As studios and entertainment companies continue to push back on DEI efforts during President Donald Trump’s second administration, a new nonprofit hopes to provide support for LGBTQ+ filmmakers.
The Necessary Foundation was launched with Alan Cumming, Bowen Yang, Lena Waithe, and Adam Goldman as founding board members (Goldman will also serve as CEO) for the purpose of providing funding and other opportunities to help LGBTQ+ filmmakers establish themselves in the entertainment industry.
“Queer filmmakers don’t need permission, but they need opportunity. This is what the Necessary Foundation is building. I’m so honored to be a part of supporting new artists at the starting line,” Yang said in a statement. “This is truly a crisis,” Cumming added. “If we don’t act now to support young LGBT filmmakers, LGBT people will disappear from American film and television screens. It’s that simple.”
“Right now, we need to lift each other up. Writers and storytellers need our support. I’m always happy to provide that support. I’m excited about what this organization will become,” White offered.
Annually, the nonprofit will award $20,000 in grants to early-career LGBTQ+ filmmakers to produce a pilot, short film, or other proof of concept, and will offer mentorship from established filmmakers. Mentors include John Cameron Mitchell, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Indya Moore, and others.
The Necessary Foundation, which includes Bruce Cohen, Andrea Lawlor, Richard Koenigsberg, and Lilly Wachowski on its advisory board, will provide additional support, such as sponsoring festival submission fees and preparing screenings in New York and Los Angeles.
According to GLAAD Media’s latest “Studio Responsibility Report,” of 250 films from 10 major distributors released in 2024, 59 films contained an LGBTQ character, or 23.6 percent, which is a 3.7 percent decrease from 2023. The study also noted that 37 percent of those LGBTQ characters were on screen for less than one minute.
Given the long timeline from greenlight to release, on-screen representation will likely decline in the wake of Hollywood pulling back from initiatives and programs aimed at supporting LGBTQ+ projects and filmmakers. Despite this, the Necessity Foundation says that public interest is still high, pointing to the Canadian series Hot competition As a recent hit TV show centered around LGBTQ characters that has proven popular in America but has been produced internationally.
“There is, at this moment, enormous political pressure to remove LGBT people from American media, and that includes young filmmakers who are being excluded from the industry,” Goldman says. “This pressure is working. Now is the time to fight back.”
