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There are some upsides to living in a newnormal world. The world becomes smaller and in our home silos, we find access to global events such as this recent one in New York City from my mother’s sitting room in Sydney.

America’s story cannot be told until all Americans can tell it, shares Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO, Charlie Rivkin as he opens the New York Multicultural Creativity Summit on 17 November 2020.

MPA’s John Gibson asks the panel about how they find diverse directors and writers for their individual programs

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Brett King VP of Creative Programmning, Diversity & Inclusion at Sony Pictures Entertainment shares that they get about 300 submissions from directors from their call-for-entry put out usually in August. As for writers, they go through agents and ask them to nominate 15 writers they feel are ready for the next step.

Emerlynn Lampitoc of Global Talent & Inclusion at the NBC Universal runs writing programs and directors’ initiatives. Following a 5-year span of research, they found that only 5% of composers were women but no data on composers of colour. A composer’s initiative was then launched in 2018 and it was extended across the group. As a result, these new composers have scored features films, shorts, commercials and more – a way how NBCUniversal pushes the neeedle.

Jeanne Mau from the Office of Global Inclusion at ViacomCBS looks to grow pipelines to allow access to men and women of colour in the business. “We teach them everything about the business… mentorship, we want them to work even if it’s not with us,”. The CBS writing program is for emerging writers who’ve never been staffed and we get about 1600 applications per year. At the end of the day it’s about getting them in front of show producers looking to hire. Our director’s program that focuses on those who have not directed for television. It’s a shadowing program, however with COVID, directors are observing and shadowing virtually. The ViewFinder program is for new directors who don’t have the membership of DGA. Reimagining what shadowing looks like, directors are observing and shadowing virtually.

Yvette Urbina, Enterprise Inclusion at WarnerMedia tells about how she’s able to utilise her relationships from the creative world and connecting them with writers and directors. People do want to create diverse spaces, and it’s about giving people access to that space. The consumer is who we serve, and they want an inclusive product, she says.

I hope you have gathered some interesting tips from my notes from this session. I’d like to thank the MPA for hosting the session.

Appreciation of the support shown by MPA Asia-Pacific

Just before Australia closed its borders in March last year, co-producer Nikki Yeo and I were very fortunate to attend the Australian International Documentary Conference held at the State Museum in Melbourne, Australia courtesy of the MPA Asia Pacific. The trip was made possible courtesy of the Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific as a special consolation prize awarded for Kurang Manis (Sugar, Less) – documentary pitch which won the 2019 Script-to-Screen Pitch Competition Workshop in Malaysia. The competition was co-organised by Wildsnapper TV, FINAS and Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific. A full report on the AIDC experience will be published next month.

I found this 26th January 2021 edition of the MPA Asia Pacific newsletter very enlightening. Click here to read.

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About the Motion Picture Association

The MPA represents the six Hollywood Studios. The collaborative workshop above included support from NBCUniversal, Netflix, Sony Pictures Entertainment, ViacomCBS, The Walt Disney Company and WarnerMedia. Find out more about MPA Asia Pacific here: www.mpa-apac.org