Nicole Bernard

Executive VP, Audience Strategy, 21st Century FOX Group

I was made aware of the Jamaica Film Festival by… a colleague of mine, Paula Madison, while we were in Los Angeles. She was talking about her film and in essence I invited myself! I ‘Bogarted’ poor Carole’s e-mail, through an invitation with Paula Madison, whose film Finding Samuel Lowe was the opening film. We are colleagues, we are of Jamaican heritage and it was of great interest, and I asked when the festival was and of course we wanted to be a part of it. If not physically here, then certainly to support the festival itself, whether it was financial, or sponsorship or to send executives or writers to be a part of the conversation. And I’m pleased to be here, that Carole accepted my infiltration readily and gave us such great information about opportunities that existed; what the possibilities were; and they were happy to customise conversations around the businesses that we thought would add value to the conversation.

My first thought was to… talk about in detail at The FOX Writers’ Intensive and FOX Global Directors’ Initiative.These are two of our signature creative platforms which have done exceptionally well. And by well, I mean created a dynamic creative resource for all of the 21st Century Fox entertainment businesses such as FOX and FOX Broadcastng — and those initiatives have done such wonders for our business at FOX that we wanted to have that conversation here as a means of cultivating the great talent that we know is here.

My impressions after the session were… I had a lot of questions that were asked. None that we couldn’t answer. But the fact that people took advantage of that and weren’t shy and asked wonderful questions allowed us to get to the details of the initiative, which will allow us to engage the type of audience that we were hoping to engage. The conversations were insightful and what it said to me is that there are a lot more resources here than I think the creative community leverages. You’ve got universities and organisations here that are really a part of the cultivation of that grassroots talent.

I would love to receive at FOX… an influx of suggestions to us or referrals to us about art organisations that can become nominated partners through our writers’ intensive and global directors’ initiative because that becomes a resource pool that then becomes a part of the dynamic that has done so well across the FOX entertainment businesses, and to get information about the opportunities that are here that maybe we can assist, or augment, to take them further. We want to create tangible, lucrative, and ongoing partnerships with Jamaica.

Jamaica is such a melting pot… The stories alone about its culture are far more dynamic than people know. I would love to see that culture explored in many different mediums from dramas to comedies and that might not be a show or a film about Jamaica, but having writers and directors whose perspectives are so naturally influenced by their Jamaican heritage and culture, that’s additive no matter how you slice it.