Disney's Embrace of YouTube Creators on Full Display During Night 1 of Created in LA
With recent Hollywood successes of YouTubers turned filmmakers, it has become clear that for some that YouTube has become the new film school. Now, while many studios are scrambling to figure out how to bring content creators into their fold, Disney has been building relationships with many content creators of all different stripes over the past few years. One has to only look at their recent Make-A-Wish events to see what can happen when Disney and creators unite to make magic.
The next phase of that relationship-building began Thursday night at the historic El Capitan Theatre, where creator expert Jon Youshaei partnered with Disney to unite the Hollywood experience with creator content. The evening was filled with the stylings of Hollywood, with a red carpet, step-and-repeat, big band music, and a lot of glamor. It also included 350 creators, with attendees traveling from countries including Argentina, Australia, England, the Netherlands, Canada, Georgia, and Morocco. Youshaei told the room that the assembled creators collectively represented hundreds of millions of followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
The night began with Youshaei sharing a romanticized version of the story on how the El Capitan Theatre transitioned from a live performance theater to a movie palace to premiere Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane when other theaters were reluctant to play the film in fear of retribution from William Randolph Hearst. As Youshaei framed it, just as a stage built for one form of storytelling once made room for a young filmmaker working in another, the El Capitan was now projecting videos normally encountered on phones and laptops onto its giant screen.
The idea, Youshaei explained, was to identify creator-made films that were so “good that they deserve to be played in a theater.” Disney did more than lend the event a venue. Teams were on hand to meet creators interested in writing, directing or acting, while other representatives were available to discuss opportunities involving Disney productions, premieres and parks content. The practical access reinforced the larger message that the company was not viewing the creator community merely as a promotional channel.
To mark the occasion, Youshaei introduced the Golden Slate Award. He envisions it as a continuing Created in LA tradition that would recognize strong work regardless of a filmmaker’s background or subscriber count. The first award went to Sticks, the Australian filmmaking brothers whose real names are Lucas and Curtis Nicotra, and whose channel creates cinematic trailers about major YouTube personalities as part of a larger ambition to make a feature about the life of MrBeast.
Their opening-night premiere, "The Technoblade Movie," turned the format toward the late Minecraft creator Technoblade, whose real name was Alex. Rather than treating his reach as the measure of his legacy, the 14-minute film focused on the personality and community that made him meaningful to viewers. Their film showcased how creators can deliver emotionally resonant experiences with extremely strong performances. Sticks showed that the line between YouTube content and independent featurette has vanished. While the subject matter definitely spoke to the assembled crowd, the strength of the filmmaking created a production that would still resonate to those who have never played Minecraft or watched a streamer play the game. Sticks told the story through the human level making it accessible and powerful to everyone.
After the screening, Sticks said they wanted to honor someone who continued thinking about his audience even near the end of his life. That connection led to one of the evening’s clearest statements about creator culture. “The creators that leave the most impact in this world are the ones that are doing it not for the sub count, but for the community, for the people that are watching,” they said. Their comments suggested that creators do not simply distribute work directly to viewers. At their best, they build an ongoing relationship in which the audience helps define the meaning and endurance of the work itself. The duo closed their tribute with the phrase Technoblade’s fans know well: “Technoblade never dies.”
The brothers recalled beginning the series in their childhood home in Sydney in 2023 as they searched for a way into Hollywood. Their trailers gradually grew from roughly three minutes to the 14-minute Technoblade project, bringing them from making films at home to premiering one in Hollywood. They described the journey as proof that aspiring filmmakers may need to create their own path when the conventional entrance remains closed. “When the back door’s closed, you’ve got to find a side door,” they said. “And when the side door’s closed, you’ve got to break down the door through the wall.”
Zach King received the second Golden Slate Award before the premiere of his latest cardboard-made Star Wars parody, this time taking on The Empire Strikes Back. The two films, despite their YouTube origins, were very different. While "The Technoblade Movie" was heavy, a Star Wars parody made with cardboard and other cheap materials was just silliness for silliness sake. But despite the frivolity, it did make an important point. Creators are able to make interesting content for a fraction of the cost of the Hollywood system.
The cardboard aesthetic grew from King’s frustration with a more conventional attempt to make a movie. King said the project began near the million-dollar level, then ballooned into something far beyond what his team had intended. Accustomed to producing ambitious YouTube work with a clear understanding of its costs, they began asking why entering the Hollywood system made the same creative goal so much more expensive. Their answer was sitting around them in the form of discarded packaging from Amazon orders.
“What if we use that stuff right there, and hot glue, and use the space we already have, and make a movie for as cheap as possible?” King recalled. The result looked deliberately handmade without being careless, using cardboard sets, props and costumes as both a production solution and a comic visual language. King jokingly clarified for the Disney audience that the film was “100% a parody,” but the passion behind it was entirely sincere. He said the team plans to complete the remaining portion and release the larger project on YouTube.
Placed beside "The Technoblade Movie," King’s film showed why creator-led entertainment cannot be reduced to a single style. One premiere used cinematic form to honor a community and the person at its center, while the other used deliberately humble materials to challenge assumptions about what a movie needs to cost. Both projects were built around limitations that their creators turned into identity rather than treating them as reasons to wait for permission.
The creators showed what is possible, but perhaps Disney’s President and Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden explained why it is important for Disney to be involved in a night like this during her remarks. She recalled that the El Capitan has hosted premieres for some of Disney’s biggest films, including The Lion King, The Avengers, Frozen, Coco and Lilo & Stitch, then said using the theater to premiere creator work was “really a signal of how important all of you are to us.” The location gave the statement weight, but Walden’s most revealing observation concerned the relationship creators maintain with the people watching them.
Creators, Walden said, know their audiences intimately, hear from them constantly and adjust in real time. That differs from Disney’s traditional production model, in which films and television series can take years to reach viewers. “There’s something that we can learn from that immediacy, from treating the audience as a true collaborator,” she said. Her hope for Created in LA was an exchange in both directions, with Disney learning from the responsiveness of digital creators and creators drawing on the company’s decades of storytelling experience.
As the event continues at the Walt Disney Studios, Disney, creators, platforms, and others will be learning from each other and building connections. It is in Disney’s DNA to be at the forefront of new storytelling platforms. Disney was the first studio to embrace the intimacy of television while others were afraid of the impact the platform would have on their theatrical business. It is not only appropriate, but essential, that Disney continues to navigate and evolve their creator and YouTube strategy if they want to continue the legacy of being the most innovative entertainment company in the world. Tonight shows that Disney is already off to a great start, and perhaps after the two days of Created in LA, those efforts will be fortified through collaboration and inspiration.