NFPF News

12 Films to be Preserved through Avant-Garde Masters Grants

Named to the National Film Registry in 2019, Gunvor Nelson’s My Name is Oona (1969) will be preserved by the Pacific Film Archive.

Two films from the avant-garde film renaissance of the late ’90s, Peggy Ahwesh’s Nocturne (1998) and Jesse Lerner’s Ruins (1999), join ten shorts made by Bay Area women artists to be preserved through the 2020 Avant-Garde Masters Grants, awarded by The Film Foundation and the National Film Preservation Foundation.

UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive will preserve ten films that were distributed by the Bay Area–based Serious Business Company (SBC), an independent film distribution company founded by Freude (1942–2009), operating from 1972 to 1984. Among them is Gunvor Nelson’s masterpiece My Name is Oona (1969). Named to the National Film Registry in 2019, this portrait of the artist’s daughter uses a repetitive soundtrack and … Read more

Register for a 2021 NFPF Grant by February 26th!

Friday, February 26th marks the registration deadline for the National Film Preservation Foundation’s federally funded grant program, made possible by the Library of Congress Sound Recording and Film Preservation Programs Reauthorization Act of 2016.

The NFPF offers two types of federal cash grants that support the preservation of historically and culturally significant American films. Completed applications will be due Friday, March 26th.

Basic Preservation Grants fund laboratory work to create preservation masters and access copies, and are open to nonprofit and public institutions in the United States that provide public access to their film collections. Please note the awards have increased this year and now range from $1,000 to $20,000.

Matching Grants help experienced institutions undertake larger-scale projects; applicants may request cash stipends of between $20,001 and $75,000 to fund … Read more

47 Orphan Films Saved Through the 2020 NFPF Grants

Black Chariot (1971) will be preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution with NFPF support. (Courtesy Robert F. Goodwin Estate; photo by Rhea Combs)

The National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to announce the films selected for preservation in 2020 through its federally funded grant program. These grants will allow 34 institutions across 19 states and the District of Columbia to preserve 47 films from their collections.

Two of the grant-winners were once thought lost. Black Chariot (1971), a grassroots-financed feature about the Black liberation struggle, was directed by Robert L. Goodwin—one of the few Black screenwriters working in Hollywood at the time—and stars Bernie Casey. “For nearly fifty years Black Chariot has been considered ‘lost,’ and as a result, relegated to a footnote in film scholarship,” writes Jacqueline … Read more

Register for a 2020 NFPF Grant by May 8!

The world has been put on hold by the Covid-19 crisis, and our grants are no exception. Since many archives have temporarily suspended or reduced their operations, the National Film Preservation Foundation will push forward the registration deadline for its federally funded grant program.

The new deadline for registrations is Friday, May 8, 2020. Completed applications will be due June 12.

The NFPF offers two types of federal cash grants that support the preservation of historically and culturally significant American films. Basic Preservation Grants fund laboratory work to create preservation masters and access copies, and are open to nonprofit and public institutions in the United States that provide public access to their film collections. The awards range from $1,000 to $20,000.

Matching Grants help experienced institutions undertake larger-scale projects; applicants may request cash stipends … Read more

74 Films to Be Saved Through the 2019 NFPF Preservation Grants!

James Baldwin: From Another Place (1973) will be preserved by the Yale Film Study Center with NFPF support.

The National Film Preservation Foundation is proud to announce the films slated for preservation through its annual federally funded grant program. These grants will allow 35 institutions across 19 states and the District of Columbia to preserve 74 films from their collections. The selection includes James Baldwin: From Another Place (1973), a portrait of the legendary writer filmed during his residence in Istanbul, and Haskell Wexler’s The Bus (1965), a cinema verité documentary that follows an integrated group of activists journeying from San Francisco to attend the 1963 March on Washington.

Also focusing on social issues and the achievements of people of color are Wataridori: Birds of Passage (1976), a documentary celebration of the Issei, the pioneering first … Read more