Yahoo Media Group and The Nonfiction Hotlist are teaming up to create a new pathway for nonfiction filmmakers to showcase their work to a global audience. Through the partnership, Yahoo will continue to grow its video offering by promoting and distributing 20 short documentary films curated from open call submissions. The Nonfiction Hotlist, a leading documentary content curation and distribution platform known for identifying exceptional stories and connecting filmmakers with major distribution opportunities, will oversee the entire curatorial process.

By combining the distribution of Yahoo with the deep industry expertise and curatorial rigor of The Nonfiction Hotlist, the partnership aims to bring meaningful visibility, awareness, and monetization to great filmmakers and their films.

• Yahoo will distribute the selected films across its properties, including yahoosports.tv and its Yahoo Sports Network and Yahoo Finance FAST channels.

• Yahoo will further amplify the films with additional content such as filmmaker interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and in-depth companion articles. 

• Selected filmmakers will also be paid for their work, ensuring fair compensation for creators. 

Hot List founder Adam Neuhaus is urging filmmakers to create audience, content, and business infrastructure long before a premiere.

By Dana Harris-Bridson

EXCLUSIVE: Welcome news for makers of documentary shorts, who often struggle to reach a wide array of viewers with their work. Yahoo Media Group and The Nonfiction Hotlist have announced a partnership that will see Yahoo promote and distribute 20 short docs across a variety of genres to a global audience.

In March, the inaugural Nonfiction Hotlist was unveiled: 23 yet to be realised documentaries, series, and podcast projects selected to represent some of the outstanding projects deserving to be championed in today's nonfiction landscape.

Feature Documentaries…

A mere few months ago, non-fiction development and production veteran Adam Neuhaus — a former exec with RadicalMedia and ESPN Films, among others — took to LinkedIn to share his experiences as a producer pitching in a contracting market. Significantly, he closed the post with a proposal to both his network and the industry at large: to create a non-fiction version of the popular Hollywood Black List survey, which brings a curated compendium of yet-to-be-produced screenplays to industry members’ inboxes. The idea of bringing that model to a challenged documentary business generated palpable excitement…