The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Telluride Film Festival for its Guest Director program, which features "The English Patient" novelist/screenwriter Michael Ondaatje this year.
The Academy has funded the program for the last three years, and festival's past guest directors have included Academy Award winner Alexander Payne ("Sideways"), Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris, Oscar-winning composer Stephen Sondheim, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, French director Bertrand Tavernier and author Salman Rushdie.
The Academy Foundation, which is the organization's cultural and educational wing, distributes more than $1 million each year to film scholars, various cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad.
