Judges revealed for Tribeca Festival's $1 million pitch event

Actors Gina Rodriguez, Stephanie Hsu and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are among the judges for Tribeca Festival's AT&T Untold Stories film competition.
The big picture: For the eighth year, Tribeca and AT&T will award a filmmaker $1 million to produce a feature film.
The big picture: AT&T claims this is the largest film production prize in the world given to a single filmmaker at any festival and the only program that guarantees full production of a feature film with a major festival premiere.
Last year's winning film, "Honeyjoon" (written and directed by Lilian T. Mehrel), will world premiere June 7 at the SVA Theatre in New York City.
Zoom in: While several companies have softened or retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion programs, AT&T and Tribeca Festival are leaning in.
Untold Stories provides rising, historically underrepresented filmmakers with resources and support to bring their stories to the screen.
How it works: Five finalists will compete for $1 million, a yearlong mentorship and the opportunity to premiere their feature film at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.
Rodriguez, Hsu and Jean-Baptiste will join 2023 winner David Fortune ("Color Book") on the judges panel, along with director Andrew Ahn ("The Wedding Banquet") and AT&T chief marketing and growth officer Kellyn Kenny.
What they're saying: "As a judge, I'm going to be focused on the heartbeat of your story. If it moves me, then I know that it's going to move a wide spread of audiences around the world," Fortune tells Axios.

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