The National Endowment for the Arts recently approved funding for more than 1,200 Grants for Arts Projects, including a $20,000 grant to Cinema St. Louis for the 31st Annual St. Louis International Film Festival.
The grant is one of more than 100 awards given in the media arts category, which Cinema St. Louis Executive Director Cliff Froehlich says includes a number of film-related works and film festivals.
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“We’re very pleased at the level of support that we were given this year,” says Froehlich. “We’re happy to be in the same category as a lot of other really worthy festivals, like the Austin Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival.”
Froehlich also noted that the primary purpose for grant funds will be to support the programming for the St. Louis International Film Festival, one of Cinema St. Louis’ many events throughout the year. That includes helping pay for the films themselves, covering director transport to the festival, and aiding in the production of materials to help publicize the event. The yearly fest will be held in November and feature more than 300 animated, narrative, and documentary features and short films, as well as accompanying events and programming. According to a press release announcing the NEA award, programming streams will include the Women in Film Spotlight, Race in America: The Black Experience, and the Human Rights Spotlight.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from Cinema St. Louis that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers in the press release. “Cinema St. Louis is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”
This latest award is one of a dozen or so grants Cinema St. Louis has received from the NEA over the past two decades. Froehlich says the agency’s support lends an extra layer of credibility to the work Cinema St. Louis is doing in the community.
“There is a stamp of approval that comes with having NEA support and sort of says to other potential funders, grantors, sponsors, that these folks do good work here,” he says. “I think that helps considerably in getting other potential funders confident that when they give us money, that it’s going to be well-spent and going to go to work they can feel good about.”
To learn more about Cinema St. Louis and their programming throughout the year, visit their website.
