APA x FREE THE WORK

To help our members in their commitments to provide the opportunities for diverse talent to succeed in our industry, we partner with and support a wealth of companies and organisations that have historically been committed to spearheading change within our sector. 

FREE THE WORK is one such organisation; a nonprofit born out of the success of Free the Bid, working to create opportunities for a global workforce of underrepresented creators behind the lens across TV, Film and Advertising. 

We’re all seeing an increase in brands and agencies pushing for underrepresented directors to be on their pitch lists, but while some have extensive internal lists to refer to, others don’t know where to start. We’re even seeing an increase in brands and agencies calling the APA directly asking to be directed to appropriate production companies for certain demographics or with authentic links to specific communities.

That is why we’re asking our members to ensure that any talent they represent working as directors, DOP’s, editors, colorists or composers – who belong to underrepresented groups based on ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, create profiles on FREE THE WORK’s talent database, as this is one of the main platforms we are directing enquiries to. 

In order to get your talent featured you need to: 

• reach out to the FTW team on [email protected] with a list of your relevant creators and their direct email address. 
  • N.B. All profiles must be initially set up by the creators themselves as the process legally requires self-identification.
• FTW’s team will contact the creators directly and support them in building their profiles. 
• Management of the completed profile can then be handed over to reps along with log-ins, who can then ensure the profile stays up to date.