The Tribeca Film Festival will include 60 shorts in its 2011 program, including 22 world premieres and an array of narrative, documentary and animated entries featuring such actors as Campbell Scott, Jean Reno, David Duchovny, Brendan Gleeson and Oscar nominees Ian McKellen and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
The shorts lineup, which was announced on Wednesday by TFF, features documentaries about a transgender rock 'n' roller, a bipolar motivational speaker and a movie-loving Haitian community, along with, as usual, a few shorts from actors making forays into directing. Those include a pair of family affairs: Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows") with "Noreen" (left), starring his father Brendan and brother Brian, and Tribeca vets and actor/director brothers Rider Strong ("Boy Meets World") and Shiloh Strong ("Dinotopia") with "The Dungeon Master."
Animated entries include the zombies-in-New York story "Year Zero" and the German animated drama "A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation," featuring the voice of Ian McKellen.
The films were selected from nearly 3,000 submissions, and represent the work of 20 different countries.
For the first time, according to festival organizers, Tribeca will serve as one of roughly 65 qualifying festivals for the Academy Awards' shorts categories; the winner of the festival's Best Narrative Short Award will automatically qualify for next year's Oscar race without the usual three-day theatrical run required of shorts.
The shorts will also compete for more than $15,000 in cash and value-in-kind prizes.
Tribeca's shorts will be divided into eight thematic programs. Two are devoted to documentary shorts, one to animated shorts and one to films set in New York.
From the TFF press release announcing the shorts lineup, here's a description of the various programs:
Off the Grid (Documentary)
"Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll are a few of the topics explored in these thought-provoking short documentaries. Two-man rock duo 'Crash&Burn' is turned upside down when Burn decides to have transgender surgery. It’s San Francisco, sex, and the First Amendment in 'Smut Capital of America.' A broken building trembles in a battle for space and souls in 'Caretaker for the Lord.' In 'Guru,' a charismatic motivational speaker privately battles bipolar disorder. 'Incident in New Baghdad' recounts a U.S. Army veteran’s personal experience in and out of the war zone."
One For All (Documentary)
"Positive thinking prevails in this group of inspiring short documentaries. In 'Summer Snapshot,' a group of friends reflects on a special sun-kissed day. It’s mind over matter, literally, for spiritual leader and peace advocate Sri Chinmoy in 'Challenging Impossibility.' 'In the Spirit of Laxmi' a hotel manager commits to raising and re-wilding an injured leopard cub. A community in Haiti rallies to build a movie theater in 'Sun City Picture House.'"
All You Can Eat (Narrative, Animated)
"This tasty assortment of animated shorts will leave you hungry for more. A polar bear in Hollywood has trouble going with the 'floe' in 'The Beaufort Diaries.'
