Golden Globe Foundation Awards Grants to SMC Journalism & Film Programs

Golden Globe Foundation Awards Grants to SMC Journalism & Film Programs

Awards Support Scholarship to Build Diverse Pipeline of Future Journalists & the Production of Capstone Short Film for College’s Award-Winning Film Program 

SANTA MONICA, CA—The Golden Globe Foundation (GGF, “Foundation”) has given the Santa Monica College Foundation two grant awards to support the award-winning Santa Monica College (SMC) film production and journalism programs. The Foundation provided a renewed grant award of $10,000 for SMC journalism students who work for/intern on the student-run media outlet The Corsair and $35,000 to help fund the film production program’s capstone class, “Making the Short Film.”

The grants for 2024-2025— announced on Dec. 3—follow awards given to the two SMC programs for 2024, earlier this year. The SMC Foundation grant awards comprise a part of contributions made by the Foundation to a diverse group of 83 nonprofits that provide a multitude of resources and services to programs that educate, enrich and empower the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers, colleges and universities, underserved communities, film restoration projects in the United States and abroad, along with providing financial aid, assistance and resources to journalists worldwide. Funding for GGF’s philanthropy is made possible from revenue generated by licensing fees from the Golden Globe® Awards.

“The Golden Globe Foundation is tremendously proud to be able to support the award-winning Film Production and Journalism programs at Santa Monica College,” said Henri Arnaud, Golden Globe Foundation President. “The training students receive at SMC and the work they produce year after year speak volumes to the potential of community college students who bring fresh perspectives, their diverse backgrounds, and unparalleled grit to the vital work of telling stories and bearing witness.”

The Foundation also previously supported SMC’s Meal Project, which provided SMC students experiencing food insecurity with meals to help them accomplish their educational goals without experiencing severe hunger.

The Foundation’s $35,000 fellowship grant to SMC’s film program helps to fund the capstone class, Film 33 (“Making the Short Film”), a hands-on student learning experience in which students under the direct mentorship and guidance of faculty produce a professional-level short film, enabling them to gain ever greater exposure, access to cutting-edge technology, and entry into a career in applied filmmaking. In 2024, Moviemaker Magazine ranked the SMC film program as one of the 30 best film schools in the U.S. and Canada alongside AFI Conservatory, NYU, USC, and UCLA. The college supports traditionally underrepresented students by offering a high-quality education at a fraction of the cost of many four-year filmmaking programs.

The SMC student short films funded by the Foundation have won major awards and been invited to prestigious festivals both in the U.S. and overseas. These include “Out of Touch” (Best Short Film, Prague Independent Film Festival), “The Attempt” (Best Short Film, Vienna Independent Film Festival), “Broken Layers” (Best Student Film; The American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes Film Festival), “Leaving the Factory” (Winner, Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum), and “The War Within” (Best Student Film, California Women’s Film Festival), among others. To learn more about SMC’s film production program, visit smc.edu/film.

The Golden Globe Foundation has funded 20 SMC journalism program scholarships for students to develop real-world experience by working as part of The Corsair’s staff. Members of The Corsair—which helps students develop storytelling techniques, build their career portfolios, and think critically in real-world settings —commit hundreds of hours to the newsroom each semester. Many SMC students are unable to sacrifice paid work hours to spend those hours in the campus student newsroom. These scholarships, awarded at the end of every Spring semester, have enabled a more diverse range of talented journalism students to engage in this important academic and career development opportunity.

Of the 20 students who have received the Golden Globe Foundation scholarship, several have moved on to four-year universities including UCLA, Howard University, Loyola Marymount University, and CSU LA, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton and CSU Northridge. Some have taken leadership roles in their transfer school's newsrooms. Scholarship winners have also produced media content for outlets including The Forward, Fearless Records, 70 Faces Media, KPFK 90.7 FM, AfroLA, YR Media, and the City of Hawthorne and more. To learn more about The Corsair and the journalism program, see: smc.edu/journalism. The Corsair is online at thecorsaironline.com.

Other higher education institutions receiving support, in addition to Santa Monica College, include American Film Institute, UCLA, CalArts, Cal State Long Beach, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles Valley College, and more. Golden Globe Foundation also provided significant awards to support a variety of worthy programs and special projects including $400,000 to the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, $100,000 to Cinematheque Francaise for the restoration of the 1927 classic, “Napoleon” and $100,000 to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

# # #

About the Golden Globe Foundation:

Golden Globe Foundation was created in 2023 following the sale of the Golden Globes to Eldridge Globes, LLC. The proceeds of that sale and existing resources of the organization allow the Foundation to fulfill a longtime history of entertainment-related charitable giving. The Foundation and its predecessor, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, maintain longstanding support to a diverse range of nonprofit organizations including programs empowering the next generation of filmmakers, colleges and universities, film restoration projects in the United States and abroad, underserved communities, and providing financial aid, resources and services to journalists worldwide. Over the last three decades, the licensing fees from the Golden Globe® Awards have enabled the Foundation to contribute $60 million to these charities. Learn more at ggfdn.org or contact: Greg Goeckner, media@GoldenGlobes.org

About Santa Monica College:

Santa Monica College is a California Community College accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). For 33 consecutive years, SMC has been California’s leading transfer college to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and other University of California campuses. The college also tops in transfers to the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University and is the top feeder west of the Mississippi to the Ivy League Columbia University. As the leading job trainer in Los Angeles’s Westside, the college offers robust career education opportunities, with over 110 degrees and certificates in traditional and emerging fields. SMC provides news and cultural enrichment through its NPR radio station KCRW (89.9 FM), the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center, and lifelong learning through distinctive programs such as its Emeritus Program for older adults.