LOS ANGELES (AP) — Warner Bros. is answering calls to make Hollywood more diverse, launching a program where it will provide five up-and-coming directors from underrepresented groups with mentoring and around $100,000 to produce a short film to show to agents, producers and studio executives.

Applications will be accepted some time before July with a nine-month fellowship beginning in the fall.

Greg Silverman, Warner Bros.' president of worldwide production, says that while the studio hires diverse directors for its films, it needed to broaden the pool of talent coming into the Hollywood system.

"It doesn't address the whole issue. But we think it's a real positive," he said.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc., is the only major studio in Hollywood led by a person who is non-white, CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

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