In an e -mail message sent out Friday 31 January, Film Festival AllianceManaging Director, Barbara Twist, offered guidance to member organizations and others on how to respond to Trump administrationfreezing and possible cleansing of federal funding in several government sectors. As a recipient of a NEA contribution himself and touched on a potential break in funding, the FFA made the decision to close its account as early as December 2024 and now advises all other NEA grants the same.
“I encourage all our member organizations and others with open NEA contributions to close them early if you have achieved reimbursable expenses,” Twist wrote. “For those in the middle of a contribution cycle, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with how you may be able to reduce or adjust your range of operations so that your contribution obligations can be fulfilled in the past. NEA has historically enabled contributors to make changes to their projects and scope of activities. You can do this through the grant portal. ”
These feelings were later repeated by the Art House Collective in an e -mail message sent to its supporters. Twist pointed to a new article published by Science.org The detailed Trump administration’s new veting process in terms of funds already allocated through the National Science Foundation as a reason to take action before it is too late. During its review of grants awarded, NSF blocked contributors from accessing funds.
Twise spoke in a new conversation with IndieWire and shared that she was preparing for the same to happen to NEA. This comes after a slate of executive orders that President Trump handed over at his inauguration who freezes federal funding for what he considers “awake gender ideology;” diversity, justice and inclusion; foreign support; the green new deal; and support for non -state organizations that – as he and his administration claim – undermine national interest.
Twist described the government possibly to go back to its financing commitments as a “mining of trust” that would have a negative degradation of the overall economy. For example, if organizations longer can afford to be worth Festivals As a result of contributions, it is money that is removed from cities that see an economic upswing from these gatherings. This includes events in Ann Arbor, MI, Austin, TX, New York, New and Smyrna, GA, all of which received NEA grants in 2025’s first funding round announced on January 14.
105 Film & Media Arts grants were revealed at that time, and cumulative amounted to $ 2,835,000 in expenses, with the next round that traditionally came in May. Based on NSF’s actions as well as Trump’s resolution of the President’s Committee for Art and Humanities Previously revived by the Biden administration, the Twist encouraged film community to be proactive.
“Attention is the new currency. Use it, “said her e -post. “The more we can share our stories, our impact and our value, over all channels, platforms and stores, we can engage the American people in standing up for their right to access art of all kinds, not just the art that is approved by some. ”
The national talent of art was formed as a congressional act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It serves as the largest financier of art and art education in communities in all of America. Twist estimated that its contributions often give as much as 30% of the budgets for non -profit art organizations, public art agencies and organizations, art programs at colleges and universities, as well as federally recognized tribes or tribes and individual writers and translators, while only while only make up 0.003% of the Federal expenses.
In 1981, President Reagan went on a crusade to abolish Nea, with several plans to break it apart, ranging from an immediate stop to halving its budget. When his special working group for art and the humanities went on this work, but it quickly realized that federal support was crucial to this sector. Ironically, during Reagan, NEA’s budget eventually rose to its highest levels up to that point.
Another effort to abolish the talent led by the then speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s also failed, as well as an attempt made by Donald Trump during his first mandate as president. Trump’s first described budget made in March 2017 completely eliminated funding, but Congress refused to allow this. His budget 2018 also held back expenses for NEA, but Congress retained it for another year. Perhaps possible future initiatives will also be sentenced to fail, but at the moment it is better to be prepared for something.
Read Twist’s entire e -post for the Film Festival Alliance below.
Dear FFA members and film community,
The last few weeks have been filled with rapid change and great tragedy. We at FFA are focused deeply on the independent film community and our member festivals. As part of our advocate work we also trace New executive order And the current administration’s actions to understand how they will affect our film festivals, filmmakers and film workers.
I do not write with the intention of an alarm, only with a word of extreme caution.
With this in mind, I write today with concern about art financing for our sector, and especially in terms of National talent for art (Nea). Back in December, the Film Festival Alliance was worried about the possible break for the payment of funds for our own NEA grant and since we had already had sufficient expenses and collected matching funds, we made the decision to close our contribution early.
I encourage all our member organizations and others with open NEA contributions to close them early if you have achieved reimbursable expenses. For those who are in the middle of a contribution cycle, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with how you may be able to reduce or adapt your range of operations so that your contribution obligations can be fulfilled in the past. NEA has historically enabled contributors to make changes to their projects and scope of activities. You can do this through the grant portal.
Other things to note:
- Remember that your project budget only needs to show the grant amount and the match, ie. Your contribution is $ 25,000, therefore your expenses only need equal $ 50,000.
- For your final report story, I have found that it is very helpful to take our grant application as a template and go through it to give final updates in the same format. For those of you who may not have access to a contributor, I encourage you to consider that method.
- I would also encourage those with grants that extend over several years to consider how you might be able to fulfill your contribution obligations early to close them.
I encourage all of the above for those who have received grants with the start date as late as June 1, 2024. I strongly recommend that you apply as quickly as possible for your final payment. We have seen the speed of the current government and its actions – think about it when working to close these contributions.
Why is the Film Festival Alliance doing this recommendation?
I would encourage you all to Review this science.org Article regarding the veting process that is currently ongoing at NSF. I suspect that the NEA contribution process is running a lot in the same way as NSF, so we should assume that what takes place at NSF can take place at NEA.
For the most updated language issued by the administration, I strongly encourage you to Read through the executive orders here. We should assume that what will appear in these executive orders will be filtered down to grant financing requirements and review processes.
I have no contribution, what can I do about it?
Those without active NEA grants can help in many ways:
- Spread the word. Reach out to organizations that you know have NEA grants and make sure they are aware of the opportunities they have to close their contributions early.
- Reach out to your local, state and federal representatives. Often communicate with them about your organization, the cultural and economic value of your work and the impact on your labor.
- Talk to your community. Engage your members, ticketbuyers and donors in this work. Make sure they understand the cultural and economic value of your work and give them facts and numbers to support it. We encourage you to refer to our economic impact here from previous 2024, together with Americans for art and all state or regional levels produced by tourism or film commission office.
As an indie movie society, we are used to working with limited resources to make huge changes. While we deserve expansive resources for our incredible work, we must take this moment to utilize our unique resilience to collective measures.
Attention is the new currency. Use it. The more we can share our stories, our impact and our value, over all channels, platforms and stores, we can engage the American people in standing up for their right to access art of all kinds, not just the art approved by some.
FFA will soon host a webinar to further discuss this topic – details that are coming.
With hope and strength,
Barbara
