Adobe invests USD $5m in fund for diverse filmmakers

Adobe has announced new updates and initiatives ahead of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, with a focus on empowering filmmakers and supporting underrepresented creators.

Significant enhancements have been made to Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Frame.io. The improvements are intended to streamline post-production processes and save time for video professionals.

A new media intelligence panel in Adobe Premiere Pro (beta) enables video editors to quickly find the desired clip from vast libraries, addressing a common inconvenience. Additionally, new AI-powered caption translation supports 17 languages, facilitating global audience engagement.

Ashley Still, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Adobe Creative Cloud, stated: "We're passionate about empowering filmmakers to tell their stories and realise their creative vision. These innovations will bring time savings and career support so they can focus on inspiring and captivating audiences worldwide."

The Adobe Film & TV Fund, an initiative aimed at supporting underrepresented creators, is receiving an additional USD $5 million investment. This commitment brings the total fund to USD $11 million. The fund partners with the Group Effort Initiative to offer training and mentorship, aiding the career development of diverse professionals in the film and television industries.

Premiere Pro also introduces enhancements to boost post-production efficiency, including an AI-powered search tool and caption translation. Similarly, After Effects has introduced improved caching and HDR support, enhancing performance for motion designers. Frame.io's Camera to Cloud (C2C) feature has expanded its support, facilitating automatic uploads directly from Canon EOS C80 and EOS C400 cameras, which aims to streamline real-time collaboration in video production.

At the Sundance Film Festival, 85% of films have reportedly used Adobe Creative Cloud tools, such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more. Notable festival entries include "Opus," "The Perfect Neighbor," and "By Design."

Ernie Gilbert, editor of "Opus", shared his experience: "We cut Opus in Adobe Premiere Pro using Productions. My offline editorial philosophy is to get everything outside the picture edit—sound, VFX, color, etc. as close to final as possible. Premiere Pro and After Effects really allow us to do this seamlessly with a small team, making the process more fun and efficient."

Viridiana Lieberman, editor of "The Perfect Neighbor," commented on the usability of Adobe Premiere Pro: "The magic of Premiere Pro is how easy and seamless it is to work with so many different types of media. All of our sources were different frame rates, sizes, colors, you name it. The solutions were embedded in the application to make these elements work harmoniously and made swift work on things like a temporary blur and to lighten up some rough darkness in night footage."

Benjamin Shearn, editor of "By Design," highlighted the benefits of Frame.io: "The 'review with Frame.io' panel is a godsend! Especially when you need to quickly digest feedback. On this show, I used it to render cuts directly to my account where Amanda and the Producers added notes and then downloaded as comment markers. Then, next round: rinse, repeat. Brilliant."

Adobe tools have also been prominently used in several films shortlisted for the upcoming Academy Awards and the ACE Eddie nominations, reflecting their widespread adoption across the industry. Sean Baker, who used Adobe Premiere Pro in his film "Anora," remarked: "Adobe Premiere Pro has been a go-to tool for me because of its versatility and ability to handle everything from quick edits to detailed, complex sequences. For Anora, it was important for me to experiment freely while staying true to the story's authenticity and Premiere Pro allowed me to do that."

The Adobe Foundation further contributes to creative communities by providing a USD $1 million charitable grant to support those affected by recent wildfires in Los Angeles.