APRIL 26th, 2024
OAKFIELD, NY

GO ART! Presented their annual statewide community regrant program awards ceremony for Genesee County recipients on Friday April 26th, 2024 at The Goose Community Center on Route 63 in Oakfield, NY.
Beauty View Ranch was one of the recipients of the State-sponsored award for the short film entitled "Kitty".

Kitty is the work of locally born and raised film producer and writer James DiLullo, and represents his directorial debut. Kitty tells the story of a child taking their turn at looking after a class pet, or more importantly, how that can go wrong. Filming is slated to begin in Batavia in Mid-June, with filming wrapping by the Fourth of July weekend.

"We are excited to reinvest every dollar of this grant back into Genesee County artists," said Writer and Director James DiLullo in accepting the award. He continued, "It is quite an honor to be included among such local cultural institutions that form many of my childhood memories."

Kitty is produced by Beauty View Ranch and Southern Tier Studios, both companies created by DiLullo, the graduate of both Batavia High School and SUNY Brockport. 

Included among the recipients of this year's award were the Genesee Symphony Orchestra, Batavia Players, and the B.I.D for their concert series in Jackson Square in Batavia; as well as several organizations representing the communities of Oakfield, LeRoy, Bergen, and Elba.

Individual Artist Award recipient Andy Rich had this to say about the program, "GO ART! is a fantastic organization that exists and operates because of the hard work of those running the day-to-day operations. They touch many lives and I wish more people knew about and supported what they do there."

The Statewide Community Regrant Program, of which Kitty is made possible by, is a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and is administered locally in Genesee and Orleans counties by GO ART!. 

The selection process is transparent and the application simple, but takes place during certain times of year.  An interesting fact emerged from this year's ceremony: Genesee County received the second-most dollars in the state, trailing only Manhattan.

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www.kitty-film.com