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TRIBECA 2018

European productions to cross the pond for the 17th Tribeca Film Festival

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- Continental co-productions dominate the International Narrative Competition selection of the New York festival running from 18-29 April, and are eyeing some of the five main awards

European productions to cross the pond for the 17th Tribeca Film Festival
Virgins by Keren Ben Rafael

Featuring a line-up full of emerging artistic voices and aiming to retain its status as a platform for discovering talented filmmakers, the 17th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival commences tomorrow, 18 April, in New York’s famous eponymous neighbourhood and will run until 29 April.

Once again this year, Tribeca’s International Narrative Competition has a tight and almost exclusively European-focused selection, as nine out of the ten participating films are European co-productions having their world, international or North American premieres, and competing for the five main awards. Tribeca’s artistic director, Frédéric Boyer, underlined: “Our International Competition showcases bold, risky and stylish film voices. These new perspectives, with their diverse tones and approaches, may inspire people to broaden their opinions and offer some exciting visions of our world today.”

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Starting with four European films directed by first-time directors that will be enjoying their world premieres at the New York-based gathering, Danish satirist, documentarian and writer Mads Brügger takes his first shot at fiction with an odd-couple comedy set in China, The Saint Bernard Syndicate [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (Denmark); Cypriot writer-producer Marios Piperides also makes his debut in the comedy genre, exploring absurd diplomacy in Smuggling Hendrix [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marios Piperides
film profile
]
 (Cyprus/Germany/Greece); up-and-coming British helmer Jamie Jones, a seasoned short-film maker, focuses on stark reality in the midst of social riots in his drama Obey [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (UK); while Israeli director Keren Ben Rafael’s coming-of-age tale Virgins [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(France/Israel/Belgium) amalgamates fantasy and reality on the Mediterranean coast.

The rest of Tribeca’s International Competition includes the international premieres of the Berlinale Panorama-screened social drama Lemonade [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ioana Uricaru
film profile
]
(Romania/Canada/Germany/Sweden), written and directed by debutant Ioana Uricaru; the Scottish surreal coming-of-age story The Party's Just Beginning [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, starring, written and directed by well-known actress Karen Gillan; and Dry Martina (Chile/Argentina), a comedy by Che Sandoval. The selection is rounded off by the North American premieres of Gabriela Pichler’s comedy Amateurs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (Sweden), Ramón Salazar Hoogers’ drama Sunday's Illness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ramón Salazar
film profile
]
(Spain) and Dominique Rocher’s horror The Night Eats the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(France).

Europe’s presence is also palpable in other sections of Tribeca. In the non-competitive Viewpoints, which pushes the boundaries of narration, James Gardner’s debut coming-of-age social drama Jellyfish [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: James Gardner
film profile
]
 will be having its world premiere, while the 1970s bank-heist film Stockholm (Canada/Sweden/USA) by Robert Budreau will premiere in the Spotlight programme. It is worth noting that the full programme of the 17th Tribeca Film Festival includes 96 films by 103 filmmakers, almost half of which were directed by women.

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