NEW YORK: More than a decade after it was launched to revitalise lower Manhattan following the September 11 attacks, the Tribeca Film Festival has become a showcase for documentaries and independent films as well as a testing ground for new talent and digital innovations in cinema.
The festival kicks off on Wednesday with Time Is Illmatic, a documentary about the American rapper Nas and the making of his groundbreaking 1994 debut album Illmatic, from which he will perform after the screening.
More than 85 feature films including documentaries were selected from 6,117 submissions, and will be screened during the festival that runs through April 27.
“It was never intended to be just a film festival that would have just films or certain types of film,” Robert De Niro, an Oscar-winning actor and co-founder of the festival with film producer Jane Rosenthal, said.
“It is more of a community-type thing. That was our intention because that was what it was born out of,” he added.
Gabriel, by writer-director Lou Howe and starring Rory Culkin (Signs and You Can Count on Me), opens the festival’s world narrative competition. The drama about an emotionally disturbed young man in search of his first love will compete for best feature, director, actor and actress, screenplay and cinematography prizes against 11 other films.
They include Brides, a French-Georgian film set in the suburbs of Tbilisi, Five Star, about a member of the Bloods street gang, and Zero Motivation, a dark comedy about young, female Israeli soldiers.
Films from France, Puerto Rico, Britain, the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands will battle for best documentary feature, best new director and best editing awards. Among them are Garnet’s Gold, a British entry that details a search for lost riches, and Misconceptions, about the consequences of world population growth. Actress Courteney Cox, best known for Friends, makes her directorial debut with the comedy-drama Just Before I Go. Boulevard, a drama starring comedian Robin Williams, will premier at the festival.
Reuters
