Check out this week's partner news! What are NALIP partners up to this week? Find out here!

Applications for Disney's Launchpad Close June 11th!

The Disney Launchpad Shorts Incubator returns for Season II with exciting new changes!

For the first time ever, writers will be eligible to apply for the program as well as directors. This means you can apply as a writer, writer/director, a director with a script someone else wrote (so as a team), or as a director. 

Learn more on how to apply here.

Applications for The Peter Roth Internship Program close July 8th!

Paid Internship for Students

The Peter Roth Internship Program, named in honor of the legendary television executive, offers a paid internship each year for 20 talented undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and underserved communities who are interested in a career in television.

Learn more on how to apply HERE.

Sundance Institute Awards Grants to 18 Documentary Projects

Courtesy of Sundance

The Sundance Institute has unveiled the latest recipients of grants for documentary projects spanning the globe.

The 18 projects, all in various stages of development, will split a total of $590,000 in unrestricted grant support, provided by the Open Society Foundations, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Luminate.

This year’s projects represent 20 countries and territories across five continents, with more than half the films having international roots. With all U.S. films this year helmed by at least one Black, Indigenous or person of color director, this year’s granting focused on projects by artists from underrepresented communities, ensuring that the stories be told from within the communities. Thirteen of the 18 projects are also led by women directors.

Read more on Variety.

Newport Beach Film Festival Returns October 21-28

First, it was postponed, then canceled, then it went digital. The Newport Beach Film Festival has announced that it will return to a live format October 21-28, 2021. The 22nd Annual Newport Beach Film Festival will feature a series of world premieres, after parties, filmmaker Q&As, and other special events throughout its eight-day run. Read more here.

Discovery CFO Talks WarnerMedia Merger Deal, Cost-Cutting

Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels COURTESY OF DISCOVERY

Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels sees the merger of his company and AT&T’s WarnerMedia allowing for a big increase in content investment owing to cost-cutting synergies available to both sides of the deal.“What we’re going to be able to create is a super deep and super broad library with content that has amazing consumer appeal and it’s going to be one of the most complete offerings in the direct to consumer space,” Wiedenfels told the virtual Evercore conference. Under the terms of the deal, AT&T will spin off entertainment arm WarnerMedia and combine it with Discovery, creating a TV, film and streaming powerhouse to be led by Discovery CEO David Zaslav. AT&T’s WarnerMedia owns the likes of the Warner Bros. studio, HBO and streaming service HBO Max, as well as the Turner cable networks, including CNN, TNT and TBS. Discovery’s reality TV-heavy properties include Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC, Food Network, OWN and Animal Planet. 

Learn more on The Hollywood Reporter

Bizzabo Acquires x.ai to Launch AI-powered Scheduling & Accelerate Personalized Event Experiences

Courtesy of Bizzabo

Bizzabo, the world's leading event success platform, today announced its acquisition of x.ai, the powerful artificial intelligence scheduling tool. x.ai automates the most tedious parts of meetings by generating compatible times to meet across time zones, sending follow-ups and reminders, and managing cancellations. Bizzabo’s integration of x.ai’s scheduling engine will make it easy for event participants to make meaningful connections at virtual, in-person and hybrid events — powering both the discovery of who should meet as well as when and how.

Learn more here.