OSCAR WATCH: Tribeca Fest Awards

I know I already did a wrap-up post for my Tribeca coverage but after the announcement of the festival's various awards, I felt I needed to chime in with some further thoughts. The main story of course, is that Talya Lavie's "Zero Motivation" won Best Narrative Feature and Libyan revolution doc "Point and Shoot" won Best Documentary Feature. By some stroke of luck, the former was the only film from the competition section that I scheduled and it turned out to be the top film! I haven't seen the other eligible films, but it's a definitely a respectable winner.

Of course, as an Oscar blogger I instantly started to think of these films in the context of the upcoming awards season. Over the past few years, the Tribeca Film Festival has established itself as a launching pad for several Oscar nominees in Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Feature categories. For example, "War Witch" and "Broken Circle Breakdown" were big winners at Tribeca and rode that buzz to eventual Oscar nominations. On the documentary side, "Taxi to the Dark Side" won the top prize at Tribeca before its Oscar win, while "Searching for Sugar Man" and "Cutie and the Boxer" both placed 2nd for the audience award before their eventual nods. It therefore stands to reason that "Zero Motivation" (assuming it wins the Ophir Award to become Israel's submission) and "Point and Shoot" (it already has a pedigree due to its twice nominated director Marshall Curry) have gotten early boosts in Oscar's Foreign Language and Documentary Feature races respectively.

Further down the list of award winners, there are several other films to take note of in terms of Oscar potential. By virtue of having directors whose films have been submitted before (most countries tend to favour a core group of directors), the following are likely to be selected as the official submissions for their countries: "Human Capital" (Italy) and "I Won't Come Back" (Estonia). In addition, "Manos Sucias" could feature in the race after two notices here (Best New Director and Audience Award 2nd Place) but I'm not sure about its eligibility (joint Colombia-USA production with an American director). Mexico could also go with "Güeros", winner of Best Cinematography and a Special Jury Mention for Best New Director (more notably, it previously won Best First Feature at the presitigious Berlin Film Festival).

In other news, Oscar guru Harvey Weinstein could be back for glory with another inspiring music doc "Keep On Keepin' On". The film picked up awards for Best New Narrative Director on Thursday and was soon acquired by The Weinstein Company just before adding the Heineken Audience Award to its haul today. It certainly sounds like a major contender to me. Other winners in the documentary competition include "Regarding Susan Sontag", "Mala Mala" and "Ne Me Quitte Pas", so look out for those as possible Oscar contenders too.

Here's the full list of award winners from the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival:

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TRIBECA FEST: Wrapping up the festival

The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival continues through April 27th but sadly, my time is up. This was a different experience from NYFF last year due to my tight schedule (had a wedding to attend) which forced me to watch some films online. Still, it was a pleasant experience overall, even though there were no knockout films. I could definitely see myself coming back, especially to try out some of the cool sidebar events.

To close out my coverage, here are a few random thoughts and observations:

• The festival's rush ticket system lived up to its reputation. I managed to get a last minute ticket to the buzzy world premiere of "Every Secret Thing".
• In the words of Cate Blanchett, "The world is round, people!" Films directed by and starring women ended up being my favourites of the festival.
• Of the many first-time filmmakers, I think Talya Lavie is the one to watch. I'd love it if she won the Best New Narrative Director award.
• As a foreigner, it's a bit confusing that so many of the screenings aren't actually in the TriBeCa area. Why did I spend so much time in Chelsea and the East Side?
• Favourite film: Every Secret Thing
• Favourite director: Amy Berg, Every Secret Thing
• Favourite performance: Don Johnson, Alex of Venice
• Favourite screenplay: Nicole Holofcener, Every Secret Thing

Here's how I'd rank the 8 films I saw (in order of preference):

Every Secret Thing
Alex of Venice
Zero Motivation
Ice Poison
Boulevard
Beneath the Harvest Sky
The Bachelor Weekend
Karpotrotter

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TRIBECA FEST: Beneath the Harvest Sky

My Tribeca Film Festival experience came to a close today with a VOD screening of "Beneath the Harvest Sky". Here are my thoughts on this moody teen drama:

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TRIBECA FEST: The Bachelor Weekend

I'm no longer in New York, but I'm still very much in festival mode. Using Tribeca's VOD service on iTunes I'll be reviewing two more films from the festival selection. First up is "The Bachelor Weekend".

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TRIBECA FEST: Zero Motivation, Incident Urbain & Karpotrotter

My day at the Tribeca Film Festival took on a decidedly foreign spin, as I sampled a trio of films from world cinema. These included "Zero Motivation" (Israel), short film "Incident Urbain" (France) and "Karpotrotter" (Slovenia). Read on for reviews of these films below:

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TRIBECA FEST: Alex of Venice, Every Secret Thing & Boulevard

The Tribeca Film Festival got into full swing for me today with my first set of actual theater screenings. It was a long day, as I watched a trio of films - "Alex of Venice", "Every Secret Thing" (yay for "rush" lines) and "Boulevard. Here's what I thought of this diverse set:

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TRIBECA FEST: Peepers & Scratch

I decided to skip "About Alex" today in favour of more online screenings (don't worry, I'll get into the real screenings tomorrow). Instead of a full-length feature however, I took a peek at two of the shorts. Here are my brief tweet reviews of "Peepers" and "Scratch":

A well-directed short film with an awesome sense of humour. Cleverly plays with tension and suspense. #Peepers

— Shane (@filmactually) April 19, 2014

Interesting Irish short with amusing plot points. Doesn't add up to anything spectacular, but the dialogue and acting is solid. #Scratch

— Shane (@filmactually) April 19, 2014

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TRIBECA FEST: Ice Poison

My Tribeca Film Festival started bright and early today with an online screening of "Ice Poison". Due to my limited free time available for this trip, these free screenings (part of the festival's online competition) proved to be very convenient. Here's what I thought of this Burmese drama:

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TRIBECA FEST: Preview

It's time! The 2014 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival kicked off last night and I'll be joining in on the fun starting tomorrow (Friday, April 18th). It looks like it will an exciting week ahead! For my personal schedule I've lined up a number of world premieres, in addition to various films that played other festivals (the ones with trailers below). Also, many of these are from debut directors, so maybe we'll be witnessing the arrival of new talent. Here's what I'll be watching:

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COMING SOON: Tribeca Film Festival

Next week marks the opening of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and yours truly will be attending for the first time. I'll be making a quick visit to the festival (on April 20-21) while on Easter vacation in the tri-state area. My personal schedule should be finalized sometime next week, so look out for that announcement. In the meantime, check out the video below for a glance of some of the star-studded films that will be premiering:

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