LACMA's Film Program Saved, At Least Temporarily

Danielle DeLeon
8/27/2009

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art's film program, which was set to end this fall, has received $150,000 in gifts that will permit it to continue until June 2010.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art's decision to end its 40-year-old weekend film program instigated public outcry, but, now, thanks to two outside organizations, the program will continue until June 2010.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the Golden Globe Awards, and Time Warner Cable, in association with Ovation TV, have gifted a total of $150,000 to save LACMA's film program.

In addition to the donations, Time Warner Cable and Ovation will market the film program across their multiple media programs, which totals over $1.5 million.

Barbara Pfaumer, a LACMA spokeswoman, told The Los Angeles Times that the museum will seek additional donors and patrons of the film program with hopes of continuing the program past next summer.

Responses to LACMA's decision to scrap the program included a petition and an open letter written by Martin Scorsese and published in The Los Angeles Times.

In his letter, Scorsese said, "Without places like LACMA and other museums, archives, and festivals where people can still see a wide variety of films projected on screen with an audience, what do we lose? We lose what makes the movies so powerful and such a pervasive cultural influence."