Tribeca: ‘Asia,’ ‘Cowboys,’ ‘Materna’ Among Awards Winners

Even with its physical edition postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival presented the winners in its juried competition Wednesday night via Tribeca’s Instagram after the fest made some of its programming available online.

Co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal participated in the virtual ceremony, which started at 7 p.m. ET and was hosted by Tribeca’s senior programmer and head of immersive Loren Hammonds. Additionally, jurors appeared virtually to announce this year’s winners.

Winners in select categories were presented with original pieces of art from 10 world-class artists as part of Tribeca’s partnership with Chanel.

Ruthy Pribar’s Asia, from Israel, won three prizes: the Nora Ephron Award, designed to honor the spirit and vision of the late filmmaker and writer; best actress in an international narrative feature (Shira Haas); and best cinematography in an international narrative feature (Daniella Nowitz). Additionally, with the Ephron Award, Pribar is awarded the 2008 artwork Untitled by Pat Steir. My Wonderful Wanda got a special jury mention for the Ephron Award.

Best international narrative feature went to Jan Komasa’s The Hater, from Poland, with Komasa also awarded the 2020 watercolor January Golden Rock by Helen Marden. Ainu Mosir received a special jury mention in the international narrative category. Other international winners include Kokoloko‘s Noe Hernandez for best actor and Tryst With Destiny‘s Prashant Nair for best screenplay.

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In the U.S. narrative competition, Cowboys and Materna each won two awards, with the former taking home best actor (Steve Zahn) and best screenplay (Anna Kerrigan) honors and the latter winning best actress (Assol Abdullina) and best cinematography (Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj, Kelly Jeffrey) prizes. Alice Wu’s The Half of It, which is set to premiere Friday on Netflix, won the Founders Award for best U.S. narrative feature. Wu also won Julian Schnabel’s 2007 artwork Le Scaphandre et le Papillon.

Bo McGuire’s Socks on Fire was tapped as best documentary feature, with McGuire also receiving Sterling Ruby’s 2020 DRFTRS collage. Wonderboy received a special jury mention.

Other documentary winners included 499 (best cinematography for Alejandro Mejia) and Father Soldier Son (best editing for Amy Foote).

The best new narrative director award went to Nobody Knows I’m Here‘s Gaspar Antillo, who also was the recipient of Rita Ackermann’s 2018 artwork The Working Woman 3.

The Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award went to Jessica Earnshaw for Jacinta, with Earnshaw also taking home Gus Van Sant’s 2016 Achelous and Hercules artwork. The Last Out received a special jury mention.

“We are fortunate that technology allowed for our jury to come together this year to honor our filmmakers,” Rosenthal said in a statement. “Despite not being able to be together physically, we were still able to support our artists, which has always been at the heart of the festival.”

Added festival director Cara Cusumano, “While we are not yet able to celebrate these incredible films at their premieres, we are so proud to celebrate them in partnership with our generous jurors through our 2020 Tribeca awards. The jury chose to recognize a daring, innovative, entertaining, diverse group of films and filmmakers, and the Festival is pleased to honor all of them with our first ever virtual awards ceremony.”

A full list of this year’s winners is available here.