Film News: 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Honors ‘Keep the Change’ as Best U.S. Narrative Feature

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CHICAGO – The 16th Edition of the Tribeca Film Festival continues through April 30th, 2017, but the main jury awards were announced yesterday at Awards Night ceremonies. “Keep the Change,” directed by Rachel Israel, was award Best U.S. Narrative Feature. All of the 2017 winners represented a wide range of topics, from inspirational to entertaining, and featured veteran as well as up-and-coming creators and talents from around the world. Worth noting, and a first for Tribeca, all five feature categories winners are from women-directed films.

Awards were distributed in the following feature film competition categories – U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, Documentary, New Narrative Director, The Albert Maysles New Documentary Director, and the Nora Ephron Prize, honoring a woman writer or director. Awards were also given in the short film categories – Narrative, Documentary, Student Visionary and Animation. For the fifth year, Tribeca awarded innovation in storytelling through its Storyscapes Award for immersive (VR) storytelling.

Jury Awards for the 16th Tribeca Film Festival Were Announced on April 27th, 2017
Photo credit: TribecaFilm.com

Jane Rosenthal, the Executive Chair and Co-Founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, introduced Awards Night by saying “It is more important than ever to celebrate artists both in front of and behind the camera who have the unique ability to share different viewpoints to inspire, challenge and entertain us. The winning creators from across the Festival program shared stories that did exactly that, and we are honored to recognize them tonight. And how wonderful is it that the top awards in all five feature film categories were directed by women.”

The following are the jury awards for the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, given by category…

U.S. Narrative Competition

’Keep the Change,’ Directed by Rachel Israel
Photo credit: Tribeca Film Festival

The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature: “Keep the Change,” directed by Rachel Israel

Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Alessandro Nivola in“One Percent More Humid”

Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Nadia Alexander in “Blame”

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Chris Teague for “Love After Love”

Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film: Angus MacLachlan for “Abundant Acreage Available”

International Narrative Competition

’Son of Sofia,’ directed by Elina Pyskou
Photo credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Best International Narrative Feature: “Son of Sofia,” directed by Elina Pyskou

Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature: Guillermo Pfening in “Nobody’s Watching”

Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature: Marie Leuenberger in “The Divine Order”

Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film: Mart Taniel for “November”

Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film: Bohdan Sláma for “Ice Mother”

World Documentary Competition

’Bobbi Jene,’ Directed by Elvira Lind
Photo credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature: “Bobbi Jene,” directed by Elvira Lind (USA, Denmark, Israel)

Best Documentary Cinematography: Elvira Lind for “Bobbi Jene”

Best Documentary Editing: Adam Nielson for “Bobbi Jene”

Short Film Competition

’Odd is an Egg,’ Directed by Kristin Ulseth
Photo credit: Tribeca Film Festival

Best Narrative Short: “Retouch,” directed by Kaveh Mazaheri (Iran)

Best Animated Short: “Odd is an Egg,” directed by Kristin Ulseth (Norway)

Best Documentary Short: “The Good Fight,” directed by Ben Holman (USA, UK, Brazil)

Student Visionary Award: “Fry Day,” directed by Laura Moss (USA)

New Narrative and Documentary Director Competition

Best New Narrative Director: Rachel Israel of “Keep the Change”

Best New Documentary Directors: (AKA the Albert Maysles Award) Sarita Khurana and Smriti Mundhra for “A Suitable Girl” (USA, India)

Storyscapes Award

“Treehugger: Wawona” (USA), created by Barnaby Steel , Ersin Han Ersin and Robin McNicholas of Marshmallow Laser Feast

The Nora Ephron Prize

Petra Volpe, writer/director of “The Divine Order” (Switzerland)

By PATRICK McDONALD Editorial Coordinator, Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com