Mumbai: Yuvaa, India’s first Gen Z-driven youth media, insights and impact organisation, has partnered with international software giant Adobe, as well as the Adobe Foundation, to support and empower underrepresented stories and storytellers from India, as part of the first-ever Adobe Film & TV Fund of $6 million.
The only South Asian organisation in the cohort, Yuvaa joins some of the world’s most renowned nonprofit and impact organisations like NAACP, The Sundance Institute, Easterseals, Gold House and The Latinx House, to drive greater representation in the film industry by providing resources, community and support to underrepresented creators on-screen and behind the camera, with funding for short and feature films.
The Adobe Film & TV Fund aims to address the inequity in funding, career and training opportunities across multiple communities in the industry with grants, contributions, and fellowships. In the first year of the Fund, Adobe and the Adobe Foundation committed to $6 million in grants, contributions, 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, and ultimately increasing inclusion in film and TV series, that reach millions worldwide.
The Film & TV Fund Adobe builds on its long-standing collaboration with the Sundance Institute and the continued support and momentum the company has achieved for inclusivity, access, opportunity and creativity for all. The announcement was made at the ongoing 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Adobe VP marketing strategy and communications and member of the Adobe Foundation board Stacy Martinet said, “Diversity in front of and behind the camera is key to unlocking more diverse and more inclusive storytelling across TV and film. Through our new Film & TV Fund, Adobe is looking to leverage its leadership position in the creative industry to unlock new opportunities for underrepresented creators.”
Yuvaa co-founder and chief Nikhil Taneja, “Over the last 5 years, Yuvaa has worked with several marginalized communities, including women and the LGBTQIA+ community in India, to leverage the power of storytelling and the internet, to co-create stories that must be heard and that must be told. With an incredible partner like Adobe, who are committed to creating meaningful opportunities for representation, we are looking to scale our impact with long-form storytelling, so we can, at once, collaborate with an eclectic mix of talent and creatives from diverse backgrounds, and work towards telling a story that deeply matters to us as individuals, and us as a society."