Adobe opens doors to creative careers for diverse and underrepresented creators with new UK Film & TV Fund

The entertainment industry, through films and television shows, reaches millions of people across the country every day. However, despite the increasing volume and variety of content available, there are still audiences that don’t feel represented in what they see on-screen.

In January, we launched our first-ever Adobe Film & TV Fund across the Americas and India to help address the inequity in funding and career and training opportunities that exist today across the entertainment industry. Adobe and the Adobe Foundation have committed $6 million in global grants, contributions, and donated product in the first year of the fund. We have partnered with global organisations – including Easterseals, Gold House, Latinx House, NAACP, Sundance Institute and Yuvaa – that share our commitment to empowering underrepresented communities and are working together to provide fellowships and apprenticeships that offer direct, hands-on industry access to those that may not otherwise consider careers in this field.

We are proud to announce that we are now extending the Adobe Film & TV Fund to the UK to provide more of those opportunities and to widen industry access for diverse and low-income communities.

Mapping routes to a more representative industry

As part of the new Adobe Film & TV Fund, the Adobe Foundation will collaborate with ScreenSkills – the industry-led skills body for the screen industries – to support and help fund programmes that empower underrepresented communities. Over the course of the partnership, the Adobe Foundation and ScreenSkills will directly engage over 350 people from communities that have traditionally found it challenging to either consider a career in the screen industries, or to progress their careers.

The programmes include:

• First Break – a social mobility programme that helps to demystify the TV industry and create career pathways for people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds – giving them initial tools, knowledge and taster experiences of working in the industry.
• Dream Big! – a training programme delivered in partnership with ThinkBigger, which provides practical training in production, industry masterclasses and mentoring for underrepresented groups and entry level trainees in children’s TV, helping candidates develop the professional and personal skills needed to succeed.
• Film Forward – the launch of a new pilot programme designed specifically to support film professionals who have declared a disability. Film Forward will match people in the film industry with five years or more experience with paid production placements and provide them with career coaching and bursaries to support them to step-up to a more senior role.
• ScreenSkills and The Adobe Foundation Present podcast series – a series of five podcast episodes, featuring members of industry, as well as funding beneficiaries discussing the importance of, and challenges to increasing diversity and inclusion in the screen industries.
• Film Skills Fund @25 – a one-day, free-to-attend conference to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Film Skills Fund, focused on promoting the benefits of diversity and inclusion in film and TV. The impact of this event will be extended with a series of visits to schools identified by the UK Government as needing to hear about creative industry careers.
• Adobe Foundation Bursaries – a number of bursaries will be offered to women from minority ethnic groups, whom research has shown find it particularly challenging to progress their careers in the sector, to provide coaching to develop their careers.

Hear more from Laura Mansfield, CEO of ScreenSkills:

Why is it so important that the creative and screen industries do more to be diverse and inclusive?

By encouraging people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and communities to follow a career in the creative and screen industries, we can help ensure a rich and broad range of views and experiences which can help make films, tv and games content a better reflection of the world we live in. But it's not just about the content we watch, a diverse and inclusive workforce helps us all to see the world from multiple perspectives and enables us to learn from, as well as respect and value the contribution of others, challenging our own and other peoples’ potential preconceptions.

What are the biggest barriers minority groups face when either entering and/or progressing in the industry and how can they be better supported?

I think there are multiple challenges for people from minority groups, both when entering the industry; and aiming to progress into more senior roles. The statistics play that out. They may be battling against unspoken bias; they may feel they have to mask to fit in and not necessarily have mentors and role models in their own organisation. And in a way, it's progression that is harder as you're pushing against some embedded, unspoken behaviours. So that's where we as an organisation are working and partnering with others to give the support we can.

But support is not just one action or intervention, we're working in an ecology. Well-designed industry-led mentoring, training, and career development programmes can really make a difference.

It’s important to listen and be responsive - not only thinking about what additional support people might need but also recognise what they can contribute to make the sector even stronger and more creative. And while training and development is something in my wheelhouse, as I said it's part of a picture and this is not about labelling one group as needing 'to be trained', it's about adding additional firepower, skills and leverage to individuals and groups who are not necessarily accessing the seats at the table or the senior roles we need them to access to make longer term change across the creative industries.

Specific training, development, mentoring, and coaching are also important to ensure that support continues as people gain experience and build leadership skills. And finally, we need to challenge some of the informal hiring practices in the industry that create closed networks and strive to ensure that there is a supportive network of peers right across the industry and at different levels – not only to provide support but so that ultimately people from minority groups stop being viewed – and treated - as being from a minority group.

How will the support from the Adobe Foundation support your mission forward, as well as drive impact with underrepresented communities?

The programmes that the Adobe Foundation supports will not only create specific training and development opportunities for people from underrepresented communities across the UK, but also contribute to the ongoing debate about why inclusion is so important for this industry and help ensure a range of voices are heard.

The valuable support of the Foundation will enable ScreenSkills and the Skills Funds to extend some of our most successful programmes that target underrepresented groups and extend the breadth of what we currently offer.

Ongoing efforts to shape the next generation of storytelling

Today, funding and opportunities for diverse roles in the entertainment industry are few and far between, and often leave gaps in representation across communities. The introduction of the Film & TV Fund is just one of the many ways Adobe and the Adobe Foundation are helping to close these gaps, breaking down the historic barriers to entering and remaining in the industry, as well as putting in place the structures that deliver career opportunities and advancements, empowering creators everywhere.

The launch and extension of the Adobe Film & TV Fund builds on Adobe’s commitment to creating greater inclusivity, access, opportunity, and Creativity for All mission. Our ongoing efforts towards creating a more inclusive and diverse entertainment industry, have involved a long-standing partnership with The Sundance Institute and more recently inspired the Adobe Foundation to also get behind ‘The Inclusion List’ — a new research-led effort with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the support of the USC School of Dramatic Arts MFA Acting Program, to directly support the production of short films for underrepresented students.

Through its grant making to organisations and nonprofits worldwide, the Adobe Foundation aims to create a world where more people, regardless of background, can be creative and share their stories.