In 2024, Mazda partnered with Tribeca Festival to launch Moving the Spotlight, a first-of-its-kind screening and awards ceremony designed to help elevate emerging, underrepresented voices in film.

Unlike other corporate activations, we didn’t create a brief for filmmakers to execute against. Instead, Mazda gave deserving filmmakers a once-in-a-lifetime shot at showing their art at Tribeca. That’s because like most top-tier competitive festivals, Tribeca only selects a fraction of a percent of the films it receives (from over 8,000 submissions).

So we worked with Tribeca to give directors who submitted to the festival but initially didn’t make the cut a second opportunity.  

In addition to leading creative in execution of event branding, collateral, real-time DOOH activations, social media and influencer support and wider program details, I also worked with Tribeca Artist Programs to curate and nominate our shortlist of 7 independent films for inclusion, with a focus on international and queer narratives.

Creative Director: Me

Co-Creative Director: Ben Carmean

Senior Copywriter: Alyssa Free

Senior Designer: Jiaan Co

Editor: Cody Liesinger