TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2012

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2012

By:  Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger

Photographer:  George Whylie

Videographer:  Maxine Nolan

 

Each April, New Yorkers proudly welcome the entertaining Tribeca Film Festival.  Creativity is at its peak drawing crowds that top over 3 million people and bringing in revenue of $600 million annually.  Talented individuals from the world of art, film and music come together to celebrate the ‘Power of Film’ through documentaries, narratives and shorts, family friendly films, artist showcases, panel discussions, outdoor film screenings under the stars and awards ceremonies.

This year the festival has run from April 19th continuing through April 29th.  In just over a week’s time, a multitude of films are debuted, some making their world premiere which is a filmmaker’s dream.  On April 18th, the showing of “The Five-Year Engagement” was the film that kicked off the festivities.

The Film Festival opened with the exclusive Tribeca Ball 2012 on April 16th, an evening of celebration and honor thrown by the New York Academy of Art.  Van Cleef & Arpels played host of the evening.  The ‘Red Carpet’ was filled with fashionable styles.  Some of the top names dressing the celebrities included Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Lanvin, Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein.

It was a memorable evening and because of the generosity of the attendees, New York Academy of Art continues to provide scholarships to exceptionally talented emerging artists.  Robert De Niro was definitely the star of the evening as one of the founders of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Guest of Honor for all his dedication and commitment to this successful event year after year. The guest list read like a Who’s Who in the World of Fashion and Film.  Seen socializing were Kim Cattrall, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Julianna Margulies, Jessica White, Solange Knowles and Helena Christensen just to name a few.

The festival itself continues to exceed all expectations.  We experienced hilarious films such as Morgan Spurlock’s “Mansome” starring Jason Bateman and Will Arnett exploring the world of man grooming.

The “100 Years of Universal” was an informative panel discussion live streaming for the very first time with Robert De Niro and Judd Apatow.  The film “Jaws” was brought back to the big screen to kick off Drive-In Screening.  “CatCam” followed the feline footsteps of a newly adopted stray cat, the creative masterpiece of German engineer, Jurgen Perthold.

For sports enthusiasts, the 2nd Annual Tribeca/NYFEST Soccer Day took place on Saturday, April 21st at Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 for kids and adults alike.  The film “Revitalization of Small Town USA” tugged at our hearts directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin.

Yainis Ynoa gives a powerful performance in “BabyGirl”.  Grammy-nominated producer/singer/songwriter, John Forte, premiered his documentary “The Russian Winter” at the Film Festival.  It is the story of the diversified life of Forte who ends up in Moscow on an ambitious charitable concert tour.  The beauty of nature and our planet was caught on film in Shorts: Journeys Across Cultural Landscapes.

We took a look into the Future of Film, the Business of Entertainment and the interesting way that film globalizes our thinking patterns. “The Monkey on Our Back” explored the ever dangerous reliance of our country on pharmaceuticals.

“Searching for Sugar Man” is a moving documentary about the ‘South African Elvis’ directed by Malik Benjelloul from Sweden. The film “While We Were Here” captures the stunning landscape of Italy in black and white.

We all love “The Goonies” and this classic film was brought back to life with all the unforgettable antics of its lovable cast of characters.  Prior to the film, the first-ever Tribeca Treasure Hunt took place along with a live jazz performance from NOMO.

On Sunday, April 22nd, at the SVA Theatre, a most enlightening afternoon took place as a collection of shorts was shown all done by elementary and middle school filmmakers from downtown schools.  It represented true self-expression through film.  On Saturday, April 28th, the streets of Tribeca will be filled with sports and games attended by New York athletes, mascots and sports personalities.

Tribeca Kids Access gives us a fresh new perspective from the eyes of our youth as these student reporters take to the red carpet to pose difficult questions of the stars and then they blog about it for the world to read.

The culmination of the event was the Awards Ceremony held at the Conrad New York.  Over 46 countries had films in the running for the coveted awards.

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – War Witch directed by Kim Nguyen (Canada).

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Rachel Mwanza as Komona in War Witch

Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Dariel Arrechada and Javier Nunez Florian as Raul & Elio in “Una Noche” directed by Lucy Mulloy.

Best Cinematography in a Narrative Feature Film – Una Noche, Cinematography by Trevor Forrest and Shlomo Godder.

Best Screenplay for a Narrative Feature Film  – All In (La Suerte en Tus Manos) written by Daniel Burman and Sergio Dubcovsky and directed by Daniel Burman (Argentina)

Best New Narrative Director – Lucy Mulloy (UK, Cuba, USA) for “Una Noche”

Best Documentary Feature – The World Before Her directed by Nisha Pahuja (Canada)

Best Editing in a Documentary Feature – The Flat (Hadira) edited by Tali Halter Shenkar and directed by Arnon Goldfinger (Israel, Germany)

Best New Documentary Director – Jeroen van Velzen (Netherlands) for “Wavumba”

Best Narrative Short – Asad directed by Bryan Buckley (USA)

Best Documentary Short – Paraiso directed by Nadav Kurtz (USA)

Student Visionary Award – Stitches directed by Adiya Imri Orr (Israel)

Tribeca (Online) Film Festival Best Feature Film – On the Mat directed and written by Fredric Golding (USA)

Tribeca (Online) Film Festival Best Short Film – CatCam directed by Seth Keal (USA)

This award-winning film festival has been presented by its founding sponsor, American Express.  It isn’t too late to take part in the experience.  The Heineken Audience Award, determined by audience votes throughout the festival, will be announced today, April 28th. The  audience favorite awards went to:

Best Documentary – Burn directed by Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez with second place going to Searching for Sugar Man directed by Malik Bendjelloul

Best Narrative – Any Day Now directed by Travis Fine with second place going to Graceland by Ron Morales

Step into the wide world of film at Tribeca Film Festival – www.tribecafilm.com.