The award was established in honor of the organization’s founder Ruth Batchelor to encourage and support aspiring film critics. Thanks to the generous backing of Rotten Tomatoes, LAFCA is presenting two scholarships: one to a woman and another to a person from an underrepresented group or groups.
Samantha Doyle-Jacobson is a student at Long Beach City College, where she is a member of the LBCC Film Club. Her only passion second to film is the study of foreign languages, especially Russian and Japanese, which has given her a special interest in international films. Writing about film gives her the opportunity to watch her deepest thoughts and feelings about cinema take shape on the paper to become its own form of art. She strongly believes that a film critic is, in a sense, an artist, and just like we need diversity in the field of art, we need diversity in the field of art criticism.
Elizabeth Sainz is a first-generation Mexican American living in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles who is currently double-majoring in Film Production and Film Studies at Santa Monica College. Moving forward she plans to grow her experience in film criticism and add that to film production, whether in cinematography, editing, screenwriting or directing. She hopes to write articles and make movies about the lives and experiences of immigrant children in the United States so that they too can see role models just like them and know that creative/artistic futures are not fantasies to dream about but realities to live.
The scholarships include $3,000 awards, plus Fandango and FandangoNOW gift cards.
