who is she?
Tara Sheffer is an award-winning filmmaker from Arkansas with an MFA in filmmaking from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has produced over twenty short films including TRAPPED (SXSW Official Selection and Special Jury Award Winner), FLOUNDER (Clermont Ferrand Official Selection and Vimeo Staff Pick), and PLAISIR (SXSW Official Selection and Searchlight Short), and she line-produced THE LETTER ROOM (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film). Tara’s directorial work includes MY DEAR GOD (New Orleans Film Festival) and has screened at Indie Memphis, Nitehawk Shorts, and the Jeff Nichols-founded Arkansas Cinema Society. Her previous positions include coordinator at the Department of Motion Pictures, associate producer of development where she developed WE BOUGHT THE FARM (HGTV), and assistant to Scott Rudin. Tara is a 2024 The Gotham/Rotterdam Producing fellow, the 2021 recipient of the Robert Oberman/Gregory Pickert Media Services award for excellence in creative producing at NYU, and she participated in the 2019 Women at Sundance Strategy Intensive in NYC.
Labs and Artist Residencies
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
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: 1015 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