Host Arnold Schwarzenegger Takes Swipes At Donald Trump As HFPA Delivers $3.8 Million At Annual Grants Banquet
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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, using money from the license fees it gets from NBC for the Golden Globes, gave away $3.8 million to 74 entertainment-related nonprofit organizations, scholarship programs, film-restoration and humanitarian groups Wednesday night at its annual Grants Banquet at the Beverly Wilshire. It’s part of the HFPA’s year-round efforts in this philanthropic area. President Lorenzo Soria said the total is now nearly $7 million in 2019 alone. In the past 25 years, the organization has donated $37.5 million.
Host Arnold Schwarzenegger got things rolling by giving a chief reason why he was chosen as M.C. – and taking a veiled swipe at President Donald Trump in the process. “I have a special connection to the HFPA because I am actually foreign,” the actor said. “And I have chosen not to ‘go back to my country’ but stay here, live here and make a difference here. And to me, that is what makes America great.”
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The reference was to Trump’s recent rants against the four freshman congresswomen of color known as “The Squad,” in which he suggested they should “go back to where they came from” (three of the four were born in the U.S.). Later, as part of the buildup to one of his jokes, the former Republican governor of California and briefly Trump’s replacement on Celebrity Apprentice related an answer he gave to an HFPA member as to why he didn’t want to talk about Trump. “I have nothing nice to say about the guy, and that will be the headline — and you would not write about my movie Dark Fate: Terminator 6.”
Actually Schwarzenegger was very funny last night, using Soria as a comedy partner by making him “hang out” onstage with him. Originally from Italy, Soria earlier had taken his own swipe at Trump in his opening speech. “In addition to bestowing awards, we are also journalists, most of us immigrants,” he said,. Adding an aside from the prepared remarks, Soria said, “I’m not going back.”
Schwarzenegger killed it and drew so many laughs for his monologue that it looked like he could be auditioning to be the next host of the Golden Globes – or maybe for something else as he explained how he got tricked into presiding over the grants banquet. “In 1977 I received a Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut in the movie Stay Hungry, but that was 42 years ago. And nothing since then? It’s not like I didn’t try. I tried prehistoric movies. Nothing. I tried action movies. Nothing. I tried sequels. Nothing. Comedies. Nothing. I even was pregnant in one of the movies! But Lorenzo did a little thing with his eyes and was kind of saying to me that through the hosting of this show it could kind of be the gateway to the Cecil B. DeMille Award. So this is kind of why I am here today,” he joked (I think).
In addition to handing out all this money, the HFPA is able to lure a starry group of presenters, some of whom have movies or TV shows that could be in contention at the Globes. It certainly doesn’t hurt to show up. Among the talent announcing various grants were Rocketman’s Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell, James Corden, Kerry Washington, Rob Lowe, Judy’s Renee Zellweger, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jon Favreau, director Taika Waititi, Justin Hartley, Ramy Youssef, Regina Hall, Ali Wong and more including the scene stealing 10-year-old actress Julia Butters from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. (No one from the organizations awarded were allowed to accept onstage, thus keeping the whole thing to just one hour.)
This evening also is a soft launch to awards season, with studios and distributors showing in force with stars, and numerous PR consultants roaming the room and making sure HFPA members were aware of their presence and support.
Entertainment was provided by Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein, who did a great song together.
Among those receiving some of the largest grants were Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation at $350,000. Through the years the HFPA has consistently supported Film Foundation’s efforts and it has resulted in over 125 classic film restorations. Others include Film Independent, Sundance Institute, Institut Lumiere, National Museum of American History (Smithsonian), Committee to Protect Journalists, Film Aid international, Film Noir, UCLA, and many, many more.
Here is a complete list of this year’s HFPA Grant Recipients:
HIGHER EDUCATION: FELLOWSHIPS & INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) – $60,000
Cal State Dominguez Hills – $40,000
Cal State Fullerton – $60,000
Cal State Long Beach – $60,000
Cal State Los Angeles – $60,000
Cal State Northridge – $60,000
Los Angeles City College – $25,000
Mount San Antonio College Foundation – $30,000
Santa Monica College – $30,000
Southwestern Law School – $50,000
University of California, Los Angeles – $125,000
HFPA ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS
American Film Institute – $20,000
CalArts – $12,500
Cal State Dominguez Hills – $5000
Cal State Fullerton – $5000
Cal State Long Beach – $5000
Cal State Los Angeles – $5300
Loyola Marymount – $20,000
Mt. San Antonio College Foundation – $5000
Santa Monica College – $5000
UCLA – $20,000
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING & MENTORING
American Film Institute – $40,000
Australians in Film – $10,000
City Year Los Angeles – $10,000
Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment – $20,000
Exceptional Minds – $25,000
Film Independent, Project: Involve – $60,000
Film Independent, Venice/TIFF Residency – $121,000
Independent Filmmaker Project (Brooklyn) – $20,000
International Documentary Association – $10,000
Motion Picture & Television Fund – $15,000
New Filmmakers Los Angeles – $41,000
SAG-AFTRA Foundation – $10,000
Streetlights – $20,000
Sundance Institute – $225,000
Veterans in Film & Television – $30,000
Women in Film – $20,000
Women Make Movies (NYC) – $10,000
PRE-PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION & MENTORING
California State Summer School Arts Foundation – $25,000
Echo Park Film Center – $10,000
Get Lit – Words Ignite – $20,000
Ghetto Film School – $30,000
GlobalGirl Media – $10,000
Inner-City Arts (Downtown LA) – $30,000
Inner City Filmmakers (Santa Monica) – $40,000
Kids in the Spotlight – $10,000
USC Arts & Engineering Magnet – $25,000
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts – $25,000
Outfest / Los Angeles LGBT Center – $10,000
POPS the Club – $10,000
Sharewell (Zimmer Children’s Museum) – $10,000
The Music Center – $5,000
PRESERVE THE CULTURE & HISTORY OF FILM
Film Noir – $90,000
IndieCollect – $77,900
Outfest (UCLA LGBT project) – $35,000
The Film Foundation – $350,000
PROMOTE CULTURAL EXCHANGE THROUGH FILM
American Cinematheque – $45,000
American Documentary Association (POV) – $30,000
Cal State Northridge – $12,000
Film Independent/Film Series – $305,000
FilmAid International – $100,000
Hollywood Heritage Museum – $10,000
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation – $10,000
Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles – $15,000
Library Foundation of Los Angeles – $40,000
Los Angeles Conservancy, Last Remaining Seats – $35,000
Museum of the Moving Image – $10,000
San Francisco Silent Film Festival – $10,000
University of California, Berkeley Film Archive – $20,000
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Ebertfest) – $10,000
JOURNALISM/PRESS FREEDOM
Committee to Protect Journalists – $100,000
Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalists – $20,000
International Documentary Association – $25,000
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Children’s Hospital – $35,000
Ensemble Studio Theatre – $10,000
Gingold Theatre Group/Shaw Festival – $20,000
Lollipop Theater Network – $20,000
Pablove Foundation – $20,000
The Actor’s Gang – $10,000
The Moth – $105,000
Young Musicians Foundation – $10,000
Young Storytellers Foundation – $10,000
2019 NEW GRANTEES
A Place Called Home – $25,000
Institut Lumiere – $225,000
Las Fotos, Hire Her – $10,000
National Museum of American History (Smithsonian) – $150,000; $1 million over 7 years
KPCC/California Public Radio – $20,000
PEN America – $40,000
The Film Collaborative – $25,000
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