In October 2026, a father and son, the Hughenses, accepted a $25,000 cheque in front of a crowd of creators at the Coffee With Creators meetup, where the contest organisers announced the winner. Adobe put up the money, entries were scored by a jury that YouTubers Colin and Samir appointed together with the company, and audience size was not among its criteria. The Big Idea Fund is run by the Los Angeles duo, who talk about creators and what is happening on YouTube on a channel with 1.63 million subscribers.
The Hughenses introduced audiences to the Pinkerton family back in November 2024 with a pilot, which now has more than a million views. The winning plan is a five-part documentary series about the family, who, according to the winner announcement, adopted five boys with Down syndrome. They wanted to go back to the family, but the trip is expensive and, according to the organisers, their channel is barely paying the bills. The son made the entry by turning on the camera, telling the story and sending the video in. It runs about three and a half minutes and was published as unlisted on the same channel as the pilot, Stories Made With Love.
The Stories Made With Love channel, run by the father and son, had 170K subscribers on YouTube in October 2026. The US trade site Digiday described the son, Jackson Hughens, as a creator with “just over 670 subscribers on YouTube”. His personal channel had 678 at the time. The Creator Support channel had 55.2K subscribers. A grant for the Creator Support audience went to a family team whose channel has more subscribers than the show’s own channel.
Big Idea Fund entries were videos made in Adobe tools
On the Creator Support show, the duo helps specific creators with their problems. The Big Idea Fund is a contest intended for its audience. The entry was a pitch video, a presentation of a dream creative project. The video had to be created or edited in at least one Adobe tool. It was uploaded to YouTube. According to the organisers, hundreds of pitches came in, ranging from world football tours to launching a sitcom to an attempt by one of the youngest people to summit Everest.
The jury scored each pitch on four criteria weighted at a quarter each, for concept, expression of the idea, technique and feasibility. In their September 2026 entry, the Hughenses broke down the grant budget across the five episodes. A single documentary for their channel costs $5,000, according to the father, David Hughens.
An EU producer could not have entered a five-part documentary, because the contest was open only to adult legal residents of the US. In Czechia, documentary series of five to thirteen episodes are supported by a funding call from the Czech State Audiovisual Fund (SFA) worth CZK 13.5 million. It accepts applications until 16 November 2026. Funding decisions are made by the Fund’s Council. Its criteria include “audience potential”, meaning the target group and the distribution and marketing strategy. Before completion, a supported work must have secured primary distribution in Czechia, meaning a nationwide television broadcast or release on a video-on-demand service for at least six months.
The winner shoulders production of the series alone
Neither the organiser nor Adobe is obliged to provide distribution or financing for the winning project beyond the prize, and development and production remain with the winner. The rules make it a condition of accepting the prize that the winner uses at least one Adobe product in the creation, production or post-production process and does not use competing alternatives.
The rules give the organiser a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to the entry videos of all contestants, including those who did not win. By accepting the prize, the winner gives Colin, Samir and Adobe a perpetual right to use their name, likeness, voice and statements, as well as all footage and recordings from filming related to the contest, the winning entry, the project and the Creator Support show. The rules do not, however, contain a transfer of rights to the series itself.
Samir Chaudry, one half of the duo, wants to create a space for multi-part series and film-style projects right within their own community. He says the two of them are close both to creators and to Hollywood. He wants to be “a bridge between the worlds”. Adam Wescott, CEO and co-founder of Home Game Studios, considers the project a good “proof of concept”. In his view, to go further than the Adobe-paid fund, the pair will likely need partners among “traditional Hollywood players”. According to Digiday, it is not clear on what terms the duo and Adobe reached their agreement.
Adobe also watches the entries itself and may reach out to creators who catch its interest. The prize also includes a trip to Los Angeles to film an episode of the show about the winning project, with a round-trip economy-class flight and a hotel. The father and son also want the duo’s advice on “how much we should be involved in front of the camera”, David Hughens said. The cheque went to the Hughenses, and under the rules, the recording from filming the Creator Support episode about their project is owned exclusively by Colin and Samir.
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