The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation once again has awarded the School of Communication a $7,500 grant to provide scholarships for students in the Los Angeles Television Experience (LATE) Program interning at film-related sites this summer.

As a result, six of the 12 students in the 2010 program are “Oscar interns.” The other six are interning at television-related sites.

“The generosity of the Academy Foundation helps our students gain valuable exposure and experience in the film industry, so they are well-prepared to compete in a highly competitive market,” said Dr. Robert Pekurny, an associate professor of Communication and director of the LA Program.

This is the fifth year of the LATE Program, in which students intern for 12 weeks and also attend a weekly all-day seminar on the entertainment industry the first six Fridays. The seminar includes more than 20 guest speakers from all aspects of the TV and film industries.

During the 2009 program, industry speakers included leading directors, screenwriters, animators and makeup artists, including producer/director Garry Marshall, who walked students through the rewrite, casting, pre-production and production processes for his feature film “Valentine’s Day.” Greg Cannom discussed the makeup for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” for which he won an Oscar.

Other highlights were meeting screenwriters Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and Jamie Linden, who spoke of their upcoming and recent feature scripts and the role of the writer in feature film production. Chuck Williams arranged for a tour of the Disney Animation building, as well as its archives, and walked students through the storyboards for the animated feature “King of the Elves.” Marty Sklar at Disney Imagineering led a tour that included mockups of upcoming theme park attractions based on Disney and Pixar films.

At Soap Box Productions and Toy Box Productions, students spoke with executives (and recent alums of our program) about their work on the marketing of summer and upcoming feature films from all the major studios.

All six students who had film-related internships received support from the Academy Foundation grant, with the amount received based on whether they had paid or unpaid internships. Five of the six were graduating seniors, and all five were hired fulltime at the conclusion of their internships.

”I think this speaks highly of the work the students did and is all the more remarkable in these difficult economic times,” Pekurny said.

Supervisor assessments of the interns’ work were uniformly stellar, and the students’ feedback can be characterized as uniformly grateful – both for their experiences and for the Academy Foundation funding that made it possible.

“With the current economy, finding a job right out of college is challenging, and the LATE Program was a gamble. I would be moving 3,000 miles away, across the country, for an internship hoping it would turn into a steady, secure job all the while trying to live in pricey Los Angeles,” said Angelo Ierace, who interned at Toy Box Productions and now works there full time. “I cannot begin to tell you how helpful the grant was in allowing me to have security and the ability to participate in the LATE program.”

Keryn Gibson, who also interned at Toy Box and was hired, praised both the work experience and the industry seminars. “I am currently still working at my internship site as a fulltime employee, with a strong chance of becoming a movie trailer editor. This internship helped me receive opportunities I would not normally have had.”

The other four Oscar interns in 2009 were Levi Smith, who interned at Drac Studios; Michael Fahey, who interned at Monica Beach Enterprises; and Ricky Ringer and Brian Pitts, who interned at Soap Box Productions.