Ahead of the Sundance Film Festival, Adobe and the Adobe Foundation have announced the creation of a Film & TV fund, committing $6 million to support underrepresented creators on-screen and behind the camera.
The inaugural fund aims to address the inequity in funding and career and training opportunities in the entertainment industry via grants, contributions, fellowships and Adobe Creative Cloud product donations with the goal of “tracking inclusion in the industry and directly accelerating the careers of thousands of global creators.”
“Diversity in front of and behind the camera is key to unlocking more diverse and more inclusive storytelling across TV and film,” said Stacy Martinet, VP Marketing Strategy and Communications, Adobe, and a member of the Adobe Foundation board, in a statement announcing the new fund. She added that Adobe is “looking to leverage its leadership position in the creative industry to unlock new opportunities for underrepresented creators.”
Adobe and the Adobe Foundation will partner with a cohort of global organizations that are committed to empowering underrepresented communities, including Easterseals, Gold House, Latinx House, Sundance Institute and Yuvaa, funding fellowships and apprenticeships that offer direct, hands-on industry access. The grants will also enable organizations to directly support filmmakers in their communities with funding for short and feature films.
The first fellowship is a collaboration with the NAACP, designed to increase representation in post-production. The NAACP Editing Fellowship is a 14-week program focused on education and training, career growth and workplace experience and will include access to Adobe Creative Cloud to further set up emerging creators with the necessary tools. Applications open on Jan. 18, with four fellows selected to participate in the program starting in May.
“Equity matters, and it is incumbent upon those of us who sit in positions of power and authority to help identify solutions to advance diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the lens,” said Kyle Bowser, senior VP of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau. “It’s an honor to work with a like-minded partner in Adobe, who shows up at the table with ideas and resources that make a tangible impact.”
The creation of the Adobe Film & TV Fund builds on the company’s long-standing collaboration with the Sundance Institute, which formalized in 2015 with the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship — a year-round artist development program inspiring creativity and supporting emerging filmmakers ages 18 to 25, supporting more than 100 fellows to date. In 2020, the Sundance Women to Watch x Adobe Fellowship was introduced as another year-round program supporting female artists in film and media.
The Adobe Foundation also partnered with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to establish The Inclusion List, which measures representation in film and television, and supports the USC School of Dramatic Arts MFA Acting Program, with a $250K grant to aid the production of short films for underrepresented students.
