MORNING REPORT - News from July 6, 2000

FILM

Academy Announces Grant Recipients: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced $362,500 in financial grants Wednesday to benefit 32 college and community film programs across the United States. Local groups earning grants include the AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, Visual Communications, Inner City Filmmakers and Aperture. In addition, internships were announced for California Institute of the Arts; Loyola Marymount University; UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; and USC’s School of Cinema-TV and master of professional writing program.

POP/ROCK

Latin Grammy Nods to Be Announced Friday: The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences will announce the nominees for its first Latin Grammy Awards show Friday in Miami. The press conference was scheduled for Los Angeles next Tuesday but switched because most of the stars attending the press conference live in Miami or on the East Coast, said Adam Sandler, a spokesman for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. The award ceremony will be held Sept. 13 at Staples Center in L.A.

THE ARTS

Michelangelo Drawing Sold for Record Price: A Michelangelo drawing that inspired his statue of the risen Christ was sold to a German art dealer Tuesday for a record price of more than $12 million. Katrin Bellinger, who is based in Germany, made the winning bid of $12,378,500, Christie’s auctioneers said. That was more than double the pre-sale estimate. The previous record price for a Michelangelo work was $7.48 million for “Christ and the Woman of Samaria,” which sold in New York in 1998.

American Composer Honored: Columbia University’s School of the Arts has awarded composer Steve Reich the William Schuman Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements. The award, and its accompanying grant of $50,000--one of the largest to an American composer--will be presented to Reich at a special ceremony and concert of his music Sept. 21.

TELEVISION

Heritage Awards Go Prime Time: NBC will air the Hispanic Heritage Awards for the first time as a prime-time network special. The event honors five outstanding Latino Americans in the areas of arts, literature, leadership, education and sports. The one-hour special will air from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9.

QUICK TAKES

A 24-year-old Australian died Wednesday from chest injuries suffered at Copenhagen’s Roskilde Festival, raising the number killed in the crush to nine. . . . The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will choose its winners Feb. 25 next year, a month before the Oscars. The British awards previously followed the Oscars.