Actors Steve Zahn and Assol Abdullina, along with Alice Wu’s ‘The Half of It’ (2020), were some of the winners of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.

‘The Half of It’ will be released on Netflix on 1^st May of this year, and it follows Ellie Chu, a shy, top-of-her-class student who makes extra cash by writing papers for her high school mates. She reluctantly agrees to write a love letter for an enamoured jock to his crush, a girl that Ellie is also fawning over. All three students embark on a journey of complicated friendship and self-discovery in the drama-comedy film that was included in the slate of juried awards.

‘THE HALF OF IT’ (2020), ©NETFLIX

Jan Komasa’s ‘The Hater’ (2020) took the prize for best international narrative feature, while ‘Socks on Fire’ (2020), directed by Bo McGuire, was awarded for best documentary feature.

Given the worldwide halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, most in-person award shows have switched to streaming and digital, and Tribeca made no exception. This year, its winners were announced on Instagram.

Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal said: ‘We are fortunate that technology allowed for our jury to come together this year to honor our filmmakers. Despite not being able to be together physically, we were still able to support our artists, which has always been at the heart of the Festival.’

The full list of winners:

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, ‘The Half of It’, directed by Alice Wu.

Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Assol Abdullina in ‘Materna’.

Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Steve Zahn in ‘Cowboys’.

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj, Kelly Jeffrey for ‘Materna’.

Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Anna Kerrigan for ‘Cowboys’.

 

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Best International Narrative Feature, ‘The Hater’ (Poland), directed by Jan Komasa.

Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film, Noe Hernandez for ‘Kokoloko’ (Mexico).

Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film, Shira Haas for ‘Asia’ (Israel).

Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film – Daniella Nowitz for ‘Asia’ (Israel).

Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film, Prashant Nair for ‘Tryst with Destiny’ (India, France).

 

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Best Documentary Feature, ‘Socks on Fire’, directed by Bo McGuire.

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film, Alejandro Mejia for ‘499’.

Best Editing in a Documentary Film, Amy Foote for ‘Father Soldier Son’.

 

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION

Best New Narrative Director, Gaspar Antillo for ‘Nobody Knows I’m Here’.

 

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award, Jessica Earnshaw for ‘Jacinta’.

 

THE NORA EPHRON AWARD

The Nora Ephron Award, ‘Asia’, directed by Ruthy Pribar.

 

SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

Best Narrative Short, ‘No More Wings’, directed by Abraham Adeyemi.

Best Animated Short, ‘Friends’, directed by Florian Grolig.

Best Documentary Short, ‘My Father the Mover’, directed by Julia Jansch.

Student Visionary Award, ‘Cru-Raw’, directed by David Oesch.

 

TRIBECA X AWARDS

Best Short, ‘Pay Day’, directed by Morgan Cooper.

Best Series, ‘Girls Room’, directed by Tiffany Johnson.

Writer, Lena Waithe.

Best Feature, ‘U Shoot Videos?’, directed by Morgan Cooper.

Major film festivals worldwide have joined forces to keep moving despite the COVID-19 pandemic currently reshaping everything in our lives, including the economy and the movie and TV industries.

Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube will put together the ‘We Are One: A Global Film Festival’, which features new and classic movies from all over the world. This special event will run over the course of ten days, with programming from the Berlin International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, New York Film Festival and even the Cannes Film Festival, to name but a few.

©TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL/PHIL YOON

Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO, said in a press release: ‘We often talk about film’s uniquely powerful role in inspiring and uniting people across borders and differences to help heal the world. All of the world needs healing right now. We Are One: A Global Film Festival unites curators, artists and storytellers to entertain and provide relief to audiences worldwide. In working with our extraordinary festival partners and YouTube we hope that everyone gets a taste of what makes each festival so unique and appreciates the art and power of film.’

Although the programme will be free to watch on YouTube, viewers are encouraged to donate to the World Health Organization and other local relief partners currently working to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The ‘We Are One: A Global Film Festival’ will run from 29 May until 7 June.

The San Sebastian and Zurich film festivals have announced plans to introduce more productions at their events later this year, given the massive disruption to the spring and summer cinematic calendar caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

José Luis Rebordinos, Director of the San Sebastián Film Festival (SSIFF), and Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), confirmed their intention to offer a wider programme that will include films originally selected for showcasing at SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival. The latter was officially postponed, but new dates have not been announced. Considering that the global efforts to flatten the curve will likely spill into the late summer, we’re not sure when or if we’ll get new dates for Tribeca.

According to Deadline, SSIFF and ZFF will aim to welcome buyers from across the globe, marking a first for both festivals. They will also be introducing new sales projects. CAA Media Finance is supporting this endeavour to transform San Sebastián and Zurich into greater sales markets that will bring together a massively international consortium of agencies, foreign sales companies, financiers, distributors and buyers. Independent film companies are said to be backing this initiative, Wild Bunch and Film Nation included among them.

SAN SEBASTIAN FILM FESTIVAL. PHOTO: MONTSE CASTILLO

Business has been done at these events before, but never on such a scale. ‘If the festival can be held under normal conditions, because the health authorities allow it, we want this edition to serve as an opportunity for films that have not been able to be seen at the festivals for which they were originally selected, to be shown to an audience of buyers and distributors and, at the same time, for these professionals, representatives of the most important companies in the world film industry, to get to know the size of the San Sebastián Festival, its line-up and its activities focused on the film industry’, Christian Jungen said.

He went on to add: ‘We live in disruptive times which also shatter the traditional festival landscape and threaten independent cinema. Many high-profile titles are orphans of a real premiere their cast and crew deserve. So, we are happy to help out holding screenings for buyers together with our friends of San Sebastián.’

The Zurich Film Festival is scheduled from 24^th September till 4^th October 2020. We’ll find out more about screenings and programming at a later date. Venice and Toronto might also attract a larger marked if they’re allowed to go ahead. Cannes, unfortunately, is still a mystery, though there are plans for online market options if the physical event is cancelled.