By Julie Ann Crommett, Founder and CEO of Collective Moxie
“Talent is equally distributed amongst the population. Opportunity is not.”
This is a refrain I’ve said over and over again. It has rung true at every turn of my career and in my life. When folks say, “Oh, I don’t know any screenwriters from Georgia. I don’t think there is any writing talent that’s ready,” I say, “Oh, interesting you say that… have you looked?”
Julie Ann Crommett, Founder of Collective Moxie with Frank Patterson, President & CEO of Trilith Studios
As Frank Patterson shared in a previous issue of the Creative Economy Journal, there is a giant (peach of an) opportunity to build out the front end of production here in Georgia. We are not truly a real player in this ever-changing media ecosystem if we don’t also develop, finance and produce content here centering writers and filmmakers.
In order to do that, we have to bring together on a regular basis those who create, those who can finance and those who can execute on the filmmaker’s vision.
Georgia’s secret sauce to doing this is the diversity of our state in every way imaginable. We have something that LA and NYC don’t have, which is a media marketplace that is not fully entrenched in 100-year-old habits and one that reflects the diversity of our country across race, gender, creed, sexuality, socioeconomics, disability, age, veteran status and every other aspect of lived experience. This is our competitive advantage.
LA and NYC have consistently squandered their state’s diversity when it comes to their media industries, leaving billions of dollars on the table because of it. Georgia does not have to make the same mistake.
I’m from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was raised in Marietta from age five. I attended college in arctic Boston before heading out to sunny California to build my entertainment career. I returned to our beloved Peach State in 2020 at the height of the pandemic when production was shut down for many months.
But I knew the future was here. The future of film and entertainment is in this diverse, ever-evolving state. I believed this so much that I started my own company, Collective Moxie, in 2021. We are an inclusive storytelling consultancy firm dedicated to helping organizations and individual artists revolutionize their creative and business strategies in order to more authentically and consistently reach global audiences. Our global mission helped lead to a local insight.
When I began talking with folks, they consistently pointed out a glaring gap in the Georgia entertainment ecosystem, i.e., the lack of support financially and creatively for writers. Every writer I spoke with believed they either had to move to LA or do a stint there to make it. They often felt like their profession was not as generally valued in our marketplace, and that creating sustainable opportunities were few and far between.
But because of the pandemic—and thanks to virtual writer’s rooms—this was starting to change. The question became, “What was Georgia going to do about it?”
Cue The Georgia List, which was born of a long-standing friendship with fellow Georgian, Franklin Leonard, founder of The Black List. Franklin, raised in Columbus, Georgia, is very much a product of this place, as am I. We met years ago at NBCUniversal in Los Angeles when The Black List was still an underground list of the best, unproduced scripts from his Universal desk. We bonded over a shared passion to change this industry we love for the better.
Since our meeting, The Black List has now grown to be the democratic online platform where writers from anywhere can have their script reviewed and “discovered” with an Oscars and marketplace track record you can only dream of. So, it was only natural that when I moved back, I immediately called him and said, “Why has The Black List never done a Georgia list?”
He agreed and committed as long as we could get partners. Collective Moxie signed on. Then Trilith Studios. 3Arts. Fifth Season. The Alliance Theatre. Content Talent South. The Art Farm at Serenbe. And off we went.
In its first year, The Georgia List elevated a strong group of 10 screenwriters whose material ranged from Georgia-set historical dramas to horror thrillers and supernatural adventures showcasing the wide range of talent we have to offer. Cat Rhinehart’s “Grief Party” received a $10,000 grant and a staged reading at The Art Farm at Serenbe. And you might be hearing before too long about projects being produced here.
Our goal is to get as many of these projects developed and produced in Georgia as possible, thereby bringing together those who create, those who finance and those who help make a filmmaker’s vision come to life.
The Georgia List Season 2 will be announced soon. Again, “talent is equally distributed across the population, opportunity is not.” Let’s continue to change the access and opportunity, and talent will be there. We can’t wait to read the myriad stories talented Georgians have to share this year and in years to come.
