NEW YORK-BASED DIRECTOR TONY MUCCI COMBINES INNOVATION WITH EDGE TO LEAD THE NEXT WAVE OF INFLUENTIAL, YOUNG FILMMAKERS
Source: Money Talks press kit
While many people struggle to connect with what truly drives them, filmmaker Tony Mucci has actually been making movies and mini videos since he was a young boy. But he’s come a long way since those LEGO stop-motion projects. Earlier this year, he premiered his first short film, “Money Talks,” at Tribeca Festival in June 2025, and in doing so, admittedly tasted his first-ever self-validation.
“Money Talks” may have premiered at the festival on Friday the 13th (coincidentally, 40 years to the day “The Shining” premiered), but it was nothing but auspicious. He sold out a 445-seat theater and met rousing applause afterward from viewers that included no fewer than 250 friends and family.
Now the film has just been bestowed Oscar-qualifying status. Mucci took the film to the legendary HollyShorts Festival, won for Best Producer, and then completed all the steps to now see what happens at the Oscars in 2026.
Not bad for a first film that actually runs just a bit more than twice as long as the average short. “Money Talks” clocks in at a whopping 30 minutes.
The film is based on a tradition that Mucci shared with his now 88-year-old grandmother, who is, by Mucci’s description, the most Italian New Yorker ever. “As soon as you get to her house, she starts chopping up tomatoes to make a sauce,” he explains. But that’s not all Grandmom would do. When he was young, she used to give him a $100 bill, known affectionately as an Italian single, for his birthday each year.
Behind the scenes. Source: Money Talks press kit.
Years later, Mucci would realize that all the directors he admired, from Spielberg to Kubrick, made short films as a rite of passage. He decided to take that route and reached back to this childhood $100 bill tradition as a source of inspiration. “I read that 90% of all American dollar bills have cocaine residue on them, and it all just came together to do a story about the lives that one $100 bill touched before it came in contact with the next person,” explains Mucci.
The result is a dynamic, edgy, creative work that stars such notables as Francesca Scorsese (yes, that Scorsese) and Fredro Starr (from the legendary rap group Onyx from back in the day).
The film was shot in only six days without breaks in various locations around New York City, including the Hustler strip club. “I had always wanted to shoot there because it looked so ‘70s. I even built a LEGO version of it when I was a kid.”
But shooting there is not inexpensive, and Mucci had to do a bit of positioning the film as a lesser project than it was in order to get a good rate. Toward the end of the shoot, the manager found out, threatened him, and the entire crew had to high-tail it out of the club!
Such are the perils on the road to a potential Oscar.
When not dodging rough-and-tumble strip club managers, the energy turned back to pulling off some of the most inventive shots in a short film, such as from the inside of a human mouth, and more.
“Everything just came together,” says Mucci. “I actually cast this years in advance. I would meet an actor and make a mental note. The other actors I just sent DMs to, and it all worked out.” Mucci himself also has a cameo.
Behind the scenes. Source: Money Talks press kit.
However, he’s far from a stranger to the world of cameras. Mucci has been the lens behind the music videos of some of the biggest names in the music industry for years. The list includes such artists as Drake, Travis Barker, and Lil Wayne.
He actually got his start by leveraging his interest in photography. Back in the day, Mucci had a Nishika N800. “It’s like a ‘60s Japanese camera that takes four pictures at once,” says Mucci. “The company went bankrupt because no one knew how to edit the pictures together to make a stereoscopic image.”
“But when you do,” he continues, “it’s like a 3D image. So I would go to rap concerts and take shots of artists. Since I was the only one who had that camera, the images stood out. Then people like Juice Wrld and A$AP Rocky would like them and tag me.”
Mucci also just started reaching out to rappers directly, asking if he could do photos of them. It helped him get his foot in the door. “My advice is to work with newer artists and grow with them. Help them with their creative and blow up with them,” he says. He started handling their social media, cover art, and music videos. The real breakthrough came when he answered a call to edit a music video for the now notable artist Rich the Kid. “I stayed up all night editing this video one night in freshman year of college. I added special effects and more. They loved it, and from there it was on.” The creative team behind Rich the Kid would soon go on to bring DaBaby under their wing. Next thing Mucci knew, he dropped out of college and found himself on the Paramount backlot helping with DaBaby’s video. Now it’s onward and upward. “I feel like you just gotta go for it. Shoot a thousand arrows—one has got to hit,” Mucci advises.
One of the arrows these days is definitely AI. Mucci has always been a fan of emerging tech, and even though AI has a negative vibe around it, he feels that when it’s the proper tool to get the job done, it is a great resource.
Promotional poster. Source: Money Talks press kit.
“A great example of this is when I rendered some of the footage in ‘Money Talks’ in 16x9. But I wanted to get the footage extended into the left and right frame, so I ran it through Photoshop’s Gen Fill AI, and it turned out perfectly. So literally several frames in ‘Money Talks’ are simply extended AI on the right and left. You can’t tell because it’s really good at its job and served its purpose to make the story better,” Mucci explains.
He may also turn to a GPT for a quick idea if writer’s block hits.
“The possibilities are becoming infinite with AI,” he explains. “You only need your actors now to film. You could put them on a soundstage with nothing there and AI the whole world around them and have it look pretty good. I definitely think that’s going to be integrated more and more. And if you’re not integrating it, you’re just going to fall behind! Even with masters like Scorsese, there’s going to be AI without them realizing it because their VFX companies are using AI.”
For now, Mucci is hard at work on his next short film, an action piece called “Sniper.” He is simultaneously writing his first feature, titled “Board in School,” which is a true story about his childhood when he got sent away to boarding school. He describes it as a coming-of-age tale told in chapters.
One thing is certain: Mucci has more than broken through in an industry littered with disappointment. Armed with creativity and tech, he’s definitely one to watch.