Tribeca announces awards

The Half Of It, Socks On Fire and The Hater among winners

by Amber Wilkinson

The Half Of It
The Half Of It Photo: Netflix/KC Bailey

The Half Of It, directed by Alice Wu, won the Founders Award for best US narrative feature as Tribeca announced the accolades for its virtual edition last night.

The rest of the US Narrative Competition awards were split between Anna Kerrigan's dad and son on the run story Cowboys and David Gutnik's psychological portrait of isolation and connection Materna. Kerrigan won the best screenplay and her star Steve Zahn took home the best acting gong, while Assol Abdullina was named best actress for her role in Materna, which also saw Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj and Kelly Jeffrey for their cinematography.

Polish film The Hater, directed by Jan Komasa, was named best international film and Bo Maguire's Socks On Fire was named best documentary.

Wu's high school dramedy The Half Of - described as "a coming-of-age take on Cyrano De Bergerac - will premiere on Netflix this Friday. Komasa's The Hater, meanwhile, considers how misinformation thrives in the modern world through the story of a young man who takes a job at a PR firm to impress his childhood friend, only to find himself sucked into a moral maze.

Maguire's Socks On Fire is described as "a first-person saga that explores the intricacies of an exploding family and the blossoming of queer identity in the rural South".

Among the other feature winners were Jessica Earnshaw's Jacinta, which won the best new documentary director award and Ruthy Pribar's Asia, which was given the Nora Ephron Award along with the best international actress award (Shira Haas) and best cinematography gong (Daniella Nowitz). The international awards were rounded out by Prashant Nair's Tryst With Destiny, which won best screenplay and Gerardo Naranjo's Kokoloko, which saw Noe Hernandez named best actor.

British short film No More Wings, directed by Abraham Adeyemi, was named best narrative short, while the short documentary prize went to My Father The Mover by Julia Jansch.

Festival co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal said: “We are fortunate that technology allowed for our jury to come together this year to honour our filmmakers. Despite not being able to be together physically, we were still able to support our artists, which has always been at the heart of the Festival.”

The full list of winners is below:

US Narrative Competition

  • Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature: The Half of It, directed by Alice Wu
  • Best Screenplay: Cowboys, Anna Kerrigan
  • Best Actress: Assol Abdullina in Materna
  • Best Actor: Steve Zahn, Cowboys
  • Best Cinematography: Materna, Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj, Kelly Jeffrey

International Narrative Competition

  • Best Narrative Feature: The Hater (Poland), directed by Jan Komasa.
  • Best Actor: Noe Hernandez, Kokoloko (Mexico)
  • Best Actress: Shira Haas, Asia (Israel)
  • Best Cinematography: Asia (Israel), Daniella Nowitz
  • Best Screenplay: Tryst With Destiny (India, France), Prashant Nair

Documentary Competition

  • Best Documentary Feature: Socks On Fire, directed by Bo McGuire
  • Best Cinematography: 499, Alejandro Mejia
  • Best Editing in a Documentary Film: Father Soldier Son, Amy Foote

Best New Narrative Director

  • Gaspar Antillo for Nobody Knows I’m Here, Gaspar Antillo

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award

The Nora Ephron Award

  • Asia, directed by Ruthy Pribar

Short Competition

  • Best Narrative Short: No More Wings, Abraham Adeyemi
  • Best Animated Short: Friends, Florian Grolig
  • Best Documentary Short – My Father The Mover, Julia Jansch
  • Student Visionary Award: Cru, David Oesch

Tribeca X Awards

  • Best Short: Pay Day, directed by Morgan Cooper
  • Best Series: Girls Room, directed by Tiffany Johnson and written by Lena Waithe
  • Best Feature – U Shoot Videos? directed by Morgan Cooper

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