Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic From the importance of diversity in storytelling to the impact of Netflix and other streamers on the distribution marketplace, a panel of top content industry creatives and executives weighed pressing issues for the future of filmmaking.
The panel, held March 31 as part of the World Film Industry Conference and hosted by the nonprofit org NewFilmmakers LA, featured a master filmmakers’ dialogue moderated by Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge.
The panelists were drawn from different disciplines: Oscar-winning documentary director Morgan Neville, filmmaker/showrunner Aline Brosh McKenna, producer Paul Perez (Perez Pictures), Walt Disney Animation Studios vfx supervisor Marlon West and previsualization expert Chris Edwards (The Third Floor).
Whatever their achievements, one thing was clear, as “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” co-creator McKenna put it: “We all have gatekeepers.” Fresh off making her feature debut with “Your Place or Mine” at Netflix, McKenna explained that she found an ally for the Reese Witherspoon-Ashton Kutcher rom-com in Tendo Nagenda, an exec she’d known before who’s now working at Netflix. “I knew there was a friendly phone call, there’s someone waiting at the other end of the line who understood and didn’t see female content in a certain way.” Still in the early days of running his own shingle, Perez learned to navigate the same system as a development exec for Pantelion (where courting the U.S.
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