Overview
- Disney staged a two-day Created in L.A. summit that gathered hundreds of digital creators, industry leaders, and studio executives for screenings, panels, networking, and awards.
- Creator Jon Youshaei, who pitched the idea to Disney, opened the event and highlighted the assembled creators’ combined reach of about 1.6 billion followers across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, spoke at the summit and publicly framed creators as partners the studio wants to learn from and potentially tell stories with.
- Organizers presented the new Golden State Awards to creators including Lucas and Curtis Nicotra for The Technoblade Movie and Zach King for Cardboard Strikes Back, using theatrical premieres to confer prestige on short-form work.
- The event signals a practical first step in Walt Disney Studios’ strategy to build formal pipelines from platform creators into branded projects and studio filmmaking and may lead to more creator-driven releases and development deals.