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When California State University Northridge’s head of film production Nate Thomas came to visit one of his first students, Paul Hunter, on the set of the new David Oyelowo-starring Apple TV Plus series “Government Cheese,” the Northridge alum and show co-creator could be heard boasting about his time in the program.

After learning to tell stories at Csun, Hunter spun a renowned career directing music videos for Beyonce and U2, among others, into helming Bacardi spots with Michael B. Jordan and Cannes Golden Lion-winning campaigns for Nike. Much of that has been through PrettyBird, a Hollywood commercial house he co-founded and uses in part to help foster and launch the careers of other underrepresented voices. “It all started at Northridge,” Thomas says. “We do filmmaking not just for the privileged. We make it for all people who have a story to tell.”

Since 2016, the Hispanic-serving institution’s film...

American Film Institute alum Melina Matsoukas will deliver the keynote address at the AFI Directing Workshop for Women Showcase for the Class of 2024. The showcase will be held on April 10 at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

The Directing Workshop for Women Program helps to educates traditionally underrepresented filmmakers through the production cycle of a short film, providing hands-on instruction led by industry experts. Launched in 1974, the tuition-free program provides women with the opportunity to further their careers in the entertainment industry.

The showcase provides an opportunity for the graduating cohort to premiere their short films to an audience of agency and studio representatives, as well as other artists from the creative community.

Matsoukas is a filmmaker who made her feature directorial debut at the 2019 AFI Fest 2019 with “Queen & Slim,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, which she also produced. Matsoukas began her television career as an...

The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the participants list for the Dww+ Class of 2024.

IndieWire exclusively reveals that the latest cast comprises Vanessa Beletic, Chloë de Carvalho, Desdemona Chiang, Naomi Iwamoto, Huriyyah Muhammad, Joanne Mony Park, Kerry O’Neill and Roxy Toporowych. Learn more about the new class and read their bios here.

The AFI Dww+ is a year-long directing workshop that supports women and traditionally underrepresented narrative filmmakers through the production cycle of a short film, providing hands-on instruction led by industry experts. The short films completed in the workshop will premiere at the annual Dww+ Showcase in Spring 2024.

“AFI Dww+ is integral to creating a pipeline of highly trained, diverse voices who have the power to drive culture forward and shape the future of the entertainment industry. We are thrilled to welcome this new class of accomplished artists to the AFI Dww+ program and guide them on their journey as directors and storytellers,...

Despite the wide range of topics shorts directors Verónica Echegui, Vanessa Beletic, Brianna Devons and actor Lamar Usher bring to the table through stories of dance, resilience and acting, the group shares a common goal of breaking tired Hollywood clichés by adding voices of authenticity to the existing narratives.

“Hollywood has done a great disservice to the Haitian community,” Beletic told TheWrap during the “Live Action Shorts Showcase” for the 2022-2023 Awards Season Screening Series. “Anytime Haiti comes up in any conversation, when it comes to cinema, we think of voodoo, which has been co opted and used and bastardized and turned into something that’s like, demonic and scary. I’m not an expert in that space, but I do feel a sense of responsibility to help destigmatize my people in any way that I can.”

While Beletic’s “Catching Spirits” focuses on the story of a young girl...

Run the Jewels offer a joyful vision of the future filled with burning piles of cash and big group dance numbers in the new video for “Ooh La La.”

The video was directed by Brian and Vanessa Beletic, and in a statement, Rtj said: “This video is a fantasy of waking up on a day that there is no monetary system, no dividing line, no false construct to tell our fellow man that they are less or more than anyone else. Not that people are without, but that the whole meaning of money has vanished.