On Monday evening, we attended Amazon Studios celebration of Latino heritage and culture.
Where they announce their Latino community initiatives, and partnerships with the Latino Film Institute and LA Collab. Which will help redefine the Hollywood pipeline.
“After two decades of building the pipeline from our community into Hollywood, we are excited that Amazon Studios is supporting our work with the Youth Cinema Project. Only together will we be able to create Hollywood’s multicultural future,” said LFI founder Edward James Olmos
The studio has joined forces with Edward James Olmos’ Latino Film Institute and is the exclusive sponsor of its Youth Cinema Project (YCP) Alumni Program for the 2022-2023 school year. YCP’s Alumni program connects over 300 program graduates from low income, under-resourced public schools to hands-on access and learning opportunities across the industry, including mentoring and assistance with college applications.
L-r: Gloria Calderon Kellett, Edward James Olmos, YCP Executive Director Erika Sabel Flores,
and Global Head of DEIA for Amazon Studios Latasha Gillespie
(Photo by Jc Olivera/Amazon Studios)
LA Collab Co-Founder Ivette Rodríguez, Latasha Gillespie, LA Collab Co-Founder Beatriz Acevedo
(Photo by Jc Olivera/Amazon Studios)
Amazon Studios is also funding the inaugural YCP Fellowship, which will provide 15 college bound students with resources to make a high-quality short film as a team to strengthen their film school applications and scholarship opportunities. The film will then screen at The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) in 2023.
LFI Founder Edward James Olmos, Global Head of DEIA for Amazon Studios, Freevee and IMDb Latasha Gillespie
(Photo AMOS Art 2022)
Amazon Studios is also continuing its support of local non-profit LA Collab to build the entertainment vertical of LTX Match platform from the ground up. The smart tech platform will use technology to match Latino talent at scale with jobs, mentorship, boards, capital, and community, at all levels of the Hollywood ecosystem, helping to address the all-too-common statement “we can’t find Latinos to work in entertainment.”
“It is time to put the incredible tech innovation that exists today to help fix the brokenbridge between Hollywood and our Latino creative community not finding each other, with LTX Match, we aim to connect our community with access to make sure we have equal opportunity to thrive in Hollywood,” said Beatriz Acevedo, Co-founder of LA Collab.
L-r: Edward James Olmos, Se Fija!’s Angela Ortiz and Martin Alfalan
The event also featured a conversation between showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett (Amazon’s With Love), Director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at UCLA, author of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report and LFI board member Dr. Ana Christina-Ramón, and Amazon Studios Sr. Executive Lorenza Muñoz as well as performances from rising Chicana songstress Doris Anahi and Latin electronica project Jguero.
We met some young amazing filmmakers and everything looks and sounds promising. And it was great to see many old friends and acquaintances.
— A.O.
