who is she?
Tara Sheffer is an award-winning filmmaker from Arkansas with an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is a Sundance Producers Lab, Gotham / Rotterdam Producing Lab, and Film Independent Fast Track fellow, and received the Robert Oberman/Gregory Pickert Media Services Award for excellence in creative producing. She recently produced the feature IN TRANSIT (Edinburgh, Deauville, NewFest Audience Award), starring Jennifer Ehle. Her work includes dozens of critically-acclaimed short films, notably A LIEN (Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short), F*CK THAT GUY (deadCenter Best Live Action Short, PROOF Grand Jury Award), TRAPPED (SXSW Jury Award, Palm Springs ShortsFest Best U.S. Short), PLAISIR (SXSW Official Selection, Searchlight Short), and she line produced THE LETTER ROOM (Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short). Tara’s directorial work includes MY DEAR GOD (New Orleans Film Festival Official Selection and winner of the Sara Driver Award) and SCRATCH-OFF (winner of the Marlyn Mason Grand Prize at the Rhode Island Flickers and winner of the NYU Tisch King Screenwriting Award). She previously worked as an assistant to Scott Rudin and as coordinator at the Department of Motion Pictures.
Labs and Artist Residencies
2024 Sundance Producing Fellow
2024 Film Independent Fast Track Fellow
2024 The Gotham/Rotterdam Producing Fellow
2024 Artist in Residence at the University of Central Arkansas
2021 Women at Sundance Strategy Intensive in NYC
Awards and Nominations
Shortlisted for Academy Award for Best Live Action Short film for A LIEN
Winner: 2024 Rhode Island International Film Festival “Flickers” Marlyn Mason Grand Prize for SCRATCH-OFF
Winner: 2024 NYU King Award for Screenwriting for SCRATCH-OFF
Finalist: 2024 NYU King Award for SCRATCH-OFF
Winner: 2024 First Run Film Festival Craft Awards for SCRATCH-OFF: Sound Design, Original Score, Acting: Robin Mullins
Winner: 2023 NYU Riese Post Production Award for SCRATCH-OFF
Winner: 2021 Robert Oberman/Gregory Pickert Production Media Services Award for excellence in creative producing
Winner: 2022 First Run Film Festival Craft Award for Producing: PLAISIR and THREADS OF DESIRE
Winner: 2019 Sarah Driver Film Production Award at NYU Graduate Film
Nominated: 2014 Best Director at the Little Rock Film Festival for 13 PIECES OF THE UNIVERSE
Winner: 2015 Best Film and Gold Award at the Eureka Springs Film Festival for 13 PIECES OF THE UNIVERSE
Winner: 2015 Best Short at the Offshoot Film Festival for 13 PIECES OF THE UNIVERSE
Winner: Accelerated Reader Award 8 months in a row in 8th grade at Pulaski Heights Middle School in Little Rock, Arkansas