Inevitable Foundation Announces Visionary Fellowship for Disabled Filmmakers
Picture of three white people, behind a large camera during shoot, all wearing face masks.
Courtesy of Ashley Eakin.
Inevitable Foundation, a non-profit organization that invests in disabled writers and filmmakers, is doubling down on their mission with the launch of their newest groundbreaking program, the Visionary Fellowship for disabled filmmakers. The program is supported exclusively by Netflix's Fund for Creative Equity.
Inevitable Foundation’s Visionary Fellowship is a year-long program that invests in disabled filmmakers with the funding, mentorship and community they need to make a short film and leverage it into their debut feature. The program is uniquely designed to cover the transition between making a short and preparing and packaging a debut feature, ensuring they have ample support to connect the dots between the two.
The Fellowship includes $55,000 in funding for each Fellow, including a production grant to produce their short film with an experienced crew, an unrestricted grant to support the Fellow over the course of the program, as well as access to health insurance, marketing support, and funds for travel and access needs. The Fellowship also includes mentorship and workshops from industry leaders, unique opportunities to collaborate with other filmmakers on-set, community building within the Fellowship cohort, and an industry-focused short film showcase that will include creative executives, agents, and managers.
Disabled filmmakers have historically been undervalued by the entertainment industry, and this program aims to reverse that trend by providing significant resources to promising and highly-resourceful disabled writer/directors.
“We are thrilled to launch the Visionary Fellowship for disabled filmmakers,” said Inevitable Foundation co-founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska. “This investment in disabled writer-directors represents a powerful expansion in our pipeline of support for disabled creatives, and speaks to the core of our mission: helping disabled creatives reach positions of industry power. Netflix’s commitment across our programming—the largest from any studio to date—is a resounding endorsement of our barrier-breaking approach to fostering the next generation of disabled creators.”
The Visionary Fellowship is supported by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, a dedicated effort to help train creatives for job opportunities on Netflix productions and set talent up for success in entertainment. Since its launch in 2021, Netflix has partnered with over 80 organizations in more than 35 countries.
Applications for the program are open now and will close on July 31st. Fellows will be selected in Fall 2024 and the program will conclude with an industry showcase of Fellows’ short films in 2025. Prospective applicants for the Fellowship are encouraged to learn more and apply at inevitable.foundation/visionary.
About Inevitable Foundation
Inevitable Foundation is a non-profit that invests in disabled writers and filmmakers so they can achieve artistic and financial freedom and use film and television to destigmatize disability and mental health globally.
Disabled people make up 20%+ of the population but represent less than 1% of writers behind the screen. The access, relationship and opportunity barriers holding the community back—for example, it’s 2x more likely for a disabled person to be unemployed and live in poverty—need to be broken down.
Our signature programs support disabled creatives with the job placement, professional development, funding, networking and mentorship they need to build thriving careers in the entertainment industry. Learn more about our work at https://inevitable.foundation.
