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NORTHRIDGE (CNS) - The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded an $80,000 gift to Cal State Northridge film and journalism students, it was announced today.
Sixty-thousand dollars is intended to support film students while $20,000 will be dedicated to scholarships supporting underrepresented journalism students.
Nate Thomas, head of the film production option in CSUN's Department of Cinema and Television Arts said the HFPA's “funding has helped ease the financial burden for so many of our students as they worked to launch careers in the entertainment industry, and in the process, adding new voices and perspectives to an industry that is often too homogenous in its storytelling.''
“The additional money to our journalism students will have similar impact, by providing financial support to underrepresented students who are striving to increase the diversity of voices and perspectives newsrooms across the region, state and nation,'' he continued.
“We are very much aware of the controversy currently embroiling the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the efforts it has made to try to address the issues,'' Thomas said. “As a university committed to diversity, equity and inclusive excellence, we are hopeful that the HFPA, and the entertainment industry in general, will continue to take a serious look at their past practices and enact reforms aimed at increasing diversity, equity and inclusiveness.''
CSUN's relationship with HFPA started in 1996, and the association supported film students and the department's technology. In 2015, HFPA gifted $2 million to the university's Department of Cinema and Television Arts, part of which created the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Scholars Program.
The department has currently enrolled 1,550 undergraduate and 30 graduate students, with a large network of alumni working in writing, producing, directing and camera operation.
CSUN's Department of Journalism cultivates diversified knowledge, objectivity and principled approaches in students targeting journalism, public relations and related communications professions, with a focus on social justice concerns. Undergraduate students study one of three paths -- journalism, broadcast journalism or public relations -- and masters students study mass communications. The university also offers a Spanish media minor.
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