Fox Directors Lab To Nurture Diversity Names Its Class Of 2018

21CF Global Inclusion will begin its third annual Fox Directors Lab program this August on the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles. The highly selective program is  designed to nurture experienced television directors who have diverse voices, backgrounds, and life experiences. The goal of the program is to create a strong pipeline of well-rounded talent for potential staffing on Fox television series.

The 2018 Fox Directors Lab offers eight directors a four-week educational curriculum focused on professional development, mentorship, and exploration of the business of media and entertainment, and the potential for shadowing assignments across Fox’s television shows. The program will include guest speaker sessions with working directors, showrunners, producers and executives, as well as one-on-one mentorship opportunities with Fox creative executives and with FDL alumni who have gone on to successfully direct episodic television. Following the Lab, directors will be considered for shadowing assignments on FOX, FX or Twentieth Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios-produced television shows.

Selected from nearly 300 submissions, the final class of eight (including one directing team) is:

Èric Boadella started his career by directing music videos for his own band, The Moon Men, while working as an electronic engineer for several years. He continued directing music videos and short films until he was recognized for his first feature film, Toastmaster (2014), a dramedy about an eccentric man passing a family tradition of master of ceremonies to his nephew. The film won Best Director and Best Script at the 17th Malaga Film Festival, the main venue for contemporary Spanish films, and was acquired by Canal Plus. Boadella is currently based in Los Angeles and his upcoming project is The Arrow of Our Youth, a psychedelic love story starring Danny Trejo. He is also preparing a feature film inspired by the legends and myths that are still alive in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Ashley Brim is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, and the former assistant of director Michael Cuesta’s on the pilot for Homeland. Brim’s first short film Swiped premiered at the 2015 Catalina Film Festival. Her short film An Act of Terror, starring Olivia Washington and Tonya Pinkins, premiered in the “Race in America” program at the 30th Annual Virginia Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short. Brim currently serves as Assistant Producer on the Showtime series Homeland.

Li Lu was born in Suzhou, China, and moved to the US when she was five. Her debut feature There Is A New World Somewhere won three Best Feature awards and was distributed theatrically and on demand. Her current project A Town Called Victoria – a documentary about an arson of a Texas mosque – has garnered support from numerous organizations, including the Sundance Institute and Austin Film Society. She also directs commercials and music videos, and her work has been supported by organizations such as Film Independent, IFP, and Women in Film, and profiled in the New York Times, IndieWIRE, and NPR.

Gandja Monteiro is a director, writer and producer based in Los Angeles and São Paulo. Her narrative short Almost Every Day premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Monteiro has directed commercials and branded content for Nike, Adidas, Google, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet and Smirnoff, among others. Beneath the Canopy, a film she directed for Google Brand Studio, was shortlisted at the Cannes Lions Festival (2018). Her first TV project, an hour-long episode for HBO’s documentary series Youth just had its broadcast premiere. She’s just completed her new sci-fi short film Control/Option/Escape, directed through the AFI Directing Workshop for Women. She’s now focused on Episodic TV directing opportunities and developing her first feature film.

The Mundo Sisters (Nadine Mundo. near left, Rena Mundo Croshere) are an award-winning sibling directing team. Their cinematic storytelling has been featured in commercial work for Pepsi, Alexander Wang, Beats by Dre, Timex, CNN Films, Delta, ESPN and Rachel Roy. Their CNN short, A Field Between, was honored as one of the best shorts made by women at the 2017 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. The Mundo Sisters are in development on a project with Fox Digital Studios. The duo’s ESPN film Rowdy Ronda Rousey premiered at the LA Film Festival. In 2015, they created and directed What Makes Us, a series of 5 shorts for ESPN Films. Their 2013 feature documentary, American Commune, premiered at HotDocs and on Amazon. Their films have screened at Cannes Lions, LAFF, New Orleans, Woodstock, DOCNYC, Hot Springs, New Horizons, Thessaloniki film festivals.

Kim Nguyen is a comedy director who has done award-winning commercial work for clients such as Google, Target, and Samsung. She has directed actors and comedians including Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Channing Tatum, Jason Alexander, Anna Kendrick, Bill Hader, Rob Riggle, Chelsea Handler, Demetri Martin, Rebel Wilson, Will Forte, Gaten Matarazzo, The Wayans Brothers, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sarah Silverman, RuPaul, Nick Cannon, Vanessa Bayer, and Emma Stone. Her documentary Santaland was shortlisted for Full Frame’s Documentary Film Festival Best Filmmaker Award. She is a member of the 2017 Directors Guild of America’s TV Emerging Directors Program with Gail Mancuso as her mentor. Previously, she was a writer for The Onion and writer/director for MTV.

Jackie Stone is an award winning director/writer and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a 2013-2014 Project Involve Directing fellow. Her award winning films have been shown at numerous film festivals and broadcast on HBO Networks. Most recently her short film, Burning Angel Dust has won several awards for Best Short and two best director awards. She currently serves as CEO and Chief Content Creator of Enchant TV, a digital network.