All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 in total
Why I'm Here: 40 Years, 3,000 Films, and What I Want to Give You
Episode 1: There's a moment I've never forgotten. A screening room full of Academy voters, all of us silently rooting for the same film — and then, in the last 30 seco...
What I Learned Watching 3,000 Short Films!
EPISODE 2: What I Learned Watching 3,000 Short Films Twenty seconds into a short film called Wasp, I knew I was watching something extraordinary. A woman — barefoot, i...
The Number One Mistake That Kills Most Short Films
EPISODE 3: The #1 Mistake That Kills Most Short Films In 30 years of watching more than 3,000 short films as an Oscar voter, I've seen the same mistake kill otherwise ...
What Oscar Voters Actually Look For...
EPISODE 4: What Oscar Voters Actually Look For... Every filmmaker wonders about it. Who are these people deciding which short films get nominated for an Oscar? What ar...
Episode 5: Story is Everything: The Non-Negotiable Foundation
Episode 5: Story is Everything: The Non-Negotiable Foundation After 40 years in Hollywood and more than 3,000 short films watched as an Oscar voter, I can tell you thi...
Working With Actors: What Every Film Director Needs to Know
Episode 6: Working With Actors: What Every Short Film Director Needs to Know I've watched short films in the Oscar screening room where the cinematography was beautifu...
EPISODE 7: The Short Film That Launched Brad Pitt — And What It Teaches Us
EPISODE 7: The Short Film That Launched Brad Pitt — And What It Teaches Us In 1992, we cast a young, unknown actor in a short film made on a shoestring budget, shot in...
Episode 8: Festival Strategy: How to Get Your Film Seen and Win
Episode 8: Festival Strategy: How to Get Your Film Seen and Win 11,153 short films were submitted to Sundance in 2025. They selected 57. Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin te...
Episode 9: The Producer's Eye: How Thinking Like a Producer Makes You a Better Director
The same year a short film I produced was nominated for an Oscar, I directed my own short film. It didn't get nominated. For years I thought that was just bad luck. It...
Episode 10: Everything We've Learned So Far — All In One Film (The Phone Call)
Episode 10: Everything We've Learned So Far — All In One Film (The Phone Call) In one of the most powerful short films ever to win the Oscar, you never see one of the ...