Sundance Institute and Gold House Launch First-of-Its-Kind 'One House Filmmakers Fund' With Ten Filmmakers, Made Possible With Funding From the East West Bank Foundation
PARK CITY, Utah, January 4, 2024 (Newswire.com) - The Sundance Institute | One House Filmmakers Fund launches to provide unrestricted financing, educational support, and amplification for filmmakers from historically underrepresented communities and announces the ten filmmakers in the Fund’s inaugural cohort. The Fund is led by Gold House, the leading cultural ecosystem that unites, invests in, and champions Asian Pacific creators and companies to power tomorrow for all, and is made possible by the generous support of the East West Bank Foundation, the charitable arm of East West Bank, furthering their dynamic work within the entertainment industry, supporting storytellers of all backgrounds to create impactful cultural dialogues.
Historically underrepresented in the entertainment industry, multicultural filmmakers continue to face barriers to raising financing for projects. According to UCLA’s 2022 Hollywood Diversity Report, only 1 in 3 directors identifies as BIPOC (despite representing over 42% of the population), and a significantly higher percentage of films directed by those BIPOC directors are likely to have a budget of less than $20 million. However, these reports also consistently show that diversity behind the camera increases the likelihood of diversity in front of the camera, and those films with majority-minority casts majorly outperform counterparts with minimally diverse casts at the box office—clearly demonstrating the demand for more diverse storytelling.
In addition to Gold House, Sundance Institute, and East West Bank Foundation, the One House Filmmakers Fund’s selections were made in collaboration with Latinx House, GLAAD, the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, and RespectAbility, whose executives served on the selection committee. The inaugural cohort of ten filmmakers will receive unrestricted funding, collaborative mentorship with established filmmakers and industry executives; skills training; comprehensive business-building support; and amplification through interactive programming hosted by Gold House and partners throughout the year. The filmmakers and respective projects in development in the 2024 cohort are:
- Arun Bhattarai for Agent of Happiness
- Naveen Chaubal for Pinball
- Marissa Chibás for 1972
- StormMiguel Florez for Welcome To Roswell
- Jalena Keane-Lee for Standing Above the Clouds
- Sura Mallouh for Untitled Sura Mallouh Project
- Walé Oyéjidé for Chiaroscuro
- Otilia Portillo Padua for The Queendom
- Shrihari Sathe for Doha - The Rising Sun
- Julie Forrest Wyman for Untitled Dwarfism Project
“The East West Bank Foundation is proud to be a founding partner of the One House Filmmakers Fund,” said Dominic Ng, Chairman and CEO, East West Bank. “One of our main goals is to support diversity and inclusion in all industries, including entertainment and the arts. Strengthening storytelling by diverse filmmakers is a powerful way to build bridges between communities.” As one of the top-performing banks in the country, East West Bank has been a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, supporting numerous Hollywood ventures, filmmakers, and storytellers of all backgrounds to create impactful cultural dialogues.
“Sundance Institute has been championing artists to tell stories that reflect their lived realities for over 40 years. We are excited for the opportunity to partner with Gold House to provide vital funding to multicultural artists working in fiction and non-fiction to advance their projects and increase representation on and off screen. The ten filmmakers selected for the inaugural year of the One House Filmmaker Fund are important voices working in independent film today, and we are thrilled to be able to continue elevating these voices,” said Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, Director, Sundance Institute Artist Accelerator Program.
“Communities demand that the world we watch reflect the world we live in–on both sides of the camera. We’re thankful for the financial support of East West Bank Foundation and the partnership of our peer-leading multicultural organizations as we invest formidable capital, resources, and platforms to create a first-of-its-kind investment and convening vehicle for the next generation of pioneering multicultural filmmakers. If we’re stronger together, then we’d better start now,” said Christine Yi, General Manager of the Gold House Creative Equity Fund.
The One House Filmmakers Fund is a continuation of Gold House’s mission to empower the Asian Pacific diaspora and multicultural partners to power tomorrow for all. At last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Gold House co-hosted the inaugural pan-AAPI “Sunrise House” with Daniel Dae Kim’s 3AD and TAAF, which included a special Multicultural Evening to celebrate the creativity and solidarity of multicultural communities through a multicultural filmmakers panel, an intimate dinner featuring the first-ever “Multicultural House Toast”, and ending with a spirited multicultural “house party” co-hosted by several organizations including Blackhouse, Illuminative, Latinx House, Macro, and RespectAbility. Other multicultural creative unity, investment, and promotional efforts include the Reimagine Coalition announced at last year’s Golden Globes with the NAACP, IllumiNative, RespectAbility, and more; One House Open that supports the opening successes of multicultural films for further greenlighting and cross-community education such as Just Mercy, In the Heights, Queen and Slim, and Marvel Studios’ Eternals; the One House Leadership Coalition that diversifies corporate Boards and Advisories in partnership with top multicultural funds; and discussive Meta Gold Talks that explore the intricacies of cross-cultural solidarity with experts like Pulitzer Prize Winner Nikole Hannah-Jones and cross-cultural creative leaders like director Jon M. Chu.
To learn more about this year’s grantees, please visit goldhouse.org/OneHouseFilmFund.
ABOUT GOLD HOUSE
Gold House is the leading cultural ecosystem that unites, invests in, and champions Asian Pacific creators and companies to power tomorrow for all. Under a nonprofit umbrella, our innovative family of companies, programs, and platforms include membership systems and events to fortify relationships among the Asian Pacific community and with other marginalized communities (#StopAsianHate); first-of-its kind investment vehicles and accelerators to propel the next generation of top Asian Pacific founders, creatives, and leaders (Gold House Ventures, Creative Equity Fund); and industry-leading research, consulting, and marketing to promote authentic and affirming portrayals (Gold Story Consultation, Gold Open, Gold List, A100 List). To learn more, visit www.goldhouse.org or follow @GoldHouseCo on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, Threads, and LinkedIn.
ABOUT EAST WEST BANK FOUNDATION
The East West Bank Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, and the philanthropic arm of East West Bank. Through collaborative partnerships, the Foundation’s grants strengthen the community by supporting initiatives in affordable housing, small business technical assistance, diversity and anti-discrimination, advocacy, cultural & arts, economic development, and other broad-based causes. In working alongside non-profit partners, the East West Bank Foundation strives to build bridges of opportunity for everyone to reach further.
ABOUT SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me By Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Fruitvale Station, Get Out, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, Honeyland, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, Navalny, O.J.: Made in America, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, RBG, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, The Souvenir, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, Sydney, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Walking and Talking, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of artists such Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.
Source: Gold House
