Film Festival Line-Up Announced

The line-up of 62 features, documentaries and short films that will be screened in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival was announced April 3. The organizers also named the 10 New York films that Martin Scorcese selected for festival screenings and they kicked off an online vote for the public’s favorite New York movie.

The festival, which will take place May 8-12, will include 11 world premieres, five U.S. premieres and 11 New York premieres. Films will be screened at venues throughout Tribeca, including Stuyvesant High School and the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Details for obtaining tickets have yet to be announced but according to organizers, local residents will receive a 12 percent discount on the movies and an advanced opportunity to buy tickets. Ticket information will be posted on fliers two days prior to the festival.
  A few of the big-name feature films that were chosen for the competition are "Rodger Dodger," starring Campbell Scott, Elizabeth Berkley, Jennifer Beals and Isabella Rosellini and directed by Dylan Kidd; "Scenes of the Crime," with Jeff Bridges and Noah Wylie, directed by Dominique Forma; and "Three Days of Rain," directed by Michael Meredith and starring Peter Falk and Blythe Danner.

More than 1,300 films from around the world were submitted for the festival’s inaugural year. Only first-time filmmakers were eligible for competition and films could not have been commercially distributed or broadcast on television in the United States.


  Awards will be presented for best feature, best feature-length documentary, best short film and best emerging filmmaker. The jurors will be:

For features, Barry Levinson, Frances McDormand, Kevin Spacey and Janet Maslin; for documentaries, Isaac Mizrahi, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Holbrooke, Nancy Burski, Sheila Nevins, Fred Wiseman and Sam Pollard; and for shorts, Julian Schnabel, Helen Hunt, Gary Ross, Warrington Hudlin and Mary Schmidt Campbell.

In addition to the films in competition, the festival will include a showcase of international films; screenings of five restored classic films, including Elia Kazan’s "Viva Zapata" and Howard Hawks’ "Big Sky," presented by Martin Scorsese and The Film Foundation; a series of Scorsese’s favorite New York movies, including "Manhattan," "On the Waterfront" and "Sweet Smell of Success"; and a selection of films commemorating the events of September 11th.

(The complete lists of features, documentaries, New York films and restored classics are below.)

Members of the public will also have an opportunity to vote on their favorite New York film in an online poll. Beginning April 5th, anyone can vote at www.tribecafilmfestival.org. You can choose from more than 250 films listed on the site or enter your own favorite. The top vote-getting film will be screened at the festival on Thursday, May 9.

Film screenings will be but a small part of the five-day extravaganza, which is expected to attract an audience of over 30,000 visitors. There will also be panel discussions on the entertainment industry and the arts, speeches by entertainment bigwigs, a free public rock concert and comedy show in Battery Park on Friday, May 10, and the Tribeca Family Festival on Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 12.

The family festival will include a carnival, film screenings, picnics and other entertainment throughout Tribeca’s streets. (See "Giant Carnival in the Works.")

Tickets for film screenings and other events will go on sale later this month, but details on how the public will be able to purchase tickets have not yet been announced.

De Niro and Rosenthal’s Tribeca Productions had been contemplating a Tribeca Film Festival for years, but moved ahead quickly after Sept. 11 in order to contribute to the long-term recovery of Lower Manhattan. The founders also said that they want to celebrate New York City as a filmmaking capital.


The15 feature films in competition are:

"Blind Spot," directed by Stephen Woloszczuk;
"The Cloud of Unknowing," directed by Richard Sylvarnes;
"A Dog Called Pain" ("Un Perro Llamado Dolor"), directed by Luis Eduardo Aute;
"Emmett’s Mark," directed by Keith Snyder and starring Scott Wolf and Gabriel Byrne;
"The Last Supper," directed by Vojko Anzeljc;
"Manito," directed by Eric Eason;
"Morlang," directed by Tjebbo Penning;
"One Man Up" ("Líuomo in Piu"), directed by Paolo Sorrentino;
"One Man’s Ceiling," directed by Richard Laporta;
"Rodger Dodger," directed by Dylan Kidd and starring Campbell Scott, Elizabeth Berkley, Jennifer Beals and Isabella Rosellini;
"Scenes of the Crime," directed by Dominique Forma and starring Jeff Bridges and Noah Wylie;
"Three Days of Rain," directed by Michael Meredith and starring Peter Falk and Blythe Danner;
"Too Pure," directed by Sunmin Park;
"Twelve Hours," directed by Roul Marchand-Sanchez.
"Washington Heights," directed by Alfredo De Villa;

The documentary competition will include10 films:

"Black Chic’s Talking," directed by Leah Purcell and Brendan Fletcher;
"Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box," directed by Joey Garfield;
"Chiefs," directed by Daniel Judge;
"Hip Hope Hope," directed by Darrell Wilks;
"I’ll Sing For You" ("Je Chanterai Pour Toi"), directed by Jacques Sarasin;
"Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew," directed by Matthew Buzzell;
"Mai’s America," directed by Marlo Poras;
"Nine Good Teeth," directed by Alex Halpern;
"OT: Our Town," directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy;
"Spellbound," directed by Jeff Blitz;
"Stone Reader," directed by Mark Moskowitz;

Scorsese’s top 10 New York movies, which will be screened throughout the Festival week, are:

"Force of Evil," directed by Abraham Polonsky;
"A Hatful of Rain," directed by Fred Zinneman;
"Killer’s Kiss," directed by Stanley Kubrick;
"Manhattan," directed by Woody Allen;
"Naked City," directed by Jeff Freilich;
"On the Watefront," directed by Elia Kazan;
"Regeneration," directed by Gillies MacKinnon;
"Side Street," directed by Anthony Mann;
"Sweet Smell of Success," directed by Alexander MacKendrick;
"The Wrong Man," directed by Jim McBride.

The newly restored classic films that will be screened are:

"Big Sky," directed by Howard Hawks;
"The Hired Hand," directed by Peter Fonda;
"Ride Lonesome," directed by Budd Boetticher;
"The Story of G.I. Joe," directed by William Wellman;
"Viva Zapata," directed by Elia Kazan.



For more information on the festival, go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org or call 1-866-941-FEST (3378).