Control over the long-range orientation of liquid crystals (LCs) has been achieved by embedding LCs into porous thin films with engineered microstructures. Glancing angle deposition was used to fabricate these porous thin films (see Figure), and results are summarized here that show how the films act as alignment or "backbone" structures for the LCs, inducing orientation of non-chiral nematic LCs in chiral nematic-like phases.