Netflix and nonprofit organization Ghetto Film School (GFS) announced ten finalists chosen for its year-long nonfiction and directing fellowship.
The selected fellows will be placed on unscripted and documentary series in production at Netflix while participating in networking opportunities provided by the program.
The ten fellows are Ashley O’Shay, Eloise King, Eric Seals, Maya Cueva, Mohamed Siam, Neha Shastry, Omar Aldakheel, Pia Borg, Tedra Wilson and Xin Li.
Netflix’s unscripted and documentary series team, which has produced popular shows such as “Chef’s Table,” “Love Is Blind” and “High on the Hog,” created the curriculum for the fellowship. Fellows will work with showrunners and directors on both new and established Netflix series, gaining essential mentorship and practical experience. In addition, select fellows will have the chance to attend master classes and meet-and-greets with high-ranking executives throughout the industry.
“We are so grateful to have an incredible partner like Netflix,” said Sharese Bullock Bailey, chief strategy and partnerships officer and principal of GFS Scope. “Providing young, diverse creatives with a fellowship of this stature is beyond rewarding and we know they’ll find nothing but success. It is an impressive accomplishment to be accepted into this program, and each fellow should be proud. We look forward to watching as the many projects they work on come to life.”
“As we seek to tell nonfiction stories about the diversity of the human experience, we also understand that diversity should be reflected on both sides of the camera. We hope this program will go a long way to fostering some of that talent and GFS was the perfect partner for this initiative,” said Jamila Farwell, director of Netflix documentary series. “We could not be more excited about this cohort of incredibly talented filmmakers and how they’ll contribute to the space of nonfiction filmmaking.”
“The fellowship is part of the recently announced Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, where Netflix will invest USD $100 million dollars over the next five years in a combination of external organizations with a strong track record of setting underrepresented communities up for success in the TV and film industries, as well as bespoke Netflix programs that will help us to identify, train and provide job placement for up-and-coming talent globally,” said Tiffany Burrell-Lewis, director of creative talent development.
For more information on the Netflix Nonfiction and Directing Fellowship, visit http://www.gfsnonfictionfellowship.org.