Focus Features

Point Foundation, the nation's largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students of merit, is set to honor Focus Features at this year's Point Honors New York gala on April 16, 2012. Accepting the Point Inspiration Award will be Focus Features CEO James Schamus and President Andrew Karpen.

"The ethos of Focus Features and its films - celebrating diverse experiences, questioning the norm, promoting intellectual curiosity and creative expression - are the same qualities we encourage in our Point Scholars," said Jorge Valencia, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Point Foundation. "Films like MILK and PARIAH speak to the values of diversity and empowerment Focus shares with Point and the LGBT community. It is so important that young people have an opportunity to watch films like these, where maybe they can for the first time find representations of themselves on the screen, and come away awed and inspired."

Focus Featurs has made and distributed such ground breaking work as Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and Gus Van Sant's MILK, as well as recently releasing such powerful LGBT-themed words as Lisa Cholodenko's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, Mike Mills' BEGINNERS (with Christopher Plummer being Oscar-nominated for playing a dad who comes out later in life), and Dee Rees' PARIAH. Other great LGBT-themed Focus films include Todd Haynes' FAR FROM HEAVEN, François Ozon's 8 WOMEN, and Pawel Pawlikowski's MY SUMMER OF LOVE. And FOCUS WORLD has James Franco's THE BROKEN TOWER available for digital distribution. Prior to co-founding Focus, CEO James Schamus was involved in a number of groundbreaking LGBT films, as Executive Producer of Todd Haynes's Poison and Tom Kalin's Swoon; and as Producer and co-screenwriter of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet.

For complete info, see our press release.