Tribeca unspools with series of European premieres
The 2009 Tribeca Film Festival kicks off tonight with Woody Allen’s latest film, Whatever Works. Running through May 3, this year’s line-up (86 features and 46 shorts) offers a strong selection of European titles that have been garnering accolades around the globe, along with a number of international and world premieres.
At yesterday’s inaugural press conference, festival co-founders Jane Rosenthal and Robert DeNiro spoke of the event’s determination to prevail despite troubling economic times. Rosenthal added that she was proud of Tribeca’s now “firmly established place in New York’s cultural calendar and in international film.”
Half of the dozen titles in the World Narrative Competition are European (co)productions, and include the world premieres of Conor McPherson’s The Eclipse (Ireland), Serbian director Darko Lungulov’s Here and There and French/German endeavour Queen to Play by Caroline Bottaro.
Features in the World Documentary competition that are partially or entirely European include Only When I Dance (Brazil/UK) by Beadie Finzi and Team Quatar (UK) by Liz Mermin, both world premieres; and the international premiere of Yoav Shamir’s look at anti-semitism, Defamation (Denmark/Austria/US/Israel).
The Discovery sidebar features two European world premieres – British director Julian Kemp’s My Last Five Girlfriends and Danish title Original [+see also:
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Further European world premieres include US/UK picture Tell Tale by Michael Cuesta (Encounters section); and in the Midnight screenings, Newsmakers (Russia/Sweden) by Anders Banke and Daniel Benmayor’s Paintball (Spain).
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