National Film Preservation Foundation’s Basic Preservation Grants

The National Film Preservation Foundation is accepting applications for its Basic Preservation Grants. These cash grants are awarded to nonprofit and public institutions for laboratory work to preserve culturally and historically significant film materials. Deadline for registration is February 12, 2010.

Grants are available to public and nonprofit institutions in the United States that provide public access to their collections, including those that are part of federal, state, or local government. The grants target orphan films made in the United States or by American citizens abroad and not protected by commercial interests. Materials originally created for television or video are not eligible, including works produced with funds from broadcast or cable television entities. The grant must be used to pay for new laboratory work involving the creation of new film preservation elements (which may include sound tracks) and two new public access copies, one of which must be a film print. The grant does not fund HD transfers. Awards generally range from $3,000 to $18,000 each. Visit the NFPF Web site for complete program guidelines.