‘Griffin In Summer’, ‘Bikechess’, ‘Hacking Hate’ Take Top Awards At Tribeca Festival (2024)

Nicholas Colia’s Griffin in Summer swept the narrative features award categories at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, nabbing honors for best U.S. film and screenplay, as well as a special jury mention for new narrative director.

Colia’s feature debut stars Everett Blunck as an aspiring 14-year-old playwright who falls hard for his mother’s handyman and struggling performance artist, played by Owen Teague. The jury mention in its notes Thursday that the film “straddled the very thin line between heartwarming, tragic, hilarious and awkward” and that it “fills a void in the marketplace for films that touch on sophisticated themes while remaining family friendly. Never pandering, always fresh, full of relatable universal experiences while being incredibly specific and nuanced.”

Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux won for Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature for Jazzy, by Morrisa Maltz, a follow-up to her 2023 The Unknown Country starring Lily Gladstone. The Killers of the Flower Moon star is a producer of Jazzy and also appears in it. Jazzy the title role is a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in South Dakota with her best friend Syrih. The film follows the children from age 6 to 12 as they navigate the joys and challenges of their ever-changing relationship.

Nnamdi Asomugha’s The Knife took Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature for Alejandro Mejia. Asomugha was named Best New Narrative Director.

The top international award went to Bikechess, a dark comedy from Khazakstan by Assel Aushakimova. In her second film, the director reunites withSaltanat Nauruz who stars as Dina, a disenchanted and ambivalent Kazakh broadcast journalist who is much smarter than the propaganda she is forced to cover.

Some Rain Must Fall from China, written and directed by Qiu Yang, stood out in the international narrative feature category, taking Best Performance, by Yu Aier, and Best Cinematography, by Constanze Schmitt.

Hacking Hate by My Vingren won the Best Documentary Feature award. Vingren, a Swedish journalist, dives deep undercover online as a white supremacist to infiltrate the extreme right’s campaigns to recruit and influence individuals, radicalizing them into a discourse of hate speech and xenophobia.

“After a banner year of Tribeca programming, I do not envy our jurors’ task of selecting this year’s winners,” said Tribeca Festival director and SVP Programming Cara Cusumano. “I’m delighted to see they’ve chosen to honor a diverse, international, adventurous group of films that truly reflect the Tribeca spirit. We can’t wait to continue to follow and support all these films’ journeys into the world.”

The festival, which hosts more than 570 events across New York City, concludes Sunday.

Below is the complete list of 2024 winners.

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature

Griffin in Summer, director Nicholas Colia

Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature

Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux for Jazzy

Special Jury Mention for Performance in a U.S. Feature

Joshua Burge for Vulcanizadora

Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature

Nicholas Colia for Griffin in Summer

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature

Alejandro Mejia for The Knife

Special Jury Mention for Cinematography in a U.S. Feature

Ki Jin Kim for Bitterroot

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Best International Narrative Feature

Bikechess, director Assel Aushakimova (Kazakhstan)

Special Jury Mention for an International Narrative Feature

Samia, director Yasemin Samdereli (Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden)

‘Griffin In Summer’, ‘Bikechess’, ‘Hacking Hate’ Take Top Awards At Tribeca Festival (2024)

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