World-Renowned Media Arts College Announces New Film Scholarships

ROCKPORT, Maine – Maine Media Workshops + College is pleased to announce more than $12,000 in new scholarships for emerging filmmakers in 2018. A scholarship grant from the Virginia Cabot Wellington Foundation, and the Chris Lehmann Memorial Scholarship, serve as the newest scholarship contributions to the Rockport campus.

The largest portion of scholarship funds will be made available through the Virginia Cabot Wellington Foundation. Under the grant from the Virginia Cabot Wellington Foundation, Maine Media will offer $10,000 in scholarships to filmmakers attending the Certificate in Collaborative Filmmaking or Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree programs. Grants for the certificate program will be accepted through February 5, for the program beginning March 25th. Grants for the MFA degree program must be received by March 1, for the semester that begins in May 2018.

“Our goal is to diversify our programs and enable access to students who show promise and passion for filmmaking, but who might not otherwise be able to attend one of our programs,” said Meg Weston, president of Maine Media Workshops + College.

In addition to the Virginia Cabot Wellington Foundation grant, Maine Media Workshops + College is pleased to announce a memorial scholarship in honor of Emmy Award winning filmmaker, Christopher Lehmann. Lehmann taught at Maine Media Workshops + College for more than seven years, mentoring nearly 200 students from 15 countries across the globe.

“We think it is wonderful to be able to honor Chris in this way,” said Weston. “His passion for the art of filmmaking, and his gift of conveying that passion in his teaching will be remembered as new filmmakers are given this opportunity to study the craft.”

Established by family and friends, the annual memorial scholarship will provide up to $1,500 each year for students interested in learning filmmaking at Maine Media Workshops + College. The Chris Lehmann scholarship can be used as partial tuition assistance for Maine Media’s 4-week film school, a beginning-to-end course in the basics of film and video production. Alternatively, the scholarship may also be applied to the tuition for any one-week filmmaking workshop.

Maine Media’s filmmaking program is known around the world for its hands-on teaching style that gets students working with top-tier gear and industry-leading professionals. Maine Media faculty are great cinematographers, directors, editors, or screenwriters who take time out from working in their field to share their knowledge with students from around the world seeking to be inspired in their artistic vision and hone their craft. Alumni of the workshops are working on films for Netflix, HBO, independent films, and documentaries.

Former students include Mexican director Alejandro González Inñáritu, winner of 2015 Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (Birdman), and the 2016 Oscar for Best Director (The Revenant), Laura Poitras, winner of the 2015 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature (Citizen Four), and Rodrigo Prieto, the acclaimed Mexican cinematographer of Brokeback Mountain, Babel, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

For more information and how to apply for Maine Media Workshops + College film scholarships, please visit https://www.mainemedia.edu/workshops/scholarships/film/.

About Maine Media Workshops + College:
Operating for over 40 years in Rockport, Maine, the school offers workshops, certificate programs, and an MFA degree in the media arts of photography, filmmaking, multimedia, book arts & design, and writing. The low-residency MFA program at Maine Media College was ranked by US News & World Report as one of the top 70 fine art graduate schools in the country. Students come from over 40 countries around to world, to learn the art and craft of storytelling, taught by accomplished artists and professionals in their field. Maine Media Workshops + College is a nonprofit 501(c )3 organization.