Yi Zhou and Into the Sun Entertainment announced the launch of a new First Timer Fund with a hosted dinner at Tao Vegas during CinemaCon. This fund is designed to support emerging first-time directors in Hollywood and is set to make a major impact on the industry.
The First Timer Fund is a much-needed initiative, given the challenges that first-time filmmakers often face. By offering both financial support and access to industry resources, the fund aims to level the playing field and provide an avenue for up-and-coming filmmakers to break into the industry.
Yi Zhou, a talented artist, and filmmaker, is the driving force behind the First Timer Fund. As someone who understands the struggles of breaking into the industry as a first-timer, she is uniquely positioned to provide support and guidance to emerging talent. And with the backing of Into the Sun Entertainment, a leading production company known for championing new talent, the First Timer Fund is poised to make a real difference.
It is heartening to see the industry stepping up to support first-time directors, especially during a time of such upheaval and change. With initiatives like the First Timer Fund, we can create a more inclusive and diverse film industry that truly reflects the world we live in. Congratulations to Yi Zhou and Into the Sun Entertainment on this exciting new endeavor!
About Into the Sun Entertainment:
Into the Sun Entertainment is a movie and television production company founded in 2021 by artist and director Yi Zhou in Los Angeles. Zhou’s Into the Sun films, headquartered in Rome, is a division of L.A.-based parent company Into the Sun Entertainment.
Through her Into the Sun Entertainment banner, Yi Zhou puts her creative power and resources behind writing, directing, and producing a selective slate of unique stories and IP material that play at the intersection of prestige and global commercial appeal. The company has the capacity to develop, package, and produce a broad array of films and TV series for worldwide distribution, and serves as a catalyst for highly elevated projects suited for collaborations with major studios, networks, and streamers globally.
Adopting a material-first, platform-agnostic philosophy, Into the Sun embraces the growing disruption in the entertainment ecosystem and aims to connect smart stories and direct engagement with audiences looking for elevated content. Creating content that challenges traditional norms, the company takes a trans-media approach to seed and develop compelling and unique IPs to bring entertainment properties to audiences globally, producing a diverse array of projects.
Zhou’s approach to creating strong material and bringing creative visions to life with IP creation and acquisition, packaging, funding, marketing, and distribution in the USA, Italy, and China is the thread that defines the company. Zhou is a creator at heart and has projects she will develop and nurture carefully while remaining flexible in collaborating with various artists and distribution partners around the globe. The structure of the company reflects how the industry is working today: nimble, hyper-creative, collaborative, and lean. The core of the company approach is to highlight Asian, female, and equality, focusing on creative and corporate voices transcending gender, race, and geographical connotations.
