ColorCreative, founded by Issa Rae, Deniese Davis and Talitha Watkins, has announced the cohort for the second year of its Find Your People program. The program is in partnership with sustaining partner, Canva, and “provides training and resources for emerging creators from diverse backgrounds to learn the soft skills of leadership and develop short films.”

“I am continuously blown away by the talent this program has attracted since it launched,” said ColorCreative President Talitha Watkins in a statement. “ColorCreative is thrilled to add the composing discipline to this year’s program, which provides yet another avenue for program participants to showcase their remarkable talents.” 

Here’s more about the program:

Following the success of the inaugural cohort, the Find Your People Program accepted applications for year two from March 12th to April 14th. ColorCreative received over 1500 applications from 39 U.S. States and 9 different countries, rounding out the FYPP community to nearly 3,000 underrepresented creatives from all over the world. Program applications and participants’ information is stored in a database, which allows them to gain priority access to relevant opportunities in their area. 

The 2024 Find Your People Program official cohort features 28 members from across the country. One creative from each of the seven disciplines will come together to form four production teams. Each production team will be assigned a script to develop, prepare a short film pitch, with guidance from industry leaders, to go before a greenlight committee for the chance to receive funding for their short film. The program commenced with the program’s first in-person workshop held on June 8 in Los Angeles. 

Year 2’s cohort will consist of:

Writer/Directors: Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah, Vivian Ip, Jalen Blot, Destinee Stewart

Costume Designers: Kostya Goncharuk, Bre’jon Golden, Bebe LaMonica, Nataly Berrio-Gil

Producers: Andrew St Juste, Epiphany Rose Ciers, Parco Richardson, Roxanne Griffith

Cinematographers: Sophia Williams, Kelvin Kataria, Shih-Hsuan Kuo, Jessica Arzate Cerecedo

Production Designers: Mariah Bennett, Sara Lowe, Rohini Jadhav, Valeria Vera-Crespo

Editors: Jasmyn Lynn, Yessenia Sanchez, Alexander Gonzalez, Desire Lacap

Composers: Yasna Vismale, Oscar Pan, Marie A. Douglas, Andrew Asemokai

“It’s been an honor to support the community and platform that ColorCreative has built for emerging creatives through the Find Your People Program. Canva exists to empower everyone, everywhere with accessible ways to tell their stories, and we couldn’t be prouder to see another cohort of talented filmmakers bring their visions to life,” said Kristine Segrist, Global Head of Consumer Marketing at Canva. 

UTA also returns to the program an industry partner, giving access top top agents and resources, as well as meet-and-greets with agents and executives.