Recently Netflix held its first Creative Asia Forum in collaboration with the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The forum was attended by 120 filmmakers from across the Asia-Pacific (APAC). The forum was held regarding Netflix’s endeavours to enhance the Creative Equity in their platform.
Minyoung Kim, the VP of APAC Content, updated Netflix’s decision of allocation of funds for Creative-Equity in their space. The platform had allocated a fund of $100 millions to the field of Creative Equity to be used across a period of five years to ensure better opportunities and increased participation for underrepresented communities in entertainment. They have so far spent about $41 millions on 200 programs. 13000 participants in more than 50 countries were part of these programs. Netflix even got about 450 people off these to work on the platform’s further projects in different roles.
The platform has also partnered with many local film festivals like the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festivals this year to run programs and search for talents in these regions. The Asian belt has received quite a boost with this endeavor leading to the rise of some of the most famous titles like Squid Game and All Of Us Are Dead.
This investment in the APAC contents has already has and will in future help Netflix in getting interesting and intriguing programs from these regions. The programs will have a uniqueness in terms of their plots, elements, cultural representations etc. Also, this will help Netflix gather a great number of people who are really talented but they have not yet been discovered by bigger studios.
The makers and creators too will benefit from it. They will get a global recognition for their works; Squid Game currently is not only one of the most popular Korean series, but also one of the most popular series in the entire world. Also, the creators’ chance in coming into mainstream cinema will increase. This will ensure better global representation of these underrepresented artists.