Jenny Slate, Kaitlyn Dever and Issa Rae Set for Chanel and Tribeca’s Through Her Lens Jury
Tribeca and Chanel will celebrate the milestone 10th edition of their Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program in NYC on Sept. 16-18.
Launched in 2015, the artist development initiative aids U.S.-based women and non-binary filmmakers by providing funding, creative support and hands-on development opportunities. Through Her Lens brings together emerging filmmakers, an A-list jury and leading industry voices for three days of workshops, conversations, mentorship and community-building.
Participants take part in intimate mentor-led sessions spanning script development, directing, music composition and costume design, and then refine their projects before delivering a live pitch to the jury. This year’s jury will feature Kaitlyn Dever, Meghann Fahy, Allison Janney, filmmaker Payal Kapadia, Issa Rae and Jenny Slate; Sarah Paulson, producer Riva Marker, producer Frida Perez, filmmaker Constance Tsang and actress Odessa Young will serve as mentors.
One team will be awarded full financing to produce their short film with support from Tribeca Studios, while four additional teams receive development grants. The program’s advisory committee also welcomes three new members — Lucy Liu, Tessa Thompson and Olivia Wilde — who join returning members Jane Fonda, Patty Jenkins, Laura Karpman, A.V. Rockwell and Kerry Washington. Pamela Abdy, Colleen Atwood, Laura Karpman, Liu and Rockwell will also take part as conversation leaders.
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“Through Her Lens isn’t just a program — it’s a community Tribeca and Chanel have built with purpose,” Jane Rosenthal, co-founder and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, said in a statement. “Throughout these ten years, we’ve created a space where women filmmakers champion each other’s work, alumni open doors for one another, and belonging to this network truly means something in our industry. In partnership with Chanel, we’ve been steadfast in our commitment to amplify voices that have always been here but too often go unheard. Through Her Lens is about consistency, perseverance, and meaningful change — the kind that shifts the very fabric of our culture at a moment when it’s needed most.”
Fourty-five short films have been developed through the workshop, with nine fully-funded winning films. Projects have premiered at Sundance and TIFF, and have secured distribution through platforms including Max, Searchlight and Criterion. Eight of the nine winning filmmakers are women of color, and over 70 percent of all participants are women or non-binary people of color.
Below are this year’s selected projects:
Buddy Boy
Rachel Harrison Gordon (director; screenwriter); Emily Kron (producer)
After twenty years of voicing a beloved cartoon capybara, a Black actor undergoes vocal surgery to escape the character that defines — and confines — her. But when a younger white actress is cast to replace her for the live-action reboot, she spirals through mimicry and rage, and must ask herself how she will be recognized in a world where she is no longer Buddy Boy.
Cuqui
Gabriela Garcia Medina (director; co-screenwriter); Laura Fries (producer)
Cuqui, a bubbly and relentlessly optimistic Uber driver, needs every tip to fund the legal fees to bring her mom and brother to the U.S. But when she picks up an uptight passenger, one wild ride through L.A. traffic threatens her perfect rating—and her family’s future.
Smoked
Alice Gu (director); Katie White (producer)
Amid a raging wildfire, a mother’s search for her son’s plushie becomes a desperate fight to preserve his childhood innocence and her own dwindling sanity. A story of survival, love, and the insanity of customer service — based on the director’s lived experience of the Palisades fires.
Strangers
Karishma Dev Dube (director; screenwriter); MG Evangelista (producer)
Shy newlyweds Ronny and Pari are clumsily navigating intimacy in the early days of their arranged marriage when a charged subway altercation jolts them into a surprising new dynamic.
Tartalo
Kat Whalen (director; screenwriter); Ginger Kearns (producer)
When a young Basque shepherdess finds herself suddenly alone on the Western frontier, she fights to protect her flock from violent marauding cowboys amid the looming presence of a mysterious mythical beast.