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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which runs the Academy Awards, has given a $10,000 FilmWatch grant to the Denver Film Society to support its CineLatino programming. This is the first grant that the Academy has given the 41-year-old Denver nonprofit, and the only one awarded to a Colorado-based group this year.
Andrew Rodgers, who was named the Denver Film Society’s executive director in 2016, was shocked when he arrived in town and discovered that the organization had never been awarded the grant. “I made it my secret mission to try to get this,” he says.
While Rogers acknowledges that $10,000 is a drop in the bucket of the DFS budget, the award itself signals that the Academy is taking the organization’s work seriously. “That’s important validation — not just for us, but for the people who come out and see the movies,” he notes.
Like Women + Film, CineLatino is one of the organization’s mini-festivals – this one bringing the work of Hispanic and Latino filmmakers to the broader Denver audience. The $10,000 will allow the DFS to bring in more filmmakers and offer free screenings throughout the year, says Rodgers.
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This year’s CineLatino Festival will run September 6 through September 9; CineLatino programming will also be a part of the 2018 Denver Film Festival, slated for October 31 through November 11.
