In the few weeks since the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it would significantly scale back its longstanding and well-respected film program after 40 years due to allegations of declining attendance and revenue, a legion of fans, including Martin Scorsese, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the grassroots coalition Save Film at LACMA, has worked to try to reverse this decision.
In a partial reprieve, LACMA announced that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Time Warner Cable have committed $75,000 each to extend the program through next summer. In addition Time Warner Cable and Ovation TV have made an in-kind contribution of over $1.5 million to market the film program across their multiple media platforms, both locally and nationally.
Next week LACMA Director Michael Govan will meet with members of Save Film at LACMA. In a statement, he said, "LACMA's goals for its future film program include securing sustainable philanthropic support that provides a larger and more appropriate budget and affords more outreach and events to create broader awareness for the program overall. However, most importantly, the museum also intends to create a Film Department within the curatorial sphere of the museum that will be charged with critical thinking about the history and future of film as art as well as film's increasing importance in the larger narrative of art history."