With Sundance now safely in the books and the Oscars in the rear view, the film world can turn its attention to Lower Manhattan, where in just a few weeks the Tribeca Film Festival will present its 2016 edition.
This year, the festival is splitting its feature film competition into two categories: US Narrative and International Narrative. The new split format will allow the influential festival to shine a light on more diverse voices within the American filmmaking scene and allow for broader representation of what’s happening in the wider world of film.
The festival will be opened by director Justin Tipping‘s Kicks, which, in a kind of Northern California twist on last year’s Sundance darling Dope, follows a teenager who tromps across the Bay Area trying to retrieve a stolen pair of shoes. Dean, the directorial debut of Demetri Martin, finds the comedian fending off his father’s attempts to sell off his childhood home and pursuing Gillian Jacobs‘s love and affection. Fellow first-time director Jeff Grace is offering Folk Hero & Funny Guy, which follows a pair of friends across the country as they try to reignite their respective music and comedy careers (with the help of Michael Ian Black, David Cross, and more).
Tribeca will also play host to the world premiere of Contemporary Color, Bill and Turner Ross‘s documentary about David Byrne‘s color guard exhibition that took place at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center last summer. Craig Atkinson‘s timely Do Not Resist examines the rapid militarization of American police departments, while Joseph Martin and Sam Blair‘s Keep Quiet follows a Hungarian politician’s conversion from darling of the anti-Semitic far right to Orthodox Jew after he learns his family’s heritage.
The International Narrative competition is being opened by Madly, an anthology of six short films written and directed by various artists (including Gael García Bernal and Bat for Lashes singer Natasha Khan) who explore the idea of love in its many permutations. Halkawkt Mustafa‘s El Clásico, meanwhile, follows two Iranian brothers on the road from their home town to Madrid, where they hope to meet Cristiano Ronaldo. Udi Aloni‘s Junction 48 tells the story of a rapper from the Israeli town of Lod and probes the idea of whether or not art can be separated from politics.
The complete list of announced films is available at Tribeca’s website.
