The Daily Tell

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced more than $1.5 million in grants for 41 film schools and other nonprofits.

The grants – which total $1,541,000 – were announced during the association’s annual Installation Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The grants were announced by HFPA president Phillip Berk, with help from Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker. The star-studded event included acceptance speeches by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Sorkin, Ryan Phillippe and Matthew Fox, among others, speaking on behalf on organizations including American Cinemathetique, The Film Foundation, Higher Education Fellowships & Institutional Support Grants and FilmAid International.

Among the 12 schools receiving grants, the University of California at Los Angeles received a $110,000 fellowship, New York University received a $36,000 fellowship and Chapman University received a $7,500 fellowship.

Many other nonprofit organizations – such as the Tribeca Film Institute, the Sundance Film Institute, Inner City Filmmakers, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Media Arts Center – will also receive grants.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association was founded in 1944, consisting originally of a small corps of overseas journalists seeking to bridge Hollywood to the international community and to provide some relief from the hardships of World War II through film. Today, the organization hosts the Golden Globes, the third most-watched awards program on television.

The 2010 grants represent a new philanthrophic record for the HFPA, which donated $1.2 million in 2009. The charitable amount donated by the organization over the last 15 years now totals nearly $12 million.