Tribeca Film Festival 2015, running April 15-26, started off with the opening night presentation at the Beacon Theater of Live From New York! The festival closes with a 25th anniversary screening on April 26 of Martin Scorsese's 1990 classic GoodFellas, also at the Beacon theater, followed by a conversation with the cast and crew.


From a variety of feature length films, shorts, experimental and interactive stories, there is a lot to choose from. Also other festival highlights: Tribeca Talks Director Series with Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, Cary Fukunaga, a Monty Python celebration with the legendary comedy troupe in person with screening of their classic films and in-person appearances; a drive-in outdoors film series and special music appearances. With the opening of Spring Studios and screenings at the Regal Battery Park Stadium theaters, the festival this year will have a stronger presence in Tribeca, Manhattan, compared to previous years where most screenings and events took place in Chelsea.

To find additional information about screenings, events and to purchase tickets click here 

Here is a list of 10 films we selected to watch at this year’s festival:

Aloft (Claudia Llosa)


Aloft is a journey through the power of the mind, a journey that forces us to confront the immensity of such concepts as love, order, chaos and faith. 
A single mother Nana (Jennifer Connelly) who abandons her child for the common good; a son Ivan (Cillian Murphy) who abandons himself and his own ability to feel in order to bear the weight of tragedy; and a woman who abandons her life to follow her one obsession of curing herself.
Academy Award–nominee, and Golden Bear for best film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, Claudia Llosa’s (The Milk of Sorrow) decade-spanning family drama is a dreamlike rumination on faith, forgiveness, and family, set against an otherworldly frozen landscape.

Far From Men (David Oelhoffen)

Staring Viggo Mortensen,  Far From Men, with its rugged North African landscape and its plot of delivering a prisoner to the authorities, evokes classic Westerns in its form. It's essentially a two-hander which slowly reveals the histories and personalities of its two characters, and how they are shaped by their own stories of violence and the sweeping changes that are about to visit their country. The film is a beautifully evocative piece, with mesmerizing central performances and use of landscape, enhanced by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' brooding and haunting score.

Maggie (Henry Hobson)

Fear, panic, and paranoia pit neighbor against neighbor. Families are ripped apart as loved ones are forced into quarantine. Authorities attempt to maintain control over communities teaming with violence. But with droves of new victims each day, it’s a losing battle for those citizens uninfected by the zombie outbreak. In Henry Hobson’s debut feature, Wade (Arnold Schwarzenegger) locates his missing teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) at the local hospital and insists on bringing her home to care for Maggie himself.  Set on a picturesque farm in the Midwest, Maggie is a moving and visually stunning film that takes a quietly observant yet thrilling approach to the zombie genre.

Slow West (John Maclean)

Scottish director John Maclean makes his feature debut with this coming-of-age romance, by way of the classic American Western, as seen through the eyes of an outsider. Young Scottish aristocrat Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travels to Colorado in search of his love, the evocatively named Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius). Woefully underprepared for the American frontier, he is saved on the trail by a road-weary traveller, Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), who joins the quest as guide, protector, and, unbeknownst to Jay, bounty hunter with a sudden leg-up on the competition.  Slow West becomes a taut critique of Manifest Destiny as a disruptive force, especially towards natives and immigrants finding themselves on the fringe of America’s drive for progress.

The Adderall Diaries (Pamela Romanowsky)

Based on the best selling memoir by Stephen Elliott, The Adderall Diaries is the story of an author (James Franco), a once-successful novelist inflicted with writer’s block and an Adderall addiction strives to escape his problems by delving into the world of a high-profile murder case. Featuring supporting performances by Amber Heard, Ed Harris, and Cynthia Nixon in this gritty honest drama.

Sworn Virgin (Laura Bispuri)

As a young woman living within the confines of a Northern Albanian village, Hana longs to escape the shackles of womanhood, and live her life as a man. To do so she must take an oath to eternally remain a virgin. Years later, as Mark, she leaves home for the first time to confront a new set of circumstances, leading her to contemplate the possibility of undoing her vow she made so long ago. Sworn Virgin brings light to the centuries long Albanian tradition of the Sworn Virgin, or burnesha. 

Necktie Youth (Sibs Shongwe-La Mer)

Shot in crisp black-and-white, and infused with brash, punk-rock energy, this is a vivid portrait of the generation of young South Africans who came of age after the end of apartheid. Educated, affluent, and Westernized, these young people drift without direction, lacking a larger purpose to their lives that those before them had. The end of legalized discrimination hasn't eliminated racism or other problems, and the hedonistic pursuits of sex, drugs, and partying prove inadequate to numb pain and depression.
A live-streamed suicide binds the characters in this piece, all of whom struggle to make sense of this event, which starkly lays bare the unresolved issues of their society. This is a remarkable, stylishly made debut.

Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)

Groundbreaking documentary evokes a classic western movie: dusty frontiers, and rough-riding buckskin-clad lone rangers.  With unprecedented access, Cartel Land gets eyeball deep in this on-the-ground, fiery investigation of illegal narcotic trafficking, and the actions of the vigilante groups on both sides of the drug war. Heineman passionately collages disparate groups with a common aim, to impede the advancement of the Mexican drug cartels, often taking questionable measures to ensure victory.  Adventurous, brave, and raw, Cartel Land transcends a visual discussion of good and evil, and investigates the beautifully subjective gray area by asking: must fire be fought with fire and who decides where might and right meet.

King Jack (Felix Thompson)

King Jack follows the contours of the familiar coming-of-age story, but it is greatly enlivened here by an evocative sense of place, and a much more diverse set of characters, in both racial and personality terms, than is the norm for films such as this.
Unfolding over the course of a weekend, Jack (Charlie Plummer), whose mother is often away at work and whose father is absent, is tasked with looking after his cousin Ben (Cory Nichols), when Ben's mother falls ill. Jack whiles away the days riding bikes, playing ball, pursuing a girl he likes. He's also regularly terrorized by Shane (Danny Flaherty), the town's resident bully, and this undercurrent of violence runs throughout the film, culminating in an inevitable showdown.

 

IN TRANSIT (Albert Maysles, Nelson Walker, Lynn True, David Usui, Ben Wu)