Gem Little's 'Cowards' Wins Tribeca Through Her Lens — SkimNews
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- Gem Little and producer Kseniya Yorsh won the Chanel x Tribeca Through Her Lens program with their short film "Cowards," earning full financing to produce it after three days of workshops and a live pitch
- "Cowards" is set on a summer day in 1999 Chicago and follows 11-year-old Diamond as a rift with her best friend forces her to question what she's been taught about toughness — a story Little drew from her own life
- Halle Berry told the crowd the jury chose the film because "a film on anti-violence, and a female way of dealing with violence was something that the world needs right now," adding that women are "nurturers" more inclined toward peaceful resolution
- Little said youth violence "is a crucial issue, and we don't often talk about it from the lens of young girls and how we're taught to be tough as a survival mechanism," and that her biggest takeaway was having "agency and autonomy over our own stories"
- The five-woman jury — Berry, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Regina King, Ella Rubin, and Meg Ryan — selected the winner after live pitches, with mentors including Celine Song, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Aleshea Harris, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, and Fala Chen
- Regina King joked she initially thought the materials were "homework," then said the new generation marching "to the beat of their own drum" reminded her to "take off the blinders" and appreciate filmmaking's joy amid a grim news cycle
Why it matters: The Through Her Lens award gives an emerging team full financing to actually produce their short — a rare career-launching opportunity for women filmmakers. The jury's anti-violence framing, combined with Little's insistence that girls' relationship to toughness is under-told, positions the winning film to enter the pipeline with both money and thematic urgency behind it.
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