The Tribeca Film Festival has cut back on the films this year, but it has super-sized itself in other areas.
The upcoming edition includes more music, more TV, more interactive, more VR and a list of speakers, panelists and Q&A guests that includes Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Kobe Bryant, Lena Dunham, Jon Favreau, Johnny Rotten, Alejandro G. Inarritu, Kathryn Bigelow, Paul Feig, Noah Baumbach and Common.
It’s tempting to say “who needs film?” at this film festival, except that film — or, at least, filmed or taped entertainment — is at the heart of most of these events. Even Bryant will be coming to Tribeca not to recap his basketball career, but to discuss his collaboration with animator Glen Keane on a short film.
(Granted, Springsteen’s chat with Hanks will likely be a lot more about music and culture than film, but it doesn’t matter what kind of festival you are — if Bruce Springsteen wants to show up, sit down and chat, you let him.)
At any rate, the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival embraces the wide view of what constitutes film by trying to keep pace with the blurring lines between cinema television and interactive entertainment, and between culture and politics.
And partly, that means downplaying traditional film slightly. Tribeca cut its film program by about 20 percent this year, a similar step to one that was previously announced by the even larger Toronto International Film Festival.
Tribeca is showing 98 films this year, with most of the screenings split between the Tribeca neighborhood of lower Manhattan and the Chelsea neighborhood further north.
Many will take place at a Battery Park multiplex located just steps from the site of the 9/11 attacks that caused Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal to launch the festival in 2002.
In the competition section, 20 narrative films (10 from the U.S., 10 from international filmmakers) and 22 documentaries will compete for prizes in front of juries that include actors Peter Fonda, Diane Lane, Christina Ricci, Priyanka Chopra, Willem Dafoe and Melanie Lynskey and filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Amy Berg and Amy Heckerling.
Out of competition, galas and special screenings include James Ponsoldt’s “The Circle,” with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson; “The Public Image is Rotten,” a documentary about Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten (now John Lydon); anniversary screenings of “Aladdin,” “Bowling for Columbine” and “Reservoir Dogs”; and a closing-night double feature of “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II,” followed by a conversation with Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and De Niro.
The opening-night film, which is often a documentary about a New York institution, will be “Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives,” based on the autobiography by the celebrated record executive. It will be followed by a Radio City Music Hall concert featuring Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Carly Simon, Dionne Warwick and the back-in-the-news Barry Manilow.
Tribeca’s second TV program includes world premieres of the new shows “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Eyeslicer” and “Genius,” season premieres of “Casual,” “Episodes” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” a “sneak peek” at Ken Burns’ upcoming 18-part documentary series “The Vietnam War” and a number of independently produced TV pilots.
The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival runs April 19-30.
15 Films to Watch at the Tribeca Film Festival (Photos)
The Tribeca Film Festival is presenting 98 feature films over 12 days in New York City. Our list just scratches the surface, but here are some of the Tribeca world premieres that caught our eye.
“The Trip to Spain” Great food, beautiful locations, funny guys and Michael Caine impersonations – those are the ingredients of all the films Michael Winterbottom has made with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. And there’s no reason to think they won’t be just as appetizing as ever as our boys hit Spain.
“LA 92” One of six current docs on the L.A. riots of 1992, this gripping work from Oscar-wining directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Miller eschews talking heads to drop you in the middle of the chaos.
“Flower” Actress Zoey Deutch has the potential to be both an indie stalwart and a mainstream star, and she has a delicious role in Max Winkler’s black comedy about a high school schemer whose casual superiority starts to crack when she meets her mother’s boyfriends lumpish son, who is fresh out of rehab and hiding secrets.
“Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” The ingredients of this true-life story are irresistible: a movie star who moonlighted as an inventor developing a communication system to help the Allies in World War II. Can director Alexandra Dean do justice to Lamarr’s wild tale?
“Abundant Acreage Available” Martin Scorsese served as executive producer of Angus MacLachlan’s family drama, in which Amy Ryan and Terry Kinney play siblings whose lives are disrupted by three brothers camping on their family farm.
“The Reagan Show” In this era of a reality-show president, Pacho Velez and Sierre Pettengill’s documentary about how Ronald Reagan was the first made-for-TV chief executive could be timely indeed.
“One Percent More Humid” Liz W. Garcia (“Dawson’s Creek,” “Cold Case”) has assembled a topnotch cast – Juno Temple, Julia Garner, Maggie Siff, Alessandro Nivola – in her story of childhood friends torn apart by traumatic memories.
“Holy Air” Can you get away with a comedy set in Nazareth and dealing with a hustler whose new scheme is to sell bottled “holy air?” That’s what Shady Srour is trying to do.
“A Gray State” Few subjects are as newsworthly as the conspiracy theorists of the alt-right, which is the terrain that Erik Nelson explores as he chronicles the death of alt-right star David Crowley. Werner Herzog, who knows a few things about the darkness in men’s hearts, is executive producer.
“My Friend Dahmer” A movie about the teenage years of serial-killer-to-be Jeffrey Dahmer, whose penchant for gruesome backyard experiments actually made him a popular kid? If it’s not done right it could be cringe-inducing, but it also sounds weirdly fascinating.
“A River Below” Surprises await deep in the Amazon River in Mark Grieco’s documentary about an expedition that tries to save the pink river dolphin but runs into an ethical scandal.
“Dog Years” You have to love the idea of Burt Reynolds playing a swaggering, mustachioed ‘70s star who accepts a lifetime achievement award from a bargain-basement film festival.
“Frank Serpico” You saw the Sidney Lumet film starring Al Pacino as the New York policeman who blew the whistle on fellow cops on the take. (You did see it, didn't you?) Now meet the real guy in Antonino D’Ambrosio’s doc.
“Pilgrimage” An action movie with the weaponry available in 1209 and a story about faith that also contains copious bloodshed, Brendan Muldowney’s atmospheric drama stars Tom Holland, Richard Armitage and Jon Bernthal in the story of a small band of monks trying to take a precious (and powerful?) Catholic relic from Ireland to Rome.
“Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS” Sebastian Junger landed an Oscar nomination with his documentary “Restrepo,” and he’s teamed with Nick Quested to chronicle the history of the country that seems to be spawning more documentaries with each new film festival.
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From the L.A. riots to a vacation in Spain, and Jeffrey Dahmer to Ronald Reagan — Tribeca offers a mix of sobering documentaries and indie comedies
The Tribeca Film Festival is presenting 98 feature films over 12 days in New York City. Our list just scratches the surface, but here are some of the Tribeca world premieres that caught our eye.
