ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996                  TAG: 9604010067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE\

STATE FILM FESTIVAL TO BE CUT BACK

The Virginia Festival of American Film will be scaled back because of budget woes.

Renamed the Virginia Film Festival, the annual event at the University of Virginia will run for three days instead of four, and its budget will be cut by more than half, from about a half-million dollars to under $200,000, said Richard Herskowitz, director of programming. The number of events will drop from 55 to about 30, organizers said.

Run every October by the university's Division of Continuing Education, the festival has gained national recognition. Using seed money provided by Patricia Kluge and John Kluge plus state funds, the first film festival took place in 1988.

State funding ended in the wake of Virginia's 1990 fiscal problems, but corporations and the university helped pick up the slack.

- Associated Press

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