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The Jenny Slate-starring comedy “Aardvark” and the Ed Helms dramedy “The Clapper” are among 78 films that will world premiere at the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place April 19 – 30 in New York City.

On Thursday, the film festival announced its slate for the Competition, Spotlight, Viewpoints and Midnight sections of the event, as well as the Centerpiece film, making up 82 of the 98 feature-length titles that will be featured.

In a year of record high submissions, the Festival’s curators chose to reduce the size of the overall program by 20%, making this the most selective and focused festival slate yet. The Competition section features 32 films: 12 documentaries, 10 U.S. narratives and 10 international narratives. The Spotlight Narrative section features 15 fiction films, while 16 nonfiction films will premiere in the Spotlight Documentary section. The Midnight section features five heart-stopping narratives and one documentary premiere.

Also Read: Tribeca Film Festival Audience Awards Go to 'Here Alone' and 'The Return'

Among the other films set to premiere, Evan Peters will star in “Dabka” about a rookie journalist Jay Bahadur (Peters) who has an inspiring chance encounter with his idol (Al Pacino). He uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer (Barkhad Abdi), he attempts to embed himself with the local Somali pirates, only to find himself quickly in over his head. Based on a true story. Melanie Griffith co-stars.

Meanwhile, the documentary “Whitney. ‘can I be me,'” which follows the career and life of the late Whitney Houston, and Sebastian Junger’s Syrian Civil War documentary “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS,” will have their world premieres as part of the Spotlight Documentary section.

Also Read: 11 Comedies You Should Binge-Watch, From 'Chewing Gum' to 'Angie Tribeca' (Photos)

“It’s uncertain and tumultuous times like these that we need artists and storytellers the most, and this year’s program is a testament to the unending capacity of film for impact, empathy, and even much needed escapism,” Cara Cusumano, Tribeca’s Director of Programming said in a statement. “Each in their own way, these 98 films fill me with optimism and inspiration at the unique power of our medium, and the eyes of a talented filmmaker to inspire, challenge, and maybe even change the world.”

8 Things to Know About the Accountant Behind the Oscars Envelope Snafu (Photos)

Let's be honest: The part of the Oscars that no one really cares about is when the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants come out to explain how the votes are counted. Yet, it is one of those very accountants who was responsible for the worst mix-up in Oscar history. Here's what we know about PwC accountant Brian Cullinan and what led to the moment that will live in Hollywood infamy.
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Brian Cullinan was named to the elite, secret circle of Oscars accountants in 2014, having worked at PwC for more than 30 years and serving as the head of PwC's entertainment, media and communications assurance practice. As the head of the Oscar balloting process, he is one of only two people who knows who is going to win before the envelopes are opened on Oscar night.
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It's the job of the PwC accountants to hand out the envelopes to the awards presenters during the show. Each accountant sits on different wings of the stage, holding a copy of each envelope for all 24 Oscar categories. This way, they can easily get an envelope to any presenter if they have to change which side of the stage they will walk on from.
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A couple days before the Oscars, Cullinan was asked by the Huffington Post what would happen if the wrong winner was announced during the show. “We would make sure that the correct person was known very quickly,” he said. “Whether that entails stopping the show, us walking onstage, us signaling to the stage manager — that’s really a game-time decision, if something like that were to happen. Again, it’s so unlikely.”
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Just before Best Picture presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty took to the stage, Cullinan tweeted out a picture of Emma Stone holding her Oscar for Best Actress. Cullinan has since deleted the pictures of celebrities that he took backstage during the show, but a screencap of the Stone picture he took just minutes before the Best Picture incident occurred went viral.
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Taking pictures of and with celebrities seems to be a favorite pastime of Cullinan's, having posted pictures at past Oscars with celebs like Alicia Vikander, John Legend, and Chris Rock. In an interview with the alumni magazine for his alma mater, Cornell University, Cullinan spoke at length about how meeting celebrities was one of the best parts of his job.
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It was around the same time that Cullinan took the picture of Stone that he mistakenly gave Beatty his duplicate envelope for the Best Actress category instead of the envelope containing proof that "Moonlight" had won Best Picture. (This was why Beatty paused after opening the envelope.)
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As the "La La Land" producers made their acceptance speeches, Cullinan ran onstage with the two Best Picture envelopes to inform the cast and crew of Damien Chazelle's musical that they had not won. Amidst the confusion as the "Moonlight" team took the stage to receive their award, Beatty could be seen speaking to Cullinan about what had happened.
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After the event, PricewaterhouseCoopers released an apology for the incident, identifying Cullinan as the one responsible for the switched envelopes and saying that once "La La Land" had been named the winner, "protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner.”
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He tweeted backstage… a lot

Let's be honest: The part of the Oscars that no one really cares about is when the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants come out to explain how the votes are counted. Yet, it is one of those very accountants who was responsible for the worst mix-up in Oscar history. Here's what we know about PwC accountant Brian Cullinan and what led to the moment that will live in Hollywood infamy.

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