The Academy (yes, that one!!) awards Oxford Film Festival grant to expand LGBTQ section

Talk about worlds colliding, y'all!!

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has awarded the Oxford Film Festival a grant to expand our LGBTQ section. A category I program. I am beyond moved by this gesture by the Academy. Almost feels like I won my own Oscar.

Almost....

Here is the press release:

Academy Announces Oxford Film Fest as grant recipient

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today recipients of its 2018 FilmCraft and FilmWatch grants. The Oxford Film Festival received a $5,000 FilmWatch grant to support expanding the features and shorts focusing on LGBTQ issues during the February 6-9, 2019 festival.

“This year the Grants are proud to support 51 organizations whose innovative programs reach broad audiences, underserved high school and college students, support mid-career and emerging filmmakers, and engage and enrich their local communities. The Grants also reached out to support several film archives devastated by recent climate events. It is the Grants’ privilege and responsibility to fund organizations, rising and established, that reflect both The Academy’s values and its leadership role in the arts,” said Buffy Shutt, chair of the Academy’s grants committee.

The 16th annual Oxford Film Festival will expand its LGBTQ features to five from three and provide more shorts than in previous years. The festival has always shown quality LGBTQ content but in response to HB 1523, a bill passed in Mississippi, the Religious Liberties Accommodation Act, created a new LGBTQ section to create a system of support for LGBTQ filmmakers.

The Academy’s FilmCraft and FilmWatch grants were established to identify and empower future filmmakers from nontraditional backgrounds, cultivate new and diverse talent, promote motion pictures as an art form, and provide a platform for underrepresented artists. Grants range from $5,000-$15,000, and a total of $500,000 was awarded for the 2018-2019 grants year.

The Academy’s Grants program provides financial support to qualifying film festivals, educational institutions and film scholars and supports the Academy’s overall mission to recognize and uphold excellence in the motion picture arts and sciences, inspire imagination and connect the world through the medium of motion pictures. The Academy Grants program has awarded a total of $12,194,000 to non-profit institutions and film festivals.

ABOUT OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL

The Oxford Film Festival was founded in 2003 to bring exciting, new, and unusual films (and the people who create them) to North Mississippi. The annual five-day festival screens short and feature-length films in both showcase and competition settings. The festival is a 501c3 not-for- profit organization. For more information,

visit www.oxfordfilmfest.com.