WINNERS OF THE 2018 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

"Diane", the feature film debut from Kent Jones who also happens to be the executive director of the New York Film Festival, took the top prize of Best Narrative Feature at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. This film stars Mary Kay Place as a widow who has spent her life helping others and finds herself forced to face her own identity. "Diane" also received the Best Screenplay prize for Jones and Best Cinematography. The jury named Alia Shawkat as Best Actress for her work in Miguel Arteta’s "Duck Butter" which has just opened in limited release in U.S. theaters and Jeffrey Wright won Best Actor for the prison drama, "O.G.".

Here is a partial list of winners of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival:

JURY AWARD WINNERS

Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: "Diane"
Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Alia Shawkat, "Duck Butter"



Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Jeffrey Wright, "O.G."
Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Kent Jones, "Diane"
Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Wyatt Garfield, "Diane"
Best International Narrative Feature: "Smuggling Hendrix" (Cyprus, Germany, Greece)
Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film: Joy Rieger, "Virgins" (France, Israel, Belgium)
Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film: Rasmus Bruun, "The Saint Bernard Syndicate (Denmark)



Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film: Lærke Sanderhoff, "The Saint Bernard Syndicate" (Denmark)
Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film: Albert Salas, "Obey" (U.K.)



Best Documentary Feature: "Island of the Hungry Ghosts"
Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film: Niels van Koevorden, "Tanzania Transit" (Netherlands)



Best Editing in a Documentary Film: Frederick Shanahan, Jon Kasbe and Caitlyn Greene, "When Lambs Become Lions"

WORLD NARRATIVE AWARD WINNERS

The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature: "Virgin Mountain" (Iceland, Denmark)
Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film: Gunnar Jónsson, "Virgin Mountain" (Iceland, Denmark)
Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film: Hannah Murray, "Bridgend" (Denmark)
Best Cinematography: Magnus Jønck, "Bridgend" (Denmark)
Best Screenplay: Dagur Kári, "Virgin Mountain" (Iceland, Denmark)
Best Narrative Editing: Oliver Bugge Coutté, "Bridgend" (Denmark)

WORLD DOCUMENTARY AWARD WINNERS

Best Documentary Feature: "Democrats" (Denmark)
Special Jury Mention: "In Transit" (U.S.A.)
Best Documentary Editing: Valerio Bonelli, "Palio" (U.K., Italy)

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS

Narrative Feature Award: "To Dust"
Runner-up Narrative Feature Award: "Mapplethorpe"
Documentary Feature Award: "United Skates"
Runner-Up Documentary Feature Award: "Momentum Generation"

THE NORA EPHRON PRIZE

"Sworn Virgin" (Albania, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Switzerland)

A QUIET PLACE (2018)

Written by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski


Directed by John Krasinski


Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. April 9, 2018 5:00 PM


With "A Quiet Place", John Krasinski's latest turn behind the camera is a well-crafted sci-fi horror thriller that is intense, terrifying and unexpectedly emotional. It focuses on a family trying to stay alive in a postapocalyptic world by remaining as quiet as possible otherwise they will fall victim to a deadly force triggered by any sound they might make. The actor turned film maker has shifted the familiar dead body countdown of the genre to place the emphasis on the relentless determination of devoted and loving parents trying to protect their children from harm at any cost. This helps make this gripping film standout by connecting us with heartfelt characters that we actually want to see survive through this harrowing ordeal.

There is no backstory given but we do know that most of mankind has been wiped out by alien life-forms; giant, fast-moving, blind creatures that come out of nowhere to attack any sudden loud noise. They do not commit this act for protection nor food but to simply destroy the source of the sound.

One of the few survivors is the resourceful, Lee Abbott, played by Mr. Krasinski, along with his family; Lee's wife, Evelyn (Emily Blunt, the director's real-life spouse) and their two children, son, Marcus (Noah Jupe) and daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmonds) who is deaf and the family's ability to use sign-language has certainly come in handy. Evelyn is expecting a child and while this should be a time of great happiness, this impending arrival has created a new set of challenges and will require the parents to be creative in order to protect their newborn.

There is a sadness that hovers over the Abbotts which goes beyond the difficult situation they are currently facing. There was a younger son, Beau (Cade Woodward) who was taken down by one of the aliens for simply wanting to be a child and none of them, not surprisingly, have fully recovered from this tragedy.

As they are no longer able to behave or interact in a natural way, the family's main form of communication is through signing and signaling. Simple conversations or even the spontaneous joy of laughter are no longer possible. While they must remain constantly close together for survival, the feeling of frustration and isolation is unavoidable as they can never properly express themselves. This is most certainly something Regan has felt in the world long before the invasion.

The spec script by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods was inspired by the silent movies they watched as college students and by the vast, isolated farmlands in their home state of Iowa. When Krasinski was offered the opportunity to direct his third feature (following an adaption of David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" and the family dramedy, "The Hollars"), he gave the screenplay a polish before asking his wife to read and offer feedback. The British actress not only loved the script but also wanted a part in the project.

As a director, Krasinski finds the right balance of capturing all of the complex emotional anxieties of a family in crisis while never losing sight to make sure there are plenty of truly frightening moments that the genre demands. And with little spoken dialogue to move the story along, its up to the bold visuals by Charlotte Brus Christensen and an eerie, dramatic score by Marco Beltrami which is used sparingly but effectively.

The one thing you can count on when an actor becomes a director is that they will make sure the performances are exceptional. And Mr Krasinski has achieved this with his small, finely-tuned cast. Since her breakout as the harried assistant in "The Devil Wears Prada", Ms Blunt has impressed with many memorable roles as tough, strong-willed yet vulnerable women in such films as "Edge of Tomorrow", "the Girl On The Train" and "Sicario". Just watch her in one of the film's most unnerving sequences when Evelyn has to remain as quiet as possible despite going in to labor and having stepped directly on to an upended nail, all while trying to avoid the creature roaming through the house in search of a noise. You can't take your eyes off of her. The young actors are also wonderful with Ms Simmonds, who is actually deaf and made a notable film debut last year in Todd Haynes', "Wonderstruck", delivering a fierce intensity to her role.

The film doesn't deliver a definitive conclusion yet "A Quiet Place" still offers some optimism and hope. Mr. Krasinski should be proud for crafting a remarkably inventive, scary thriller that also manages to be a thoughtful and moving experience.

COMING SOON

Boots Riley has spent most of his professional career involved in creating music. He has been a part of the political hip-hop act, The Coup, to bring awareness of important causes through song and has teamed-up with like-minded musicians like Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine to organize and rally against social injustice.

So it's a little unexpected that Riley has written and directed his first feature film, "Sorry To Bother You". This wildly outlandish comedy made a major splash in January at the Sundance Film Festival and was recently screened at the South By Southwest fest where it also received plenty of thrilled raves.

Set in Oakland, CA, Lakeith Stanfield (who appeared memorably as a "victim" in "Get Out") stars as a young African-American telemarketer who adapts a "white voice" to become a huge success at his job. It's safe to assume that there will certainly be a political statement to be made in this very out-there satire. The inspired cast includes Tessa Thompson, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun and Armie Hammer. Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Steve Buscemi are also on board to provide "the white voices".

"Sorry To Bother You" is due in U.S. theaters on July 6, 2018

MILOS FORMAN (1932 - 2018)

Miloš Forman, the two-time Oscar winning director for "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus", has sadly passed away on April 13th at the age of eighty-six after a brief illness. While he came of age during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Forman rebelled against these principles, taking on anti-establishment sensibilities and embraced American themes in his film making. He didn't make that many features during his over fifty years behind the camera but still managed to make an important impact in cinema with thoughtful work that challenged and provoked.

He was born Jan Tomáš Forman, the youngest of three boys to Anna and Rudolf Forman in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia. During the Nazi occupation in that country, both of his parents died in concentration camps although they were actually Protestant yet were arrested for their activities. Forman later learned that Rudolf Forman was not his actual father and discovered that his biological father was a Jewish architect, Otto Kohn, who managed to survive the Holocaust.

Forman went on to study screenwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He got involved in all aspects of film making in the small Czech film community as an actor and writer before directing a few short films. After his first feature "Black Peter" in 1964, his next two films, "The Loves of a Blonde" (1965) and "The Firemen's Ball" (1967) brought Foreman international acclaim and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations for both features.

This brought him to Hollywood's attention and he made his first U.S. film, "Taking Off", a comedy that won the Grand Prix at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival but was a major box-office failure, leading to Foreman having difficulty in finding new work. But producers, Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz decided to take a chance with him to direct their adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". The film was a critical and commercial hit and became the second film to win the five top categories at the 1975 Academy Awards; Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman) and Best Picture.

Foreman followed this up with the long-planned film version of the rock musical, "Hair" (1979) and the historical drama, "Ragtime" (1981) which neither found a wide audience. "Amadeus", based on the stage play by Peter Shaffer, was about the life of the prolific and influential composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the jealous rivalry against him by the Italian composer, Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). This drama won eight Oscars in 1984 including Best Actor for Abraham, Best Director and Best Picture.

His next films were "Valmont" (1989), another version of "Dangerous Liaisons" that is most notable for the early performances by Colin Firth and Annette Bening; "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996), a bio-pic on the "Hustler" magazine publisher and his legal battle against Reverend Jerry Falwell and "Man On The Moon" (1999), an offbeat look at the life of the irreverent comedian, Andy Kaufman. While they all received critical praise and award recognition, none of them found much success at the box-office and that includes his final feature, "Goya's Ghosts" in 2006.

What I admire the most about Miloš Forman was his ability to take on stories that didn't appear would function well as a film (and a few times, they didn't) and confidently created compelling works of cinema. Here are a few trailers of his less commercially successful yet still quite fascinating films:

2018 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, one of New York's best showcase for new independent cinema which has expanded to include the latest in television, video games, online film-making and virtual reality, is set to begin on April 18th and concludes on April 29th.

The fest kicks off with the world premiere of the documentary, "Love, Gilda" which examines the life of the beloved comedian, Gilda Radner who rose to fame as one of the original cast members of "Saturday Night Live" and brought to life such characters as Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella. The film reveals her struggle with success, relationships and her battle with ovarian cancer which ended her life in 1989. But it also is a loving tribute to a tremendous talent who remains an inspiration of many comedians.

Some of the other documentary highlights include "Horses: Patti Smith and Her Band", a music doc about the fortieth anniversary concerts of the legendary rocker's classic album "Horses" which was performed in sequence and filmed at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles; "The Gospel According to André", a look at the glamorous life of André Leon Talley, the regal fashionista who worked at Vogue magazine for over forty years and "McQueen", a vivid portrait on the life of the British fashion designer, Alexander McQueen who rose quickly as a major young talent but burned out just as fast.


A few of the Spotlight Narrative films to be screened include "Back Roads", the directorial debut by actor, Alex Pettyfer which he stars as an uneducated man who is left to raise his three younger sisters after his mother (Juliette Lewis) goes to jail after murdering their abusive father; Sebastián Lelio, who just recently won the Best Foreign Language Film award for "A Fantastic Woman" returns with his latest, "Disobedience" which stars Rachel Weisz as a New York photographer who returns to her North London Orthodox Jewish community to attend the funeral of her estranged Rabbi father and renews her close relationship with a childhood friend (Rachel McAdams); In "Mary Shelley", Elle Fanning plays the future writer of "Frankenstein" and focuses on her whirlwind romance with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth) and "The Seagull" an adaption of Anton Chekhov's classic play that stars Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Corey Stoll and Elizabeth Moss.





"Schindler’s List", Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece that went on to win seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, will be screened on April 26th with a new restoration of the film and will be followed by a discussion with the director and the actors, Liam Neeson, Sir Ben Kingsley and Embeth Davidtz. Other retrospective screenings include "In The Soup", Alexandre Rockwell's indie comedy that featured one of the first major film roles by Steve Buscemi and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1992. With only a damaged archive copy available, a Kickstarter campaign was started to restore the film and that will be screened to celebrate it's 25th anniversary. And the restoration of the 1983 remake of "Scarface" will be shown with director, Brian DePalma and the film's stars, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer and Steven Bauer in attendance after the screening.







The Tribeca Talks: Storytellers will feature interesting discussions by many creative individuals working in cinema. Some of the scheduled guests are Oscar-winner, Jamie Foxx, Alec Baldwin with Spike Lee, Robert DeNiro with Bradley Cooper and filmmaker, Alexander Payne.

For the complete list of films, events and to purchase tickets, please click below:

The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival

LOVE SIMON (2018)

Written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger


Directed by Greg Berlanti


Where & When: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, CA. March 18, 2018 6:00 PM



After seeing "Love, Simon", Greg Berlanti's groundbreaking yet modest romance involving a closeted gay teen struggling to find a way to tell his friends and family while pursuing an unknown fellow gay student online, I definitely left with mixed emotions. On one hand, I really admire this heartfelt, coming-of-age story for addressing (a first by a major studio) the oft-told difficulties of being a teenager but refreshingly seen through the eyes of a young gay teen. Yet much like how I feel about "A Wrinkle in Time", Ava DuVernay's trailblazing, multi-cultural, sci-fi adventure, I appreciate the film more than I actually liked it. Sensitive and syrupy sweet, "Love, Simon" is a well-intended, love story that never offers enough unexpected or inspired moments to get your heart really pumping.

Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) is a high school student with two loving parents (Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel), a sweet younger sister (Talitha Bateman) who dreams of becoming a chef and three close friends; Leah (Katherine Langford), Abby (Alexandra Shipp) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.). His life doesn't appear to be too complicated but Simon has a secret; he plays for the "other team". Unable to find the nerve to confess this to anyone, Simon is left frustrated.

Simon soon realizes he's not alone when a fellow student posts anonymously under the name "Blue" that he's secretly gay which causes a stir at the school. Desperate to communicate with him, Simon sends an e-mail under the name "Jacques" with the hope he will respond. And "Blue" does. This leads to the two sharing their intimate feelings and concerns about being gay. "Jacques" wants to meet "Blue" but this mystery man is not ready to reveal himself. Simon decides to play detective to figure out which student is his online pen-pal but doesn't have much luck.

Martin (Logan Miller), an annoying nerd, discovers the e-mails that Simon accidentally left open at the school's computer and uses them to his advantage. He likes Simon's friend, Abby but she's not interested in him. Martin convinces "Jacques" to help him win her over or the whole school will learn that there's another student who is gay.

Mr. Berlanti began his career writing and directing the 2000 indie film, "The Broken Hearts Club", a romantic-comedy about a group of gay friends that was inspired by his own friendships but it was television where he found his biggest success. He was behind the creation of popular shows like "Dawson's Creek", "Everwood", "Riverdale" and the DC Comics series, "Arrow", "Supergirl" and "The Flash". Adapted from the YA novel, "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" (a far more interesting title but understand why they didn't use it) by Becky Albertalli, "Love, Simon" follows the same warm, feel-good formula that has served him well with his youth-oriented programming. Yet Berlanti's style of heavy-handed melodrama, soap-opera clichés and cheesy sentimentality may not be everyone's cup of tea while the comedy in this romantic-comedy is of the sitcom-based variety.

There is no denying that coming out is still a difficult and challenging process for anyone who might be gay. But the major flaw with the film is that all of the important people in Simon's life do not for any moment appear like they would be anything less than supportive of him. All of his extreme distress over keeping his secret to the point of allowing himself to be blackmailed seems implausible. I realize we wouldn't have much of a story without this plot development yet this would be more understandable set in the 1950's. Not at all in 2018.

And it’s not like Simon was the only gay kid at school. There is Ethan (Clark Moore), an out and proud effeminate student he could have easily befriended. But Simon steered clear of him, fearful that any association could reveal his true nature. Although his coming-out made him an easy target for bullies, Ethan bravely handled any nasty comment from them with a sassy comeback.

That Simon is a complete cipher, with his every action motivated by fear, makes it very difficult to root for our apparent hero. And Mr. Robinson's colorless performance doesn't help make Simon more appealing. It's up to the supporting characters to draw out the emotions needed here and that includes nice turns by Tony Hale as a trying-to-hard-to-be-hip vice-principal and Natasha Rothwell as the hilariously exasperated drama teacher.

I must admit that there were touching moments in "Love, Simon" that moved me to tears along with the other times that had me rolling my eyes and groaning. The goal of Mr. Berlanti's film was not to titillate, offend or make any type of political statement. He simply wanted to make a breezy, romantic-comedy on a subject that has rarely been touched in cinema that anyone could understand and enjoy.  I wish there was a film like this at a time when I was a confused, young man in search of guidance and acceptance.  "Love, Simon" offers a comforting voice for the culturally marginalized.