Warner Bros. will launch its Emerging Film Directors Workshop — a talent incubator designed to give access and voice to new and underrepresented talent — later this year, the studio announced Thursday.
The Emerging Film Directors Workshop will provide aspiring, underrepresented directors the ultimate opportunity to showcase their work to the film community after a nine-month intensive fellowship at Warner Bros. Participants will be partnered with a Warner Bros. executive mentor as they work through the entire film production process, from pitch to final cut and premiere.
The inaugural class will have five filmmakers and registration is open to all applicants. Applications will be accepted starting in Q2 2016, with the workshop’s first participants being announced before the end of Q3.
“Our Emerging Film Directors Workshop continues Warner Bros.’ commitment to being the industry’s most talent-focused studio,” said Greg Silverman, president of creative development and worldwide production at Warner Bros. Pictures. “There are so many bright, creative individuals at the threshold, who just need access to bring their vision and voice to a bigger audience. By providing that access, as well as a professional network and funding for a short film, Warner Bros. will play a small part in developing the next generation of great storytellers, whether they work in film or television, at our studio or elsewhere.”
Designed to recreate the feature production process on a micro level, the workshop will have participants pitch, write, or work with a screenwriter, and develop a script for a short film (3- 10 minutes). Once they have a final script, filmmakers will work with physical production to prep, create a budget, cast, shoot on the lot and edit with a full post-production process. Warner Bros. will cover all production costs and salary for filmmakers for the duration of the workshop.
The workshop will culminate in a film festival showcasing the directors’ work that will be held for agents, managers, producers and film executives from across the industry. More information on the program and the application process can be found here.
Warner Bros. also sponsors the Warner Bros. Television Workshop, which features both a Television Writers’ Workshop and a Television Directors’ Workshop. More information on these programs is available here.
In the U.K., the studio offers Warner Bros. Creative Talent, a program to find and support the next generation of U.K. creative industries’ talent through a wide variety of opportunities to study, train and gain invaluable experience and insight across the entertainment industry. More information on WB Creative Talent can be found here.
Warner Bros. is also an ongoing sponsor of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and its New Writers Fellowship.