Tribeca2024: Award Winning Films Define the Tribeca Indie Tradition

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NEW YORK – Last week, the competition awards were conferred at the (click) Tribeca Festival and the top narrative films were “Griffin in Summer” (U.S.) and “Bikechess” (International). While different in story arc, both films involved individuals facing a truth they inherently knew but never expected to encounter.

The 2024 Tribeca Festival, presented by Web3 tech company OKX, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, VR, gaming, music, and online work. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is a platform for creative expression and entertainment. For all information, including more on the final weekend, CLICK TRIBECA 2024.

2024 Tribeca Best U.S. Narrative: ‘Griffin in Summer’
Photo credit: TribecaFilm.com

Capsule Reviews, 2024 Tribeca Film Festival

Griffin in Summer involves 14-year-old Griffin (Everett Blunck) who likes to spend his summers producing stage plays. However, when his tween collaborators get distracted by more trivial pursuits like boys and camp, Griffin’s attention drifts toward Brad (Owen Teague), the zoned-out handyman working at his house.

CAPSULE REVIEW: This combines the intensity of a teenage first crush with a somewhat coming out story, although that aspect of it seems on the periphery. Owen Teague is hilarious as the clueless performance-artist-turned-handyman, especially when he temporarily infiltrates Griffin’s play (which is a masked reference to Griffin’s reality with his parents). The whole film wrings both awkward and direct laughs from the pitch-black actuality, but like Griffin, life is the pool we all have to jump into. Best U.S. Narrative Feature, Tribeca 2024

BikeChess is the story of Dina (Saltanat Nauruz), a disenchanted Kazakhstan broadcast journalist who is much more capable than the propaganda she is forced to cover. Challenged by her radical sister and the job, Dina has to amp up her coping mechanism.

CAPSULE REVIEW: Combining “1984” with “Inside Edition,” the film’s slower pace allows for a meditation on “what are survival instincts?” It’s one thing to dismiss authoritarianism (Kazakhstan’s government has been characterized as such) and another to lose a cushy job because you fight against it. This balancing debate in the film is the key, down to the vague last image, reminiscent of “The 400 Blows.” U.S. citizens might be facing this very choice in the future. Best International Narrative Feature, Tribeca 2024

Don’t You Let Me Go focuses on Adela (Chlara Hourcade), who is distraught and lost after attending the funeral of cherished best friend Elena (Victoria Jorge). After sobbing in her car, she notices a bus that is waiting for her. This magic bus is about to whisk her away to her younger self, and a holiday with the younger Elena.

CAPSULE REVIEW: What is remarkable about the film from Uruguay is that Adela doesn’t realize that this is a fantasy, she is fully her younger self interacting with the beloved Elena (save for some momentary reality checks). The film is a definition of friendship in its most trustworthy times, and that worthiness characterizes the grief that is shown at the top of the film. This is an ultimate “go with the flow’ film, down to the audacious and appropriate final scene. Nora Ephron Award, Tribeca 2024

CAPSULE REVIEWS of ”Driver” and Short Films: “Driver” is a stark and honest document of the lives of women truckers, the so-called “essential workers” of the pandemic era, only to devolve back into a world of low pay and sexism. The truth of America is magnified in the crass patriarchy of the industry. For short films, Prince Shoutoku, The End of the Party and Book a Room are three bright and heroic music videos (remember those?) that meditate on women’s lives. Dirty Towel uses a mother’s suspicion about a teen’s sex life as an hilarious metaphor. And Jane Austen’s Period Drama is yes, about mannerly menstruation … “somebody get some chicken’s blood.” Hahahaha

As a conclusion to the 2024 Tribeca Festival, a Moment of Zen …

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com