Latinos make up about 20% of the U.S. population, yet only make up about 1% of the stories told by Hollywood, via TV or films. Young Latinos, a key audience for McDonald’s, has been vocal about the representation issue in Hollywood.
Leaning into the insight that fair and authentic representation matters to Latino youth, McDonald’s launched Spotlight Dorado, a multi-year short film contest that supports Latino talent trying to break through in Hollywood with the tools and resources, including $75K to produce their films. To celebrate the second year of the initiative, the Golden Arches popped up at SXSW with a maze featuring statistics on the lack of representation in Hollywood to visually tell the story of the barriers Latinos in film face. Additionally, young Latino film celebrities including Anthony Ramos (from Hamilton) and Stephanie Ramos (voice of Maribel Disney’s Encanto) served as program mentors and ambassadors.
