– European co-productions have made a good showing, with Żejtune, The Siege of Paradise, Jean-Michel, American Zoo and Skateboarding Is Not for Girls garnering awards
Żejtune by Alex Camilleri
Before wrapping on 14 June, the 25th edition of New York’s Tribeca Film Festival began to wind down by announcing the winners of the gathering in both the feature and shorts categories. Cotton Fever and Summer of Three emerged as the US Narrative Competition’s big winners, each taking home two awards. The jury for this competition consisted of theatrical distributor Rob Williams, production designer-turned-director Catherine Hardwicke and director-writer-producer Janicza Bravo.
Daniel Blake Schwartz’s debut feature, Cotton Fever, tells of a group of individuals moving through cycles of addiction, with the film based partly on his own experiences. The movie snagged the top prize, the Founders Award for Best US Narrative Feature, as well as the Award for Best Cinematography for DoP Tom Acton Fitzgerald. The jury lauded the film as a well-crafted, well-told, heartbreaking exploration of addiction”, also calling the cinematography “naturalistic, gritty and ultimately poetic”. The Puerto Rican production Summer of Three, a coming-of-age love triangle drama by Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz, won Best Performance for the film’s three leads as well as Best Screenplay.
The International Narrative Competition was juried by industry executive Amanda Trojan, Marrakech Festival director Mélita Toscan du Plantier and actor Benedict Wong. The Canadian entry Labrador – Autopsy of Silence took home three awards: Best International Narrative Feature, Best Performance for Christopher Angatookalook and Best Cinematography for Mathieu Laverdière. Alex Camilleri’s Maltese-German-Qatari co-production Żejtune, a Maltese-set film with musical elements, scooped Best Screenplay, which the jury said “supported the brilliant performances of its leads and allowed them to shine”.
In the Documentary Competition, Lukas Gut collected a Special Jury Mention for Best Cinematography for his lensing of Gar O’Rourke’s Irish-Swiss co-production The Siege of Paradise, which tracks the lives of different individuals in the Italian region of Cinque Terre, overwhelmed by tourism. The jury called the cinematography “our guide” to discovering this world, “immersing us in the sights, colours and textures of this timeless place, now under threat”.
Two UK productions took home editing gongs in the Documentary Competition, with Best Editing going to Rebecca Adorno and Viridiana Lieberman for Jean-Michel, and the Special Jury Mention for Best Editing to Christopher A Peterson and Peter Norrey for American Zoo. In the Shorts Competition, Andrea Szelesová’s 12-minute, dialogue-free Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe won the Special Jury Mention for Best Animated Short, while the Student Visionary Award went to Found&Lost by Reza Rasouli.
Meanwhile, the festival’s Nora Ephron Award, which honours an “exceptional female filmmaker who represents the spirit and vision” of the eponymous filmmaker, went to Dina Duma for Skateboarding Is Not for Girls (North Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia). The film follows a young skateboarding-loving teen in North Macedonia who becomes witness to her sister being married off to a rich family owing to her own family’s financial woes.
Here is the full list of film-related winners:
International Narrative Competition
Best International Narrative Feature
Labrador – Autopsy of Silence – Rodrigue Jean (Canada)
Best Performance
Christopher Angatookalook – Labrador – Autopsy of Silence
Special Jury Mention
Duda Santos, Mc Nem – Funk (Brazil)
Best Screenplay
Alex Camilleri – Żejtune (Malta/Germany/Qatar)
Best Cinematography
Mathieu Laverdière – Labrador – Autopsy of Silence
US Narrative Competition
Founders Award for Best US Narrative Feature (sponsored by OKX)
Cotton Fever – Daniel Blake Schwartz (USA)
Special Jury Mention
Here I’m Alive – Joshua Z Weinstein (USA)
Best Performance
Marcel Ruiz, Paolo Schoene, Kiki Montilla – Summer of Three (Puerto Rico)
Best Screenplay
Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz, Marcel Ruiz, Mariana S Belaval – Summer of Three
Best Cinematography
Tom Acton Fitzgerald – Cotton Fever
Documentary Competition
Best Documentary Feature
Jail Time Records – Dione Roach, Steve Happi (Cameroon/USA)
Special Jury Mention
Time Warp – Allison Berg (USA)
Best Cinematography
Dione Roach, Urberto Rapisardi, Steve Happi – Jail Time Records
Special Jury Mention
Lukas Gut – The Siege of Paradise (Ireland/Switzerland)
Best Editing
Rebecca Adorno, Viridiana Lieberman – Jean-Michel (UK)
Special Jury Mention
Christopher A Peterson, Peter Norrey – American Zoo (UK)
Viewpoints Award
Crocodile – The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly (Nigeria/New Zealand)
Special Jury Mention
Sarah Karei – One Woman One Bra (Kenya/Nigeria)
Best New Narrative Director Award
Miiku Sakanishi – Memorizu (Japan)
Special Jury Mention
Elisee Junior St Preux – The Tropic Sun and His Eyes (Haiti)
Albert Massels Award for Best New Documentary Director
Dione Roach, Steve Happi – Jail Time Records
Special Jury Mention
Natalie Baszile, Hyacinth Parker – Harvest (USA)
Nora Ephron Award
Dina Duma – Skateboarding Is Not for Girls (North Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia)
Shorts Competition
Best Narrative Short
32B – Mohamed Taher (Egypt)
Special Jury Mention
So, Boom – Abby Pierce (USA)
Best Documentary Short
Listen – Taliesin Black Brown (USA)
Special Jury Mention
The Baddest Speechwriter of All – Ben Proudfoot, Stephen Curry (USA)
Best Animated Short
Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank – Wesley Wang (USA)
Special Jury Mention
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe – Andrea Szelesová (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Best New York Short
Insufficient Fare – Michael Gugger, Varvara Kanellakopoulou (USA)
Best Music Video
“Fingers Crossed” (The Moth & The Flame) – Rebecca Thomas (USA)
Student Visionary Award
Found&Lost – Reza Rasouli (Austria)
