Photo credit: VisualsbyPierre for Street Dreams

At the Tribeca Film Festival, we pride ourselves on being on the forefront of innovation, originality and discovery. One of the most important events that takes place during the Festival is the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, held in collaboration with renowned Harvard Business School Professor Clay Christensen and the Disruptor Foundation. Co-sponsored by Accenture and AT&T, the 6th annual awards ceremony will be moderated by Perri Peltz at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center BMCC, on Friday April 24 at 11:00 a.m

In keeping with its mission statement, the 6th annual TDIA recognizes creative visionaries who are shaking up their various industries through both traditional and non-traditional means. With honorees from such wide-ranging fields as technology, biomed, philanthropy, healthcare, sports, fashion, and spirituality, this year’s diverse class of groundbreakers, inventors and activists truly deserve recognition.

Though all are worthy of the spotlight, we’ve chosen 5 TDIA honorees that exemplify the diversity and prestige of this highly coveted prize.

Jason Silva
Futurist

A familiar face to both Tribeca Film Institute and Tribeca Film Festival audiences, Jason Silva is a true jack-of-all-trades: media artist, philosopher, TV personality and futurist. He is perhaps best known as the Emmy nominated host of National Geographic Channel’s hit TV series Brain Games (which airs in over 100 countries). Most recently, he is the creator behind Shots of Awe, a provocative short film series on Test Tube that explores challenging topics, such as the nature of human existence, from Silva’s own unique point of view. Each week, the charismatic and radical Silva shares “inspired nuggets of techno-rapture” that challenge, surprise and inspire his audience. You can’t help but be impressed as you watch this engrossing series that is as beautifully produced and thought provoking as it is innovative and daring.

Reshma Saujani
Girls Who Code

Former Deputy Public Advocate of New York City Reshma Saujani has dedicated herself to empowering women, both young and old, and developing a voice and economic opportunity for women who have neither. Saujani is being recognized for founding Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring teenaged girls (an estimated 1 million young women by 2020) and supplying them with the tools and knowledge they need to pursue futures in technology and engineering. Saujani is also the author of Women Who Don’t Wait in Line, which offers readers a new model of female leadership that focuses on risk-taking and innovation rather than passivity and acceptance of the status quo.

Saujani will be honored alongside Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser at the 2015 TDIA. With the skills they learned during the summer Girls Who Code program, the two developed the wildly successful (and feminist too!) app, Tampon Run, while still in high school.

Shane Smith
VICE Media

Described by the New York Times as “a cross between a punk rocker and Fortune 500 Executive,” Shane Smith co-founded VICE magazine in Montreal back in 1994. Since its humble beginnings, VICE has become a multi-billion dollar global company operating in 30 countries and enjoying partnerships with CNN, Intel and HBO. Smith has travelled all over the world for his work, bringing to his audience compelling stories from tumultuous countries such as North Korea and Liberia. Recently, the VICE Co-Founder sat down with President Barack Obama for an in-depth interview about issues ranging from climate change, the economy, foreign policy and marijuana legalization.

Darren Walker
Ford Foundation

As president of the Ford Foundation since 2013, Darren Walker oversees the second largest philanthropy in the US that operates with over $12 billion in assets and $500 million in annual giving. Though the Ford Foundation exerts worldwide influence, with offices in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Walker calls New York his home. For over 20 years, Walker has been a pillar in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds known for both his extensive community and economic development in Harlem and for his work on social justice and humanitarian issues around the globe. Previously, Walker served as the Ford Foundation’s VP for Education, Creativity and Free Expression, championing the JustFilms initiative, one of the largest funding sources for documentary films.

Jennifer Hyman
Rent the Runway

A graduate from Harvard Business School, Jennifer Hyman is a hero to women and fashionistas as the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rent the Runway. The multi-million dollar company is revolutionizing closets across the country, allowing its disciples to experiment with fashion without breaking the bank. The e-commerce savvy Hyman is in change of strategic initiatives for RTR, and she, and her co-founder Jennifer Fleiss, have built Rent the Runway into a site valued at around $400 million since its inception in 2009.

Click here to learn more about the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards and all of the 2015 honorees.