At the 2026 Hollywood Movie Awards, a festival recognized for highlighting both established voices and emerging industry shifts, one panel captured a growing reality across film, television, and new media. Titled “Short, Creative, Profitable: How Vertical Dramas Escaped—and Are Reinventing—the Studio System,” the discussion examined how vertical storytelling is rapidly reshaping production, casting, and career pathways.
Panelists included:
- Walid Chaya — Actor and Director of Studio For Performing Arts LA
- Paul Ruddy — FlareFlow and Hollywood Casting Director
- Jenny Rosen — DramaBox
• Yoko Chen — GoodShort
The panel was hosted by Jamie Miller alongside Hollywood Movie Awards founder and festival director Matt Beurois, celebrating the festival’s 9th year.
While the conversation covered platform strategy, audience behavior, and data-driven development, the discussion was notably grounded in how these changes affect actors. From that vantage point, Walid Chaya framed vertical drama not as a short-form experiment, but as a structural evolution—one that echoes Hollywood’s past while pointing toward its future.
Following the panel, we spoke further with Chaya to dig deeper into the implications for performers. Chaya drew a parallel to Hollywood’s Golden Age, when studios signed actors to long-term contracts and built careers through steady output and visibility. In his view, many vertical drama companies are now reviving that model in a modern form—signing actors exclusively for extended periods and producing multiple series back-to-back within a single platform ecosystem. The difference, he noted, is that today’s “studio system” lives on mobile screens rather than sound stages.
That perspective aligned with insights from the other panelists. Executives from GoodShort and DramaBox discussed how vertical platforms rely heavily on real-time audience behavior—completion rates, retention, and repeat viewing—to guide creative decisions. As reported by The Wrap, this data-centric approach allows vertical dramas to evolve quickly, refining stories based on what audiences actually watch rather than on traditional greenlight cycles.
From the platform side, Jenny Rosen and Yoko Chen emphasized that vertical dramas are competing not just with other scripted content, but with social media itself. In a scroll-first environment, they noted, storytelling must deliver immediate impact—often within the first few seconds—to stop a viewer’s thumb. That reality shapes everything from openings and pacing to heightened emotional stakes, favoring bold hooks and rapid escalation designed to grab attention instantly.
Paul Ruddy spoke to the scale and trajectory of the space from a casting and production standpoint. Drawing on his experience working across vertical dramas as well as film and television, he highlighted the sheer volume of projects now being produced and the consistency of demand for talent. Ruddy framed vertical drama as an industry still in its early chapters—one that has already proven its viability, but will continue to mature as infrastructure, resources, and professional standards evolve alongside the growth.
The panel also placed the U.S. vertical boom within a global context. According to the U.S. International Trade Administration, China’s short-form drama market reached an estimated 50 billion RMB (roughly $7–8 billion USD) in 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors in entertainment. That scale has influenced how Western platforms approach volume, pacing, and talent development.
Audience insights further explain the momentum. Business Insider has reported that U.S. micro-drama viewers skew heavily female, with a significant portion of the audience aged 35 and older—a demographic long underserved by traditional scripted television. This clarity allows platforms to align storytelling, casting, and genre choices with proven demand.
Importantly, the panel remained clear-eyed about where the industry stands. While some vertical productions have gone union, a dedicated SAG-AFTRA agreement tailored specifically to vertical dramas is still in high demand. As several panelists acknowledged, labor frameworks are evolving alongside a format that has already found its audience.
Within the broader context of the Hollywood Movie Awards—an international festival that has welcomed artists such as William Baldwin, Michael Shannon, Scott Adkins, and Alex Pettyfer—the panel reinforced the festival’s role as a space for meaningful industry dialogue. Under Matt Beurois’s leadership, HMA continues to create room for conversations that connect emerging formats with working professionals across the entertainment landscape.
By the end of the panel, one takeaway stood out: vertical dramas are not replacing film or television, but they are redefining how stories are tested, talent is developed, and careers are sustained. At the Hollywood Movie Awards, this panel made clear that vertical storytelling is no longer on the margins—it is firmly part of the industry conversation.
The Hollywood Movie Awards continues to serve as a vital platform for forward-looking industry conversations, bringing together filmmakers, talent, and innovators shaping where storytelling is headed next. For more on upcoming panels, events, and festival updates, visit facebook.com/hollywoodartandmovieawards.
