THE INFLUENCERS TV Pilot To Compete At The 7th Annual Filmquest Festival

"The Influencers," a sharply drawn yet humorous look at the world of YouTube celebrities and their hapless agents, has morphed from a pilot into a sleeper hit at indie festivals across the country.

The pilot will screen at the 7th Annual FilmQuest Festival that will run May 21- 29th, both virtually and on site in Provo, Utah. "The Influencers" will be part of Shorts Block #3, Get Your Ha-Ha's Out on Thursday, May 27th at 4PM at the Velour Live Music Gallery, 135 N University Ave, Provo, UT 84601, and will also be available online.

Created by Ally Kornfeld and Desiree Staples, "The Influencers" is custom made for the weaned-on-social-media generation of online viewers today. On a quest to become a high-powered Hollywood agent, Mia, an ambitious and naive young woman, ends up at a tiny talent agency managing crazy YouTube stars not all of them cats. Thus far, the short-form pilot has won multiple awards including "Best Ensemble Cast" (Santa Monica Webfest), "Best Pilot," (Seoul Webfest) and the "HRIFF People's Choice Award for Best Short Film: Comedy" (Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival).

The premise of the series was inspired by the real-life experiences of co-creator and executive producer Staples (who also plays Mia). When Staples first got to LA, she ended up accidentally moving into an infamous apartment complex full of wayward social media personalities and ex-Vine stars. She soon befriended a set of twin helicopter pilots, an Instagram model, and Oprah's godson, all sitting by the pool taking selfies.

Realizing she was sitting on a goldmine of stories and characters, Staples teamed up with Kornfeld, an alumna of UCB and they immediately understood that managing influencers must be an insane and unique job that they haven't seen explored in scripted television before. Thus, "The Influencers" was born.

In the pilot, we meet Mia, who lands an interview at her dream company, ICM - International Creative Management - one of the top agencies in the world. Her goal is to represent stars like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling; but when she aces the interview with Greg (the enthusiastic and slightly stressed agency manager) Mia realizes something is wildly wrong. This is ICM -- Internet Celebrity Moguls, that represents eccentric YouTube stars, like viral sensation Chewbacca Mom.

Mia wants to leave immediately, but their best client and extreme "prankster" takes a liking to her sarcastic commentary on social media influencers and she gets promoted to agent - an offer she can't turn down. Now it's up to her to keep the company afloat by signing new talent, keeping the influencers happy and putting out constant fires. So who has time for a meaningful personal life?

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