"We need to keep telling great stories we love. We're not asking Hollywood to change the entertainment value of the content created, we're asking the industry to help support creators at every level in leveling up their understanding of the climate crisis to inform and enrich character development and world building."

The 2023 Hollywood Climate Summit will feature two formal conference days, presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as ancillary events from June 21-24 in Los Angeles. The fourth annual Summit, executive produced by Allison Begalman, Ali Weinstein, Heather Fipps, and YEA! Impact, will unite filmmakers, artists, activists, climate organizations and scientists to equip Hollywood with informed strategies, tools and information about climate change in order to leverage its platform and effectively communicate with audiences.

There is a profusion of bold and pioneering climate leaders all over the world. If you’re looking to create and imagine inspiring stories about the climate emergency, look to those people who are already acting to solve this. These real people and their stories have so much to teach us all about how to stand up and find courage.

Heather is recognized as a climate leader changing the film & tv industry.

The new $1-million grant kicks off a five-year partnership between the gallery and the university, which will receive $200,000 a year. Hauser & Wirth also will make space at its Arts District complex for public screenings of student and faculty films as well as other programming.

So are there any examples of shows already out there, getting it right? Fipps mentions NBC hit comedy Parks and Recreation as her favourite, which is perhaps surprising as it’s not directly about the climate. For Fipps, that’s exactly the point. “To me, it’s so fun and engaging and ultimately, I think it is a climate story because it’s showing what public service looks like. It’s showing incremental changes that are bettering your community. It’s dreaming big. It really humanises what policy change looks like on a micro scale. And I think it’s just something we haven’t really seen a lot.” She is eager to emphasise that it’s not about having special ‘climate episodes’ – it’s about nuanced ways to thread climate themes, emotions and behaviours into the very fabric of the storyline, which a show like Parks and Recreation does very well, she says, “engaging climate values that we need, showing a different value system of what we could be together”.