American Cinematheque

“This is to say goodbye and thank you,” said Gwen Deglise, the longtime head programmer of the American Cinematheque, from the stage of the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Friday, September 9th, 2022. The audience, patrons, and team members responded with an emotional standing ovation and “Thank You, Gwen” shout-outs.

Doing the Work is a series profiling key recipients of HFPA Philanthropy Susan Ruskin made the transition from successful film producer to film educator more than a decade ago. With credits such as Anaconda and Haunted Honeymoon beneath her belt, she came to the field armed with both practical knowledge and a vision of how films might be made in the future.

Doing the Work is a series profiling key recipients of HFPA Philanthropy. As the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) grows and takes a more active role in its philanthropic activities as a promoter of educational and cultural initiatives, it is strengthening ties with local film and media institutions.

HFPA Grantee Created in 1981, the American Cinematheque has been honoring and promoting the art of motion pictures, presenting films and videos otherwise not available to the large public,  and establishing a dialogue between audience and filmmakers, in the realm of classical, independent and new talent filmmaking. Home base of the Cinematheque is the historic 1922 landmark Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, where the first Hollywood premiere of Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks was held in 1922, and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, where the Cinematheque started programming in 2005.

On a recent evening an unusual cinematic event took place in Hollywood thanks to a generous $350,000 grant given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to the American Cinematheque - for the first time in more than half a century, movie enthusiasts watched a public projection of a film made of a dangerous and explosive material, nitrate. Today nitrate is an obscure material, in little use.

Directors Angelina Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey), Pedro Almodóvar (The Skin I Live In), Asghar Farhadi (A Separation), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (The Kid With a Bike) and Yimou Zhang (The Flowers of War) speak at the Golden Globe Foreign Language Nominee Panel Discussion at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, January 14, 2012.