Receiving the Spark Award at IndieWire Honors on June 4 in Los Angeles, “Long Story Short” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg opened by admitting, “The truth is I feel like a failure a lot of the time,” then laid out the quiet professional heartbreak behind making a
When “Long Story Short” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg stepped onto the IndieWire Honors stage to accept the Spark Award, it didn’t start with celebration. It started with honesty.
“The truth is I feel like a failure a lot of the time. ” Bob-Waksberg said as he began his acceptance speech. The two-time Emmy nominee for Outstanding Animated Program had just been honored in Los Angeles at an IndieWire Honors ceremony held Thursday. June 4. alongside an intimate cocktail reception and the awards program.
He’s a familiar figure to television audiences thanks to his first Netflix series. “BoJack Horseman.” Now he’s back at the streaming service with a more human story about the Schwooper family. and in his remarks he moved quickly from gratitude to the harder work that comes between one success and the next.
“A lot of this business is you pour your full heart into something and then a man in a room whose boss is a spreadsheet tells you the numbers don’t look good. Maybe your full heart wasn’t enough or too much or just the wrong kind. You imagine worlds filled with characters that you fill with backstories and hopes. dreams. fears. anxieties. relationships. all snuffed out with a phone call. ‘They love you, but the network is passing,’” he said.
He continued with the smaller, crushing rejections that can hit even when a creative team believes in what it’s making.
“You write a movie about a rock band, you write songs for the rock band, you sing them in the shower, you picture your song being performed at the Oscars. The script never even goes to the studios. The producer thinks it isn’t ready. She’s probably right.”
As artists, he said, people dream about nights like this—recognition that feels like the world finally catches up to the work.
“As artists, we dream about moments like this where we are recognized for our brilliance, originality, bravery. But the truth is that the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of our moments are so the opposite of this.”
That contrast shaped the center of his thesis. Awards may be rare, but making something remains the daily task.
“We have to find meaning in the work itself,” he said. “We have to be sustained and enriched by the act of creation while knowing full well that act might be all that it ever is.”
By the end of his speech, the tone shifted back to the simple thrill that brought him to the page in the first place. Bob-Waksberg said he’s grateful for the act of creating “Long Story Short,” and he closed by describing what still pulls him forward.
“I still find the work to be thrilling, surprising, new. I still sing my songs in the shower and sometimes if you’re very. very lucky. you get to collaborate with a group of like-minded weirdos on something that means something to you. and you sneak it past the gatekeepers and the algorithms and somebody somewhere tells you that it also means something to them. and that’s pretty nice. too.”.
This season’s IndieWire Honors ceremony took place Thursday, June 4, in Los Angeles, with programming that included an intimate cocktail reception and ceremony. More editorial and social content from the night was teased for later, including video interviews, outtakes, and additional coverage.
Bob-Waksberg’s full speech is available to watch in the video above.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg Long Story Short Spark Award IndieWire Honors BoJack Horseman Schwooper family Emmy nominee Netflix Los Angeles June 4