Behind the Scenes: Short Film Submissions

For the first time ever, the Tribeca Film Festival has opened for podcast submissions! To celebrate, we’re bringing you a special behind the scenes episode about how our short film submissions process works. Leah chatted with Tribeca’s short programmers, Sharon Badal and Ben Thompson, to learn what they look for in the films they select, common mistakes they see, and what filmmakers can do to stand out.  For more information and to submit your film or podcast, go to tribecafilm.com/submissions. Do you want to learn more about how Tribeca works? Or have you been to a talk at the festival that you’d like to hear again? Let us know! Email us at [email protected] or follow us on social @tribeca. You can watch some the short films discussed in the episode at the links below:  Chloe Sarbib’s Girl Friend Marshall Curry’s The Neighbors’ Window Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane’s Dear Basketball

Fierce, a podcast from iHeartRadio and Tribeca Studios, tells the incredible stories of women who history has undervalued. In this episode, you’ll hear about Cheng I Sao, the most successful pirate of all time. She innovated the piracy business model, established strict rules about the treatment of women on her ships, successfully evaded the Chinese government, and, unlike pretty much every other pirate, retired.  To listen to the rest of Fierce, go to https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-fierce-31140164/ or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Celebrated singer, songwriter, actor, and producer John Legend sat down with Sara Bareilles as part of Tribeca’s 2018 Storytellers Series. They discussed John Legend’s first job out of college, Sara Bareilles’ most embarrassing song, and their collaboration on Jesus Christ Superstar.  Multiplatinum artist John Legend has garnered eleven GRAMMY Awards®, an Academy Award®, a Golden Globe Award®, a Tony Award®, and an Emmy Award®, making Legend the first African-American man to earn an EGOT. Legend has released seven celebrated albums including, Get Lifted (2004), Once Again (2006), Evolver (2008), Love in the Future (2013), Darkness and Light (2016), A Legendary Christmas (2018), and Bigger Love (2020). Legend starred in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018, winning an Emmy® for Outstanding Variety Special and nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor (Limited Series). Legend joined The Voice for Season 16 (2019), and is currently a coach on Season 19. John is a partner in Get Lifted Film Co., serving as an Executive Producer for Southern Rites, United Skates, WGN America's Underground, and films Southside with You and La La Land. As a philanthropist, Legend initiated the #FREEAMERICA campaign in 2015 to change the national conversation surrounding our country's misguided criminal justice policies and to end mass incarceration.  Sara Bareilles first achieved mainstream critical praise in 2007 with her widely successful hit "Love Song,” which reached No. 1 in 22 countries around the world from her debut album Little Voice. Since then, Sara has taken home a GRAMMY award®, received seven GRAMMY® nominations, two Tony® nominations and three Emmy® nominations. Her book, Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song, was released in the fall of 2015 by Simon & Schuster and is a New York Times best seller. Making her Broadway debut, Sara composed the music and lyrics for “Waitress,” and made her Broadway acting debut in 2017 by stepping into the show's lead role.  On April 5, 2019 Sara released her fifth full-length and first album of original material since 2013, entitled Amidst The Chaos. For this latest body of work, she joined forces in the studio with legendary Academy Award®-winning producer T Bone Burnett.  As a result, the album spotlights her voice as a singer and storyteller like never before, while making an enduring statement. Recently, Sara teamed up with Apple as an executive producer for Little Voice, a 10-episode series for which she will create the original music. 

Initially discovered for her original voice in breakout film Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham has gone on to win two Golden Globe Awards®, including Best Actress for her work on Girls, which was created by Dunham and helmed by Jenni Konner, whose other work includes the limited series Camping and Undeclared. In a can’t miss conversation with Emmy® and Golden Globe® award winning actress America Ferrera, Dunham and Konner discussed Girls, the industry, and the highs and lows of their careers at Tribeca 2017. Lena Dunham created and starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series Girls, for which she also served as executive producer, writer, and director. She was nominated for eight Emmy® awards and has won two Golden Globes®, including Best Actress for her work on Girls. In 2010, she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for her feature Tiny Furniture, which she also starred in and directed. In 2013, Dunham made history as the first female to win a DGA award in the Best TV Comedy Director category. Jenni Konner (Executive Producer) is a writer, director and producer best known for executive producing and writing Girls, which ran for six acclaimed seasons on HBO. Over the course of its run, Girls was nominated for two Emmys® for Outstanding Comedy Series and won the 2013 Golden Globe® for Best Comedy Television Series as well as the 2013 BAFTA for Best International Show. Konner also wrote and directed the limited series Camping for HBO. She began her career as a writer on Judd Apatow's celebrated television series, Undeclared. Her additional producing credits include the HBO documentaries It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise and Suited. She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she runs her production company, I Am Jenni Konner Productions. America Ferrera is an award-winning actress, director and producer known for her breakthrough role as “Betty Suarez” on ABC’s hit comedy, Ugly Betty. For her performance, Ferrera was recognized with a Golden Globe®, Emmy® and SAG Award. Ferrera most recently produced and starred in the NBC workplace comedy, Superstore. She also executive produced and directed episodes of NETFLIX’s new Latinx Dramedy, Gentefied. In 2018, Ferrera released her first book, American Like Me, a New York Times best-seller. In 2017, she worked as one of the driving forces alongside other powerful women in Hollywood to establish the TIME’S UP movement.

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu, one of only three directors to ever win consecutive Oscars® and the first to do so in 65 years, sat down with ground-breaking performance artist Marina Abramović to discuss his beautifully varied work as part of Tribeca’s 2017 Directors Series. Academy Award®-winning director, writer, and producer Alejandro G. Iñárritu is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working today. He made his feature directorial debut at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique in 2000 and was nominated for a Foreign Film Academy Award® with Amores Perros. His following credits include 21 Grams, Babel, which garnered seven Oscar® nominations and won the Best Director Award at the 2006 Festival de Cannes, and Biutiful, presented in competition in 2010 at Cannes. Iñárritu took home the prize for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards® for Birdman. The following year, Iñárritu won his second consecutive Academy Award® for Best Director for The Revenant. He is the first Mexican filmmaker to be nominated for either director or producer in the history of the Academy Awards® and the first Mexican filmmaker to receive a Best Picture award at Cannes. Most recently, Iñárritu created the VR installation Carne y Arena (Virtually present, Physically invisible), which previewed at the 2017 Festival de Cannes as the first VR project ever included in the official selection, and garnered Iñárritu his fifth Academy Award®, a special Oscar® presented to him by the Board of Governors.  Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art, creating some of the form’s most important early works. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2010, Abramović had her first major U.S. retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in “The Artist is Present” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2014, she completed the three-month performance “512 Hours” at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Abramović founded Marina Abramović Institute (MAI), a platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among thinkers of all fields.

BAFTA, Peabody®, and Emmy Award® winning writer-director Ava DuVernay sat down with GRAMMY Award® winning musician Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. They discussed why DuVernay is always shooting, the art of lighting and framing dark-skinned actors, and the importance of finding your tribe.    Audience questions: Tips for writer’s block? Follow up: The pressure of being watched? How do you navigate a male-dominated industry? Do you know everyone prior to being on set? How do you assemble your team? Who are the next iconic female voices?   Winner of BAFTA, Peabody® and Emmy Awards®, Academy Award® nominee Ava DuVernay ’s directorial work includes the Oscar®-winning civil rights drama Selma, the Oscar®-nominated social justice documentary 13th and the Disney children’s adventure A Wrinkle in Time, which made her the highest-grossing Black woman director in American box office history. In 2019, she created, wrote, produced and directed the Emmy Award®-winning limited series When They See Us. She is currently producing the fifth season of her acclaimed series, Queen Sugar. Winner of the 2012 Sundance Best Director Prize for her second independent film Middle of Nowhere, DuVernay amplifies the work of Black artists, people of color and women of all kinds through her multi-platform arts collective ARRAY. ARRAY is a multi-platform media company and arts collective based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2012 by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, the company currently operates a trio of branded entertainment entities: ARRAY Releasing, ARRAY Filmworks and ARRAY Creative Campus in partnership with the non-profit cinema and social justice organization ARRAY Alliance. www.arraynow.com   Famously known as co-founder of A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip has become one of the most influential Hip Hop figures of all-time, uniquely fusing rap, jazz, and other styles with piercing, socially conscious lyrics. The group released its sixth and final album We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service in November 2016 to glowing critical acclaim. His atypical approach and appreciation to hip hop as well as other genres has earned Q-Tip success as a solo artist and producer, working with such celebrated artists as the Beastie Boys, Busta Rhymes, J. Dilla, Janet Jackson, Queen Latifah, Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson and Mary J. Blige. He has most recently collaborated with Solange, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Arcade Fire and the Chemical Brothers. Q-Tip’s critically praised solo albums include Amplified, Grammy®-nominated The Renaissance, and Kamaal the Abstract. Q-Tip is currently the host of Apple Music’s Abstract Radio, a weekly Friday show where he digs deep into underground favorites and musical legends. Q-Tip’s artistic innovation and exploration continues through his work as a recording artist, a music producer, a DJ, an actor, a film producer, curator, advocate, and ambassador of Hip Hop Culture. He brings his industry expertise to the Kennedy Center to curate a full season of Hip Hop across disciplines, transforming the performing arts center into a home for Hip Hop Culture and history for years to come.

In 2017, Tribeca premiered the extended music video for Common’s “Letter to the Free,” directed by Bradford Young. After the screening, Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, and three time GRAMMY® winner Common sat down with author and filmmaker Nelson George to discuss “Letter to the Free,” Common’s work on Selma and 13th, and the power of music.   Common is an artist, actor, activist and, most recently, a New York Times best-selling author with the release of his latest memoir Let Love Have The Last Word. With a storied career spanning three decades, his work has been recognized with numerous GRAMMY Awards®, as well as an Emmy® and an Academy Award® for the song "Glory" which he co-wrote and performed with John Legend. In Summer 2019, he released his new album Let Love, inspired by his work and experiences that came from writing his second memoir of the same name.   Nelson George is an author and filmmaker who celebrates black culture in America. He was a producer and writer on the Netflix series The Get Down and directed the Lifetime movie The Real MVP. George's other directing credits include the theatrical documentary A Ballerina's Tale about Misty Copeland as well as docs for ESPN and VH1. He is serving as executive producer on Outlaws, a documentary series on Afeni and Tupac Shakur for the FX Network. He has written many non-fiction books on African-American life including Hip Hop America, The Death of Rhythm & Blues, and the current The Nelson George Mixtape on Pacific Books. He has a blog on Substack also titled The Nelson George Mixtape. His next novel, The Darkest Hearts, will be published by Akashic Books in August. George was born in Brooklyn, New York.

If you’re a comedy fan, this conversation is for you. Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks director Paul Feig sat down with SNL co-head writer, actor, and stand-up comedian Michael Che at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. They discussed movie jail, internet backlash, and why it’s so hard to make good comedy.  Paul Feig is a successful filmmaker, writer and producer whose films have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. As a producer, Feig counts series like Love Life for HBO Max and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. His recent work includes directing Last Christmas and A Simple Favor. In 2016, Feig directed and co-wrote the critically acclaimed reboot of Ghostbusters. In 2015, Feig wrote, directed and produced the comedy Spy. Feig’s other films include The Heat  and Bridesmaids. Feig is also known for directing and co-executive producing The Office. Currently, Feig hosts his Quarantine Cocktail Time on his Instagram live while in quarantine. Michael Che is an American comedian, writer, and actor.  Named one of Rolling Stone's 50 Funniest People, Che is currently in his 6th season as co-anchor of Saturday Night Live’s iconic “Weekend Update” segment where he is also a co-head writer for the show. In 2018, Che co-hosted the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards® on NBC. Prior to joining SNL, Che was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also appeared in Chris Rock’s film Top Five. His first hour-long comedy special Michael Che Matters premiered on Netflix in 2016. 

Academy Award® winning actress and director, Jodie Foster, was interviewed by Tony Award® winning director, Julie Taymor at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. They discussed their wildly different directing styles, why they’re both sick of the woman director conversation, and the audition that launched Jodie Foster’s career. In a career spanning over 50 years, Jodie Foster is considered  to be one of the most critically acclaimed actresses of her generation. Her roles in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, Nell, Contact, Panic Room, and The Brave One have all won her international attention. Foster’s stunning performances in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs earned her two Academy Awards® for Best Actress. Behind the camera, Foster made her motion picture directorial debut in 1991 with Little Man Tate, in which she also starred. She went on to direct Home for the Holidays, The Beaver, Money Monster and recently episodes of Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Black Mirror and Tales From The Loop. Julie Taymor: Film: The Glorias, starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Janelle Monáe and Bette Midler based on Gloria Steinem’s My Life on the Road, also Oedipus Rex (Emmy®) starring Jessye Norman; Titus starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange; Frida (Academy Award®) starring Salma Hayek; Across the Universe (Golden Globe® and Academy Award® nominations); The Tempest starring Helen Mirren; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Theatre: The Lion King (two Tonys®); M. Butterfly starring Clive Owen; Grounded starring Anne Hathaway, The Green Bird, and Juan Darién. Opera: The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera) and Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel. She is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

This legendary duo came together at the Beacon Theatre as part of Tribeca's 2019 Directors Series to reflect upon their illustrious decades of collaboration from Mean Streets to The Irishman. This podcast includes clips from Mean Streets, The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Casino, Silence, and The Wolf of Wall Street.  Robert De Niro launched his motion picture career in Brian De Palma's The Wedding Party in 1969. By 1974, he had won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor in Bang the Drum Slowly and from the National Society of Film Critics for Mean Streets. In 1974 De Niro won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather: Part II. In 1980 he won his second Oscar®, as Best Actor, for Raging Bull. De Niro has also earned Academy Award® nominations for his work in: Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings, the remake of Cape Fear and Silver Linings Playbook. He was most recently seen in The Irishman, his ninth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. The Irishman, based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, either won or was nominated for a multitude of awards including being nominated for best picture from the Academy of Motion Pictures and BAFTA. The Irishman, released by Netflix, also won the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review awards for Best Picture. Prior to The Irishman, De Niro was seen in Warner Bros. The Joker and Tribeca Productions’ and HBO’s Wizard of Lies starring as Bernie Madoff, for which he received both an Emmy Award® nomination for lead actor in a limited series or movie and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding performance by a male actor in a Miniseries or Television movie. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor for his distinguished acting and the Stanley Kubrick Award from the BAFTA Britannia Awards. De Niro was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards. He served as the jury president of the 64th Cannes Film Festival.  In 2020, De Niro received the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. De Niro takes pride in his production company, Tribeca Productions, and the Tribeca Film Festival, which he founded with Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff. Through Tribeca Productions, De Niro has developed projects on which he has served as producer, director and actor. Tribeca's A Bronx Tale in 1993 marked De Niro’s directorial debut. De Niro also directed The Good Shepherd in 2006.