Eight top female, trans and nonbinary creatives join forces to support Proof of Concept Accelerator, which exists to bring to life projects about people from those backgrounds.

Chloé Zhao, Emma Corrin, Eva Longoria, Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion, Janicza Bravo, Lily Gladstone and Lilly Wachowski will form eight-person selection committee for the fund, launched in December by Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s Stacy L. Smith, and Dirty Films’ Cate Blanchett and Coco Francini. The program is supported by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity.

“We are profoundly grateful for the partnership of these members of the Proof of Concept selection committee, made up of not only some of the most talented and prolific storytellers working today but those who are also dedicated to creating change in our industry and our world,”

Blanchett, Francini and Smith said in statement. “By extending a hand to this next generation, these filmmakers create ecosystem of change aiming to grow exponentially as a result of this accelerator.”

Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said: “This committee is a stellar group of filmmaking talent. Each of these visionaries has moved audiences around the world, and I look forward to seeing how their support paves the way for future filmmakers.”

The committee will choose 8 filmmakers who will each receive $50,000 and industry mentorship to make a short film, which will be screened this fall.

Proof of Concept received 1,200 submissions, with 85 percent of applicants identifying as women, 9 percent as men and 2 percent as nonbinary. A total of 8.5 percent of applicants were transgender.

According to AI2 research of the 100 highest-grossing movies each year from 2007 to 2023, just 6 percent of directors were women and 2 percent were transgender.

Proof of Concept’s pool was also more racially and ethnically diverse (52 percent people of color) than Hollywood’s directors from the past 17 years (22.7 percent). Specifically, 16 percent of applicants were Black, 13 percent Hispanic/Latino, 14 percent Asian, 5 percent Middle Eastern/North African, 2.2 percent Indigenous and 1.2 percent multiracial or multiethnic.