Untold Stories is a multi-year, multi-tier alliance between AT&T and Tribeca Festival that awards $1 million dollars, mentorship, and comprehensive support to underrepresented filmmakers to produce their films.
This unique partnership has already made a major impact on inclusivity in film. Following its first three nationally-distributed films, Nigerian Prince, Lucky Grandma and Marvelous and the Black Hole, the 2021 winner Land of Gold is currently screening on the festival circuit. Untold Stories’ next feature Smoking Tigers will premiere in 2023.
At the 2023 Tribeca Festival, 5 new talented and diverse filmmaking teams will pitch their original feature scripted film projects to an esteemed Greenlight Committee of industry professionals to decide who will be the next $1 million dollar prize recipient
The winning film will be guaranteed a premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, subject to timely delivery of the film, and dedicated distribution support. The additional 4 teams will receive a grant for development support.
Participating films receive extensive exposure for their stories through dedicated content and press opportunities. Films in Untold Stories have the potential to connect with industry and audiences alike, which has allowed over 40% of all participating films to be completed.
Set in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, Smoking Tigers is a portrait of a lonely 16-year-old Korean American girl named Hayoung who is taken under the wings of three wealthy students she meets at an elite academic boot-camp. As she falls deeper into their world, Hayoung works harder to hide her problematic family and lower-income background from her new friends, only to discover the bittersweet pains of adulthood that will forever shape her life.
In development; will premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.
First-generation Punjabi truck driver Kiran is about to become a father, but his irresponsibility is alienating everyone close to him. When he hears pounding on a shipping container at work and discovers an undocumented girl named Elena inside, everything changes as he sets out on a cross-country road-trip in search of her family. Over the arduous journey, the pair evade the police while feuding and bonding over music, paint swatches, and what it means to be seen as “other” in white America.
Premiered at Tribeca Festival, 2022.
Teenage delinquent Sammy Ko teams up with a surly children's party magician on a bizarre adventure to navigate her tumultuous home life and inner demons. A coming-of-age comedy that touches on unlikely friendships, grief, and finding hope in the darkest moments.
Available to stream on multiple platforms
Set in New York City’s Chinatown, the film follows an ornery, chain-smoking Chinese grandma who goes all in at the casino, landing herself on the wrong side of luck… and in the middle of a gang war.
Available to stream on multiple platforms.
A troubled American teenager, sent away to his mother's native Nigeria, finds himself entangled in a dangerous web of scams and corruption with a con-artist cousin as his guide.
Available to steam on Netflix and other platforms.