NFPF News

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

Register for a 2019 NFPF Grant by March 22!

Friday, March 22 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, April 26, 2019.

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

11 Films to be Preserved Through Avant-Garde Masters Grants

Stan VanDerBeek's Skullduggery (1960)

Seven Stan VanDerBeek films from the 1950s and ’60s, a trio of acclaimed experimental visions from Marjorie Keller, and an animated cut-out film from Flora Mock will be preserved through the 2018 Avant-Garde Masters Grants, awarded by The Film Foundation and the National Film Preservation Foundation. All told, 11 films will be preserved and made available through this year’s grants.

“Stan VanDerBeek is one of the major American Avant-Garde film artists,” writes P. Adams Sitney, Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts at Princeton University and one of the most prominent writers on American experimental cinema. “He was a prophet of the emerging multimedia and a proponent of the power of those media for political satire. As soon as he began to make and exhibit films, his originality and wit were manifest. In the period between 1957 and 1965 … Read more