Kim Nguyen's War Witch cast a spell at the Tribeca Film Festival Thursday evening, winning the event's $25K Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, while Una Noche's Lucy Mulloy won $50K and the fest's Best New Narrative Director prize as well as other nods at a ceremony in Lower Manhattan. Also taking home prizes at the ceremony were The World Before Her by Canadian Nisha Pahuja, which took Best Documentary Feature while Dutch director Jeroen van Velzen's won Best New Documentary Director for Wavumba.
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Just when you think you might have had enough of James Franco, along comes Francophrenia to either whet your appetite for more of the actor-director's avant-garde pursuits — or officially turn you off to them forever.
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The easiest way to start an interview is to ask someone, "Was there a cock sock or not?" Take Jason Ritter, who plays Wally, the sub-par musician friend of Jillian (Jess Weixler), in Free Samples — which premiered last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in the Spotlight program. "It was cock sock," Ritter said, marking the second time Ritter appeared pantsless in a Tribeca film costarring Jesse Eisenberg. "[Before] was The Education of Charlie Banks, but this one was the first time I've been bare-assed for an entire scene."
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Movieline spotlighted filmmakers and trailers from the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend and last week. The festival is still underway all this week, so it's certainly not too late to catch a little Tribeca action. If you're in New York and want to see some films at the festival (or if you are looking for a taste of Tribeca from afar), here is a sneak glimpse of more of this year's offerings from the festival's World Narrative Competition and World Documentary Competition.
Tuesday's spotlights include World Narrative Competition features Nancy, Please and War Witch as well as World Doc Competition contenders The Flat and The List. And in Tribeca's genre-centered Cinemania section is Rat King.
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Gone are the days of callouses and carpenter pants. Today, men are rocking skinny jeans and moccasins as they treat themselves to spa days, having no shame in getting waxed, tweezed, manicured and/or exposed to other meticulous grooming techniques. This ongoing — and slightly horrifying — "manscaping" trend is spreading throughout America and beyond, and Morgan Spurlock (along with executive producers Ben Silverman, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman) captured it all in their world premiere Tribeca documentary, Mansome.
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British actress Emily Blunt has traveled both the studio and indie route during her career, most recently appearing in Lasse Hallström's specialty feature Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and starring this week opposite Jason Segel in Universal's romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement. Meanwhile, another project Blunt is promoting in New York, writer-director Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister, joined Engagement as part of this year's Tribeca Film Festival, still underway in Manhattan. The smaller of her two Tribeca titles, Sister proved something of career déjà vu for Blunt, who told an Apple Store audience that her experience working on the feature reminded her of her very first film feature role.
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Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus debuted her new HBO series Veep over the weekend, and she — along with husband/director Brad Hall — appears eager to add independent filmmaking to her repertoire. The pair hit the Tribeca Film Festival with their new short Picture Paris, teasing the project at an Apple Store event and hinting that this will not be their last foray into the indie space.
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I know at least part of the feeling: "The Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Una Noche, a film about three Cuban teens trying to escape the Communist island nation for a better life in the U.S., was marred by the disappearance of two of the film's lead stars — who went missing as soon as their plane from Cuba touched down in Miami. Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Javier Nunez Florian, the 20-year-old Cuban-born actors, were flown from Cuba to the United States on Wednesday and were supposed to make their way to New York on Friday in order to promote the film. But instead, the pair stayed in Miami, according to 20-year-old Dariel Arrechada, the third star of the film who traveled with them." [Huffington Post]
Oh to be young and in love and periodically a flesh-rending creature of globular, hairy, throbbing pulp. That's the curse heaped upon the eponymous romantics in Jack and Diane, one of the more anticipated — and more disappointing — features in Tribeca 2012's narrative competition.
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On Thursday, Movieline spotlighted five Tribeca Film Festival filmmakers and trailers of their new films. There are more to share, so if you're a New Yorker still looking at the schedule to figure out what to see (or if you are looking for a taste of Tribeca from afar), here is a sneak glimpse at some of this year's offerings from the festival's World Narrative Competition and World Documentary Competition, plus its genre-centered Cinemania section.
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The first full day of Tribeca 2012 yielded at least one major highlight, as festival co-founder Robert De Niro and comedy mogul Judd Apatow joined Deadline's Mike Fleming for a discussion commemorating the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures. (Fellow Universal blockbustress Meryl Streep, alas, backed out at the last minute due to illness.) At least, that was the plan; what ensued was a wide-ranging, freewheeling chat about the pair's work for the studio, the natures of their comedy, varying sequel statuses, and much more. As per Tribeca custom, read on for this years revelations from from De Niro and Co.
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Making its North American premiere next week at Tribeca, director Chris Kenneally's digital-cinema study Side By Side has quite a bit going for it: There's co-producer Keanu Reeves, narrating and leading interviews with an extraordinary range of filmmakers including Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Lars von Trier and numerous others. There's great technical insight from Oscar-winning cinematographers like Vittorio Storaro, Wally Pfister, Anthony Dod Mantle and Dion Beebe. There's scene-stealers like Joel Schumacher and shooter Geoff Boyle, who encapsulates the digital age with his trenchant summary, "We're fucked." But among all the experts, insights and disclosures herein, there's one appearance in particular that makes Side by Side worth a look: The Wachowskis.
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The Tribeca Film Festival opened Wednesday night with the world premiere of Universal's The Five-Year Engagement, ushering in 10 days of the festival's 11th annual event. Initial word from insiders is that this year's festival lineup is its strongest in years. Days from now, attendees will be buzzing about what works and what doesn't, but Movieline is offering up a sneak glimpse into many of the films playing in the festival's narrative and documentary competitions, plus its genre-centered Cinemania section. Ahead of the festival, we reached out to its filmmakers to give quick comments about their films and a peak at their trailers or clips, which Movieline will debut here in the coming days — including exclusive premieres, such as the trailer for The Revisionaries, featured below. Have a look, mark your calendars, and share your thoughts on these and other Tribeca films.
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Ahead of tonight's official kick-off of the Tribeca Film Festival with the world premiere of Universal's The Five-Year Engagement, festival brass reflected on the event's 10 years — and its upcoming second decade — at a pre-launch mimosa (and bloody mary) breakfast event downtown where it all began in 2002.
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To 'make it' in Hollywood, young actors used to kick-start their careers in television, sharpening their skills and earning notoriety (and maybe an Emmy or two) before frolicking in the greener grass of feature films. Today, with the growing budgets, themes, and imaginations of series TV, episodes have almost become mini movies, inspiring a newer generation of stars to not only gravitate toward television, but maybe even stay there — even as their careers take off. Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs epitomize this trend, two actresses who earned their comedy stripes on NBC's Community, a place where dreamatoriums come to life and paintball wars are aplenty. Meanwhile, the pair is also on the Tribeca Film Festival circuit this year — Jacobs with the dark indie comedy Revenge for Jolly! and Brie with tonight's Tribeca opener, the buzzy hit-in-waiting The Five-Year Engagement.
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