 students who will study at the HFPA Center for Cinema and Television each semester.”
“Los Angeles City College is highly appreciative of this generous gift from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” said Renee Martinez, president of LACC. “This gift will provide the resources that our students need in order to successfully compete in the world of film and television. As the oldest and only L.A.-based college in Hollywood, it is fitting that the HFPA Center for Cinema and Television be located at LACC.”
The HFPA each year provides financial grants to a range of film schools and other nonprofit organizations. Last year, at its annual Grants Banquet in August, it distributed nearly $2 million in financial grants. Additonally, as part of a deal struck last year between the HFPA and Dick Clark Productions — which produces the Golden Globes for the HFPA and handles licensing to international broadcasters — DCP, and its parent company, Guggenheim Partners (which also owns THR), will donate $7.5 million over six years to match HFPA’s charity efforts beginning this year.
