The Los Angeles Film Critics Association congratulates Hakim Muhammad and Arpa Vardanian as the 2024 recipients of the LAFCA Ruth Batchelor Scholarship, supported by Rotten Tomatoes.

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.

Hakim Muhammad is a student of French and German languages at Pasadena City College. His interest in French and German studies was inspired by the want to better understand the cinema of these cultures that impacted him from an early age. Through subsequent exposure to post-war film theorists and directors of France, early German cinematic philosophy, and film history as a whole, he has developed a strong respect for the juncture where cinematic art and cinema criticism meet, understanding the importance of their relation in how we have come to know film. He believes the dignity of all three—film, film criticism, and a community of movie lovers—is vitally interrelated. As a lover of cinema and aspiring critic/filmmaker, he hopes to add to this interrelation.

Arpa Vardanian is a California State University, Northridge, Media Theory and Criticism student, transferred from College of the Canyons. Her interest in film bloomed into a passion after watching Stanley Donen’s Indiscreet and later her fascination with film criticism began to feel like a conversation in which she could contribute after discovering the works of Molly Haskell. Her hope is to use the eye of a critic to highlight often overlooked elements of film history and advocate for the preservation of film, especially those made and starring women and people from underrepresented backgrounds.

Muhammad and Vardanian will receive their $3,000 awards, plus Fandango gift cards, at the LAFCA awards ceremony on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at The Biltmore Los Angeles.