Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program Cocktail Celebration

Tribeca and Chanel announced the winning recipient of the eighth annual Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program. Wendi Tang and Hongwei Wu were awarded this year’s grand prize for their film Fishtank and received full production funding for their original short film. Fishtank is about a sardonic 28-year-old Jules who has been sober for a year, but she can’t stop vomiting fish. Striving to put her life back on track, she must preserve control when a fish enthusiast unexpectedly enters her life.

This year’s mentorship program welcomed finalists and jurors for an in-person celebration and gathered esteemed industry leaders from around the globe for a program of workshops, classes, and peer-to-peer sessions for the filmmakers.

“Thank you so much for believing in us, and thank you so much to the Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens Program. Going into this week, we wanted to try hard, do our best, have fun, and learn everything we possibly could. Regardless of the result, we were going to keep moving” said Wendi Tang and Hongwei Wu after receiving the award. “Our writing mentors gave thorough notes from the beginning and helped us see the blind spots in our script. We can’t imagine what our script would look like without the last three days of mentorship. It has evolved so much since the pitch process.”

A total of $100,000 in filmmaker grants was awarded amongst the five projects. In addition to the winning project, the other program participants each received a development grant to support continued work on their respective films to move them closer to production. They included Bitterroot; Homecoming And Going; The Last Rain Cloud Of Summer; The Queen, The Knight, and The Witch.

Following an intensive, three-day workshop, the selected filmmakers pitched their projects to a jury comprised of: actor and director Jennifer Morrison (“Once Upon a Time” and “This is Us”); producer Bonnie Hammer (“It Just Takes One” and “Erase the Hate”); actor Alexandra Shipp (tick, tick…Boom! and “Love, Simon”); producer Riva Marker (Whiplash and Drive); actorThuso Mbedu (The Woman King and “The Underground Railroad”).

“This is an incredibly excellent group of talent, and we believe all of these projects can and will be made,” said the jury. “Fishtank captivated our imaginations with its unique symbolism and universal story.”

Also supporting the filmmakers was a distinguished leadership committee that was comprised of Master Class Advisors, Mentors, and Writing Mentors:

Mentors: actor Annette Bening (American Beauty and 20th Century Women); writer and showrunner Annie Weisman (“Physical” and “Desperate Housewives”); producer Effie Brown (“Dear White People” and But I’m a Cheerleader); producer Haifaa Al-Mansour (Wadjda and Mary Shelley); producer Maria Zuckerman (Nanny and The Mauritanian)

Writing Mentors: writer Becky Johnston (House of Gucci and The Prince of Tides); producer Kelly Carmichael (The Eyes of Tammy Faye and My Week with Marilyn); writer and showrunner Angela Kang (“The Walking Dead” and “Terriers”); writer and showrunner Deepa Mehta (Funny Boy and “Leila”); writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Thor: Love and Thunder and Someone Great)

Master Class Advisors: director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body and “Yellowjackets”); writer, director, and producer Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman and Monster); writer and producer Courtney Kemp (“Power” and “The Good Wife”); composer Laura Karpman (“Ms. Marvel” and “Lovecraft Country”); casting director Carmen Cuba (“Stranger Things” andThe Martian)