The 11th Hour Dispatch — Wednesday, August 15, 2018
YOUNG MONEY
Hey ladieeeeees! Bumble has announced a new fund to invest in female entrepreneurs, which only received ~2% of VC dollars in 2017. Bumble Fund has already committed to a few companies including the winner of its Bizz Pitch competition, swimwear line Sofia Los Angeles, the woman-centric Female Founders Fund, BeautyCon, and female-focused VC Cleo Capital. Bumble also plans to use its career networking arm Bumble Bizz (you may remember it from those ads where they tried to find Kris Jenner an assistant) to identify other potential investments. Investments will range anywhere from $5K to $250K and go to women-led business with products that focus on women’s interests. Heck yeah.
BINGE WATCH
Paramount Pictures has signed a three-year first-look deal with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions and its sister company Gloria Sanchez, led by producer Jessica Elbaum. Ferrell and McKay have previously had a deal with Paramount under different leadership, but left the studio. Gary Sanchez has produced many-a-hit in the box office including Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, both Daddy’s Home films, and The Big Short, and its slate of films have collectively brought in about $1 billion worldwide. “Adam and Will are among the most influential and innovative comedic minds of our time, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome back the strong partnership that the studio enjoyed with them in the past and will continue to nurture and grow for years to come,” Wyck Godfrey, President of Paramount’s Motion Picture Group, said. “This is truly a dream collaboration, and we look forward to continuing to share the incredible film and television content created through this alliance with audiences worldwide.”
BIG BUSINESS
GIF library Giphy has launched the first ever film festival for GIFs in partnership with Squarespace. You now have until September 27 to enter an 18 second or less GIF to potentially win $10K (and a five-year Squarespace subscription). There are five categories in the festival: stop-motion, animated, experimental, narrative, and wild card/other. Judges, who range from traditional filmmakers and execs to museum curators and comedians, are looking for the most “compelling, entertaining, creative and professional-grade” stories, so you better up your GIF game. The judges for the inaugural event include, among others:
- Artist and filmmaker Mukunda Angulo
- Spotify Global Creative Diretor Alex Bodman
- The Animation Guild’s Director of Communications and Culture Brooke Keesling
- VP of Digital at Topic Mona Panchal
- Comedian and creator of Adult Swim’s Joe Pera Talks to You Joe Pera
- Women Who Draw co-founder Julia Rothman
- MoMa film curator Rajendra Roy
If you’re hoping to get a peek at the finalists, good luck. You’ll only be able to see them with an invitation to the viewing at the festival on November 8. Giphy sees around 300 million daily visitors and has more than 5 billion “micro-films” on its platform.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
You can put the rumors to rest. Yes, Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio have annual basketball games at Wahlberg’s mansion.
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