The HFPA delegation at the Cannes Film Festival is comprised this year of nineteen journalists who will screen the films of this 70^th anniversary edition. The Hollywood Foreign Press has also been collecting celebrity tributes to the world’s preeminent festival as it marks the seven-decade milestone. And like last year the HFPA is sponsoring a charity gala on the Croisette on Sunday, May 21. 

Aside from the annual grants awarded through the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Charitable Trust which provides financial support for educational and cultural non-profit organizations whose primary focus is the entertainment industry, our association also assigns one annual grant to a charitable organization benefitting humanitarian causes.

Last year the HFPA hosted a cocktail party at the Carlton Hotel’s Nikki Beach to benefit and honor FilmAid International. During the evening HFPA Lorenzo Soria, announced a $100,000 donation to that organization, which provides film screenings to refugees around the world. FilmAid uses the power of film and media to transcend language and literacy, bringing life-saving information, psychological relief and much-needed hope to refugees and other communities in need around the globe.

This year the grant will benefit the International Rescue Committee and the HFPA will once again host a reception to honor the organization founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein. Though more than eighty years have passed, sadly the need today is as urgent as ever for the services of the IRC which delivers lifesaving care to people fleeing conflict and natural disaster.

As the worldwide refugee crisis grows more dramatic every day, the HFPA salutes the critical work done by IRC volunteers worldwide.