L.A. Times wins first Oscar for 'The Last Repair Shop,' about LAUSD music program

The Los Angeles Times has covered the Oscars for 95 years — and now it has won one.

The heartwarming "The Last Repair Shop," directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers and co-distributed by L.A. Times Studios and Searchlight, took home the prize in the documentary short category at the Oscars on Sunday.

A moving love letter to Los Angeles itself, "The Last Repair Shop" centers on four unsung master craftspeople who service musical instruments for Los Angeles Unified School District students. Working in the largest remaining workshop of its kind in America, the four help oversee the maintenance of some 80,000 instruments, ensuring that the city's schoolchildren have playable instruments in their hands every day.

Read more: A school bus, donated dresses, Alicia Keys' hairstylist: Two LAUSD students go to Oscars

Proudfoot previously won the same prize for the 2021 short "The Queen of Basketball"; that year, he and Bowers were nominated in the same category for co-directing "A Concerto Is a Conversation."

Accepting the prize, Bowers said, "Music education isn't just about creating incredible musicians — it's about creating incredible human beings."

Read more: The Last Repair Shop

"The Last Repair Shop" is now available to watch on Disney+ and Hulu as well as on The Times’ YouTube channel and latimes.com, as part of the L.A. Times Short Docs series.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.