Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Tribeca >> 2013 >> Spotlight
Tribeca’s Spotlight section offers world premieres and advance premieres with bold-faced names, topics of interest from both established and emerging filmmakers.
View other Tribeca Festival Films by strand: Midnight, Shorts, Special Screenings, Storyscapes, Viewpoints, World Documentary Feature Competition, World Narrative Competition
G.B.F. and All Is Bright
At Any Price
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Ramin Bahrani; Writer: Ramin Bahrani, Hallie Elizabeth Newton; Stars: Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, Heather Graham, Clancy Brown, KimDickens, Chelcie Ross)
A story of fathers and sons set against the backdrop of an Iowa farming community.
New York premiere. Narrative
Adult World
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Scott Coffey; Writer: Andy Cochran; Stars: John Cusack, Emma Roberts, Armando Riesco, Shannon Woodward, Chris Riggi, Darin Scott, Scott Coffey)
World premiere. Narrative
Amy is naïve, awkward and anxious to get her poetry career off of the ground. She begrudgingly accepts a job at the local sex shop, Adult World, while pursuing a surefire kick-start for her success: a mentorship with reclusive writer Rat Billings. As Amy’s world melds with that of Adult World, she slowly learns that inspiration can be found in the most improbable places.
All Is Bright (Almost Christmas)
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Phil Morrison; Writer: Melissa James Gibson; Stars: Paul Rudd, Paul Giamatti, Sally Hawkins, Amy Landecker, Peter Hermann, Michael Drayer)
An ex-con and his erstwhile partner bicker and bond as they try to get rich before Christmas.
World premiere. Narrative
Before Midnight
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater; Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Ariane Labed, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick)
Jesse and Celine consider their lives together after nine years of living together.
New York premiere. Narrative
Big Bad Wolves
(Country: Israel; Year: 2013; Director: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado; Writer: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado; Stars: Lior Ashkenazi, Tzahi Grad, Rotem Keinan, Doval'e Glickman)
Two vigilantes kidnap a suspected child-killer.
World premiere. Narrative
Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amnesia and Whitewash
Bottled Up
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Enid Zentelis; Writer: Enid Zentelis; Stars: Melissa Leo, Marin Ireland, Josh Hamilton)
World premiere. Narrative
Complaining of back pain months after a car accident, Sylvie’s addiction to painkillers is clear to everyone except her mother, Faye. A promising solution appears in Becket, but relationships and loyalty are soon tested when his feelings fall in an unexpected place.
Byzantium
(Country: UK, US, Ireland; Year: 2012; Director: Neil Jordan; Writer: Moira Buffini; Stars: Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Jonny Lee Miller, Sam Riley, Tom Hollander, Caleb Landry Jones)
Two vampires, mother and daughter, open a seaside bordello.
US premiere. Narrative
A Case Of You
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Kat Coiro; Writer: Christian Long, Justin Long, Keir O'Donnell; Stars: Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Brendan Fraser, Sienna Miller, Vince Vaughn)
World premiere. Narrative
A young writer woos a cute and quirky barista by creating an embellished online profile. When she falls for his alter ego, he must keep up the act or lose his dream girl.
Cycling With Molière (Alceste à bicyclette)
(Country: France; Year: 2013; Director: Philippe Le Guay; Writer: Philippe Le Guay, Fabrice Luchini; Stars: Fabrice Luchini, Lambert Wilson, Maya Sansa, CAmille Japy, Ged Marlon)
International premiere. Narrative
Once-great actor Serge Tanneur now spends his days alone, cycling through the windblown landscape of France’s Île de Ré. Even an offer from his old friend Gauthier to return to the stage in Molière’s The Misanthrope fails to draw his interest. At least, at first.
The Director
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Stephen David Brooks; Writer: Stephen David Brooks)
World premiere. Documentary
How do you make one of the world's most revered fashion brands your own? That is the task facing creative director Frida Giannini in this authoritative look at the past, present and future of The House of Gucci.
At Any Price and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Chiemi Karasawa; Stars: Cherry Jones, Elaine Stritch)
Documentary about the broadway legend.
World premiere. Documentary
The English Teacher
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Craig Zisk; Writer: Dan Chariton, Stacy Chariton; Stars: Lily Colins, Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Michael Angarano, Nathan Lane)
World premiere. Narrative
Teacher Linda Sinclair balances her staid home life with an incredible passion for her subject, but her routine is forever altered when a former star pupil and his unsupportive father re-enter her life.
Gasland Part II
(Director: Josh Fox)
World premiere. Documentary
Documentary follow-up to Gasland, revealing the extreme circumstances facing those affected by fracking, from earthquakes to the use of federal anti-terror psychological operations tactics.
G.B.F.
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Darren Stein; Writer: George Northy; Stars: Michael J Willett, Sasha Pieterse, Evanna Lynch, Megan Mullally, natasha Lyonee, Rebecca Gayheart)
After being accidentally outed, a shy teenager finds he has become the ultimate fashion accessory - the Gay Best Friend.
World premiere. Narrative
Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amnesia
(Year: 2013; Director: Nicholas Wrathall)
Documentary about the fearless essayist.
World premiere. Documentary
Byzantium and Prince Avalanche
Greetings From Tim Buckley
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Daniel Algrant; Writer: Daniel Algrant, David Brendel; Stars: Penn Badgley, Imogen Poots, William Sadler)
US premiere. Narrative
A biopic chronicling the days leading up to Jeff Buckley's performance at his father's tribute concert.
Haute Cuisine (Les saveurs du Palais)
(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Christian Vincent; Writer: Etienne Comar, Christian Vincent, Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch; Stars: Catherine Frot, Arthur Dupont, Jean d'Ormesson, Hippolyte Girardot, Jean-Marc Roulot, Philippe Uchan)
Drama based on the real-life story of the personal chef to former French president François Mitterand.
North American premiere. Narrative
Inside Out: The People’s Art Project
(Director: Alastair Siddons)
World premiere. Documentary
This fascinating documentary tracks the evolution of the world’s largest participatory art project, the wildly popular “Inside Out.” Travel the globe with French artist JR as he motivates communities to define their most important causes by pasting giant portraits in the street, testing the limits of what they thought possible.
In God We Trust
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Victor Kubicek, Derek Anderson)
World premiere. Documentary
Bernie Madoff ruined many lives before his arrest in 2008. Perhaps no one was so personally affected as his longtime personal secretary, Eleanor Squillari. Meet Squillari in the days and months after the arrest, as her obsession with the case grows into her own unique search for clues. In God We Trust follows Squillari on her personal journey for justice, exposing previously unknown facts about the greatest financial crime ever committed.
I Got Somethin' to Tell You
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Whoopi Goldberg; Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Moms Mabley)
World premiere. Documentary
Having broken racial and sexual boundaries as a pioneering comic talent, the late Moms Mabley has long been an icon in the comedy world. Now Whoopi Goldberg takes a deep dive into Mabley’s legacy via recently unearthed photography, rediscovered performance footage and the words of numerous celebrated comedians.
Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic and Big Bad Wolves
Lil Bub & Friendz
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Andy Capper, Juliette Eisner)
World premiere. Documentary
alled “the most famous cat on the Internet,” the wide-eyed perma-kitten Lil Bub is the adorable embodiment of the Web’s fascination with all things cats. Join Lil Bub and her owner on wild cross-country romp as they meet the Internet’s most famous cat-lebrities.
McConkey
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Steve Winter, Murray Wais, Scott Gaffney, David Zieff, Rob Bruce)
World premiere. Documentary
An all-star roster of sports movie-making talent directs this heartfelt biography of extreme ski trailblazer Shane McConkey, once described as “the most influential skier ever.” McConkey covers forty years and countless high places to track Shane’s conversion from downhill racer to freeskiing marvel to pioneer of a hair-raising new discipline—ski BASE jumping—giving alarming new meaning to the question, how far would you go to be the next big thing?
The Motivation
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Adam Bhala Lough)
World premiere. Documentary
Go inside the lives and training regimes of eight of the world’s gutsiest professional skateboarders.
Prince Avalanche
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: David Gordon Green; Writer: David Gordon Green; Stars: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, Lance LeGault, Joyce Payne)
Odd couple comedy about two road workers in the backwaters of Texas.
New York premiere. Narrative
The Pretty One
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Jenée LaMarque; Writer: Jenée LaMarque; Stars: Jake Johnson, Zoe Kazan, Ron Livingston, Sterling Beaumon, john Carroll)
World premiere. Narrative
Audrey has all of the qualities that her twin sister Laurel wishes she possessed: confidence, style, independence. When tragedy strikes, Laurel has the opportunity to reinvent herself. In a complex performance, Zoe Kazan poignantly captures Laurel’s complex mix of loss and awakening, especially as she begins a new relationship with her neighbour.
Before Midnight and Haute Cuisine
The Project
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Shawn Efran, Adam Ciralsky)
World premiere. Documentary
The precarious, real-life story of the Puntland Maritime Police Force, a group of Somali pirate hunters. Taking the hijacking of the African waterways and the kidnapping of innocent citizens into their under-trained hands, the PMPF face mutiny, death and a loss of corporate funding in their dangerous quest to free the Middle East shipping industry from terror. The mercenaries’ epic battle makes for an intense, gripping and disarming ride.
Reaching For The Moon
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2013; Director: Bruno Barreto; Stars: Miranda Otto, Gloria Pires, Tracy Middendorf, Treat Williams), Trailer
The poet Elizabeth Bishop falls in love and finds inspiration.
North American premiere. Narrative
Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Marina Zenovich; Writer: Peter Morgan)
Profile of the stand-up comedian.
World premiere. Documentary
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
(Country: US, India, Pakistan; Year: 2012; Director: Mira Nair; Writer: William Wheeler, Mohsin Hamid, Ami Boghani; Stars: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland)
A successful stockbroker finds his glittering career shattered after the Twin Towers fall, and is drawn back to the conflict in his homeland of Pakistan.
US premiere. Narrative
A Single Shot
(Country: US, UK, Canada; Year: 2013; Director: David M. Rosenthal; Stars: Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Kelly Reilly, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Wright)
North American premiere. Narrative
A hunter who accidentally shoots a woman decides to cover up the accident after finding a bag of money.
Reaching For The Moon and Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
Some Velvet Morning
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Neil LaBute; Writer: Neil LaBute; Stars: Stanley Tucci, Alice Eve )
World premiere. Narrative
Fred arrives at Velvet’s doorstep, suitcases in tow. He tells her that he has finally left his wife to be with her, news to Velvet since she has not seen him in years and is now with Fred’s recently married son. As Fred’s hopes crash to earth during a conversation brimming with passion, remorse, humour and anger, the twisted heart of a fascinating relationship is revealed.
Trust Me
(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Clark Gregg; Writer: Clark Gregg; Stars: Sam Rockwell, Amanda Peet, William H Macy, Allison Janney, Clark Gregg, Felicity Huffman, Molly Shannon)
World premiere. Narrative
Flailing Hollywood agent Howard seemingly strikes gold after signing the next big child star. What results is an unexpected ride through the nasty inner workings of Hollywood, as Howard desperately tries to make it in an industry that has no interest in recognising his bumbling but ultimately genuine nature.
Whitewash
(Country: Canada; Year: 2012; Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais; Writer: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Marc Tulin; Stars: Thomas Haden Church, Marc Labrèche, Vincent Hoss-Desmarais, Geneviève Laroche, Isabelle Nélisse)
A man finds an encounter with a stranger changes his life forever.
World premiere. Narrative
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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