Tribeca Studios Vital Stories (formerly Incubation Labs)

Overview

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) Incubation Labs are no longer active. The program that has replaced them in the Tribeca ecosystem is the Vital Stories Filmmaker Program, run by Tribeca Studios in partnership with Eli Lilly and Company. Launched in September 2025, Vital Stories is a filmmaker incubator focused on authentic portrayals of disease and health conditions in film and television.

The program begins with a Creative Summit in New York City that convenes approximately 20 filmmakers for mentorship, workshops, and industry guidance. From this group, 3 projects are selected to receive end-to-end production support for short films, including development funding, mentorship from Tribeca Studios and industry leaders, and a guaranteed world premiere at the Tribeca Festival 2026.

If you are an emerging filmmaker interested in health storytelling and authentic disease representation, contact tribecastudios@tribecafilm.com for information about future cycles.

Background: The Former TFI Incubation Labs

The original Tribeca Film Institute Incubation Labs were a professional development program that paired emerging documentary and narrative filmmakers with experienced mentors. Rather than a cash grant, the labs provided structured mentorship, editorial feedback, and access to industry professionals through TFI's network. The program operated alongside other TFI offerings including the IF/Then Shorts program, the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, and the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund.

TFI restructured its programs in recent years, and the Incubation Labs as previously structured are no longer offered. Filmmakers who encounter references to the program in older resources should be aware that the current Tribeca filmmaker development ecosystem operates through Tribeca Studios rather than TFI.

What Vital Stories Provides

The Vital Stories program operates in two phases:

Phase 1: Creative Summit

Approximately 20 filmmakers are selected to attend a Creative Summit in New York City. The summit provides:

• Mentorship from entertainment industry professionals and medical experts
• Workshops on authentic health and disease representation
• Access to a content creation toolkit developed by Lilly and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
• Industry guidance from Tribeca Studios leadership

The Creative Summit is the entry point for all participants. Attendance and participation in the summit are required to be considered for the production phase.

Phase 2: Production Support

From the Creative Summit group, 3 projects are selected by an expert jury to receive full production support:

• End-to-end production funding for a short film
• Mentorship from Tribeca Studios and industry leaders throughout production
• Guaranteed world premiere at the Tribeca Festival 2026
• Post-premiere support for development as longer-form features or series

The 2026 inaugural winners were selected by a jury comprising Yvette Nicole Brown (actor, writer, producer), Amanda Farrand (EVP of Brands and Business Development at Imagine Entertainment), Stacey Walker King (Chief Brand Officer at MACRO), and Lina Polimeni (SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer at Eli Lilly).

2026 Inaugural Winners

The three short films selected for the inaugural Vital Stories cycle are:

• RUN IT BACK (Abby Pierce, Tiny Cruz)
• Do I Know You From Somewhere? (Angela Wong Carbone, Alan Scott Neal)
• Reconstructing Charlie (Lara Everly)

These projects were chosen from 19 film teams that participated in the Creative Summit in Fall 2025 in New York City. All three will premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival and receive ongoing development support for expansion into longer-form formats.

Eligibility

The Vital Stories program targets emerging filmmakers dedicated to authentic portrayals of health and disease in content. The program grew out of a study sponsored by Lilly in partnership with Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which found that characters with five of the most prevalent health conditions (obesity, cancer, dementia, diabetes, and atopic dermatitis) rarely appear on screen and are often reduced to stereotypes when they do.

Specific eligibility requirements for future cycles have not been fully published. Filmmakers interested in applying should contact Tribeca Studios directly at tribecastudios@tribecafilm.com for current guidelines and application information.

How Vital Stories Differs From the Old Incubation Labs

Who Should Apply

Emerging filmmakers interested in the intersection of health storytelling and narrative film. The program is specifically designed for screenwriters and directors committed to authentic portrayals of patient experiences, disease, and health conditions. Filmmakers who have a short film concept that addresses any of the health conditions identified in the USC Annenberg study, or related health narratives, are the strongest candidates.

The program is not a general-purpose development lab. Filmmakers without a health-related project should look to other Tribeca programs, such as Tribeca All Access or the Tribeca Festival submission categories.

See Also

For understanding how development labs and incubators fit into a broader financing and career strategy, see Documentary Financing: Building Your Stack. For production planning once a project moves from development to production, use the Production Schedule Calculator. For estimating the budget needed for a short film production, use the Indie Film Budget Calculator.