The DGA and AICP’s Commercial Directors Diversity Program (CDDP) has announced the five Fellows for the program’s third cycle. Directors Iqbal Ahmed, Manjari Makijany, Araeia Robinson, Tamer Shaaban and Siyou Tan were chosen from a group of over 400 applicants, all of whom started their directing careers in other media.
The CDDP was born out of the 2014 National Commercial Agreement negotiations between the DGA and Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) with the goal of opening more opportunities for qualified women and people of color to direct commercials. The program has already resulted in success stories.
Over the course of six months, the new Fellows will get exposure and experience through one-to-one interactions with mentoring DGA-signatory production companies and engage in workshops on the process of pitching/shooting/finishing spots and branded content films. They will also shadow DGA commercial directors on the set and create their own spec commercial underwritten by a grant provided by the CDDP. The program concludes with an industry showcase where AICP companies, who are signatories of the National Commercial Agreement, are invited to view the finished commercials and meet this new pool of commercial directors. In addition to the five Fellows, 15 finalists will be invited to participate in the program’s workshops: Leo Aguirre, Francis Agyapong, Kevin Berlandi, Megan Brotherton, Tracy Twinkie Byrd, Xavier Burgin, Justin Casselle, Ashley Czerniewski, Ashley Eakin, Alexander Gilbert, Guillaum Knight, Rachel Rinehardt, Sherwin Shilati, Larin Sullivan, and Sarah Wilson Thacker.
