Grantees

We spoke to Gina Guarino Eskow about the Valley Cultural Foundation, an important non-profit organization that has changed the arts landscape of the San Fernando Valley. The Valley Cultural Foundation, one of the HFPA grantees, was founded in 1975 to assist the LA City Department of Parks and Recreation in bringing arts and culture to the San Fernando Valley.

Over the last 27 years the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has donated $50 million to a wide variety of entertainment-related nonprofit organizations, film restorations, and academic programs. More than 2,220 students have received scholarships to help them pursue their dreams.

From the upcoming comedy Easter Sunday to various TV series including Pachinko, Fargo, Grey’s Anatomy, and Billions, these productions share something in common – some of their creatives are alumni of the New Writers Fellowship of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) of which the HFPA is one of the major supporters. “Together we have launched so many careers and I hope you all are as proud as I am,” said Michelle Sugihara, CAPE’s executive director.

The non-profit organization Women’s Voices Now, founded in 2010, was established to drive positive social change with the purpose of advancing girls’ and women’s rights globally. The organization was built on the idea that women’s voices and their struggle for equality around the world should be supported.

Venice Arts, founded in the early 90s, is one of the most important organizations in fostering young talent in California. With eight full-time staff and around 10 part-time employees, it serves to ignite, expand, and transform the lives of LA’s low-income youth through photography and film.

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), one of the HFPA grantees, champions emerging and diverse filmmakers and storytellers from around the world and provides a forum where filmmakers can be recognized for their contributions, have open audience discussions about their work and connect with industry professionals for insight on distribution, production and representation. We caught up with Larry Laboe, Co-Founder and Executive Director of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, whose industry credits include producer for Ctrl (2009) and Fact Checkers Unit.

They hail from 12 countries in four continents united in their love for film making and an abiding passion for storytelling. The fellows of the 2022 HFPA Global Residency are the largest group yet in the program instituted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association four years ago in partnership with the Toronto and Venice film festivals and with Film Independent, which manages the Residency curriculum.

On the 23rd day of Russia’s war on Ukraine, our wonderful grantee, the Committee to Protect Journalists, held a panel titled “Human Rights Violations and the Dangers Facing Journalists in Ukraine”. Experts from both the CPJ and Human Rights Watch were on hand to explain the current situation and to field questions from other reporters about the war, ongoing human rights violations, disinformation and the dangers facing journalists on the frontlines of history.

In the mid-70s, her father became the first Black general manager of a TV station in the country when the Federal Communications Commission suspended the local station at Jackson, Mississippi for racist practices and mandated that it be run by a Black group. It was there, growing up in Mississippi, that Erika Dilday understood the importance of having a “diversity of voices within the narrative.

Australians in Film, which originated in 2001, is one of the most important and innovative organizations in the Australian film and television industry. Largely responsible for the success of many Australian actors and storytellers who followed their dreams and made the leap to Hollywood, especially through the Heath Ledger scholarship, AiF champions undiscovered talent, and of late, has focused on under-represented communities.