Adam McKay, who directed last year’s climate-change satire Don’t Look Up, has donated $4 million to Climate Emergency Fund and joined its board of directors. It’s the largest personal contribution since the fund was founded in 2019.
“The Climate Emergency Fund is unique in their commitment to funding, civil, non-violent, disruptive activism,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker said. “We are past time for politeness, past time for baby steps. I am proud to support their efforts and call on others to join me in doing everything we can to stave off the rapidly worsening impact of the climate crisis.”
The fund was formed in 2019 as a bridge between philanthropy and climate activism. Per its website, CEF has funded more than 90 organizations and trained 22,000-plus climate activists, disbursing more than $4 million this year alone. As a non-endowed fund, it relies on donors to raise money, which it then strategically deploys to activist groups that utilize disruptive protest and demand transformative as opposed to incremental change.
McKay’s Don’t Look Up, which earned four Oscar nominations including Best Picture, follows two low-level astronomers who embark on a media tour to warn mankind about an approaching asteroid that will destroy Earth. The Netflix pic, in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence led a big-name ensemble cast, takes aim at the ignorance of climate change, our politics and our obsession with tech. Read the screenplay here and Deadline’s review here.
Meanwhile, Disney heir, social activist and philanthropist Abigail Disney said she is poised to announce a $200,000 commitment to Climate Emergency Fund.
“Past generations have failed us, and now it’s up to us to take swift action to avert climate disaster,” she said. “I’m proud to stand with Adam to lift up the brave activists Climate Emergency Fund supports and call in others to do the same. We do not have time to waste.”