Ben Thompson

Shorts Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival

After graduating from Aberystwyth University in 2003 Ben Thompson left Wales to head to New York. Shortly after arriving he joined the Tribeca Film Festival, a festival established a year earlier by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal to revitalize downtown Manhattan after the September 11th attacks. While there he discovered a passion for short form storytelling and creativity and began working with the filmmaker and programming teams watching short film submissions. In 2010 he became the Shorts Programmer for the festival.

In addition to his role at Tribeca, Ben spent several years working in the UAE at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and has consulted for a number of other festivals in a programming capacity. He is fascinated by the influence film has had on our world and culture and on his travels searches out new stories from around the globe. By most recent count he has watched over 10,000 short films for Tribeca alone. An avid filmmaker himself, when taking a break from programming shorts he has directed and produced dozens of short films and documentaries. His multi-award winning short film, The Yellow Balloon went on to screen at festivals around the world and was selected as part of MOMA’s permanent educational department collection in 2012.