Hot off the heels of a winning night at the Emmy’s where FX’s “The Bear,” cut on Adobe Premiere, added to its already robust award count (including Outstanding Picture Editing), Adobe continues to march confidently through awards and festival season with two new highlights: The first-ever Adobe Film and TV Fund, and, Adobe Premiere Pro’s adoption by 57% of the films in this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Adobe’s investment in diverse filmmakers and creators feels especially poignant given the 2023 “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair?” report from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “The number or percentage of underrepresented directors has not changed,” the report concludes. “2023 (22.4%) was no different than 2022 (20.7%) in hiring practices. There has been no real meaningful increase since 2016, when 13.3% of helmers were not White. The pledges to support inclusion post George Floyd’s murder and #StopAsianHate were performative acts by the entertainment industry and not real steps towards fostering change,” the report shares.

It is amongst this reflection and clear need that the Adobe Film & TV Fund aims to support creators and filmmakers through an initial $6 million commitment. This international program will support recipients through a variety of institutions including the NAACP, which will soon kick off a 14-week editing fellowship program and applications are due January 18th. Additional supported organizations include Easterseals, Gold House, The Latinx House, Yuvaa, and the Sundance Institute. 

As noted in Adobe’s press release about the fund, “Diversity in front of and behind the camera is key to unlocking more diverse and more inclusive storytelling across TV and film,” said Stacy Martinet, VP Marketing Strategy and Communications, Adobe and member of the Adobe Foundation board. “Through our new Film & TV Fund, Adobe is looking to leverage its leadership position in the creative industry to unlock new opportunities for underrepresented creators.”

Speaking of Sundance, we are 48-hours away from the Sundance Film Festival, a celebration of film high in the mountains of Park City. And Adobe has a celebration of their own:  57% of this year’s films at the Sundance Film Festival were edited with Adobe Premiere Pro. 68% of this year’s films used either Premiere Pro or Frame.io. 83% of the films at this year’s festival used an Adobe product in some capacity (including Photoshop, After Effects, etc). Frame.io’s Camera to Cloud feature was demoed live at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and facilitated videographer and video editor workflows on the ground as teams filmed and covered the festival. 

Adobe will be on the ground (er, I guess up high in the mountains?) at Sundance with Adobe on Main. More information about their Sundance events and recent updates to Premiere Pro can be found at the Adobe Blog.