Film Academy Donates $250,000 From Canceled Oscar Nominees Luncheon to Fire Relief (Exclusive)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has donated $250,000 that it planned to spend on this year’s Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which it canceled on Monday, to the Motion Picture & Television Fund to help Angelenos affected by the ongoing wildfires, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
This brings the total contributions of the Academy — a nonprofit organization — to the wildfire relief efforts of the MPTF, a staple of the Hollywood community since 1921, to $1 million.
The wildfires, which have raged for over a week now, have claimed the lives of dozens of Angelenos. They have also destroyed thousands of homes, including the primary residences of four of the 55 Academy members who serve on the organization’s board of governors.
While the Academy’s board did vote to cancel this year’s Oscar Nominees Luncheon — and to extend the Oscar nominations voting window, push back the announcement of the Oscar nominations and postpone the Scientific and Technical Awards — out of sensitivity to the SoCal community, which is home to some 60 percent of its roughly 10,000 members, it has no plans to postpone or cancel the 97th Oscars ceremony, which is scheduled for Sunday, March 2, contrary to a Tuesday article on the website of The Sun.
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In addition to the Academy, other industry groups that put on award shows have also stepped up to support fire relief efforts. Among them: the Recording Academy, which has said that the Grammys, set for Feb. 2, will serve as a fundraiser; the Producers Guild of America, which has said that it will contribute a portion of the net proceeds from the Producers Guild Awards, set for Feb. 8, to the Entertainment Community Fund; and SAG-AFTRA, the guild behind the SAG Awards, set for Feb. 23, which has said that it is donating $1 million to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, its philanthropic arm.
