Tribeca Film Festival announces competition lineup

(courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival.)

The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival unveiled selections for films in its competition program - World Narrative and World Documentary - as well as a new section called Viewpoints, to be screened at the tenth annual event, April 20-May 1, in downtown Manhattan.

The announcement on March 8 revealed 43 or the fest's 98 feature-length films and 61 shorts from 32 countries, including 42 world premieres and 54 directorial debuts. They were chosen from a record number of 5,624 submissions.

The World Narrative and Documentary competitions each include a dozen films competing for prizes totaling $150,000 and donated artwork from Robert De Niro Sr., the father of actor Robert DeNiro, the festival's co-founder.

The films selected for the World Narrative Feature include features from 11 countries, five female directors, and five first-time directors. These films include:

. Angels Crest directed by Gaby Dellal and starring Jeremy Piven ( Entourage)
. Black Butterflies directed by Paula van der Oest (Germany, Netherlands, South Africa) starring Rutger Hauer ( Sin City)
. Jesus Henry Christ, directed/written by Dennis Lee (USA), a world premiere starring Toni Collette ( Little Miss Sunshine) and Michael Sheen ( Frost/Nixon)
. The Last Rites of Joe May, directed and written by Joe Maggio (USA) - world premiere about a small-time Chicago hustler portrayed by Dennis Farina ( Snatch)
. The Kite ( Patang), directed/written by Prashant Bhargava (India, USA) - North American premiere. A family saga set at the Uttarayan, India's big kite festival

The World Documentary Feature Competition features a diverse range of global topics, including a tale of forbidden love between an Israeli and a Palestinian in Love During Wartime, a four-year-old Indian running prodigy in Marathon Boy, an innocent man in the Philippines serving a life sentence in Give Up Tomorrow, as well as Koran By Heart and Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

The new out-of-competition section, Viewpoints, focuses on international independent cinema, including the tale of a grown-up "test-tube baby" who uses social media to connect with relatives in Donor Unknown, Serbian musical tragedy White, White World, Carolyn, about the wife of beatnik icon Neal Cassady and muse of Jack Kerouac, and Gnarr, an Icelandic comedian who launches his own political party, The Best Party.

The remainder of the schedule will be announced March 14.

The festival's opening film is Cameron Crowe's world premiere of his documentary, The Union, about the recent album of Elton John with Leon Russell.

For the second year, the Tribeca Online Film Festival will be free and offer films, special events, conversations and red carpet coverage for remote audiences.

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/

RC