With Cannes done and dusted and the heavy-hitting autumn quartet of Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF still a few months off, what’s a film festival fan to do during the dog days of summer? With New York City’s own Tribeca Festival now firmly ensconced in the summer months after moving off its traditional spring dates in 2021, movie lovers both in the city and beyond can enjoy the annual event’s prodigious programming, thanks to a combination of in-person and virtual programming.
The 2023 edition will kick off June 7 with the North American premiere of “Kiss the Future,” a documentary following the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital.
A special 30th-anniversary screening of “A Bronx Tale” will close the fest on June 17. After the movie, the film’s director and star and Tribeca co-founder Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal, and writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri will participate in a live conversation with David Remnick, the editor-in-chief of The New Yorker.
In between, Tribeca will host 109 feature films from 127 filmmakers across 36 countries, with 93 world premieres, one international premiere, eight North American premieres, one U.S. premiere, and six New York premieres. So, with such a deep program, what should audiences be seeking out? We’ve got a few ideas, including 16 feature films and one very starry short.
This year’s festival run June 7 — 18, and you can check out all of our coverage of it right here, with much more to come.
Erin Strecker, Eric Kohn, Anne Thompson, Ryan Lattanzio, and Jude Dry also contributed to this article.
“Afire”
German auteur Christian Petzold continues his post-Nina Hoss era with his latest film “Afire,” which world-premiered in Berlin. It’s also the second entry in his “elemental trilogy,” which launched in 2020 with “Undine.” That film incorporated fantasy and folklore to tell a melancholy love story set against the backdrop of water as a connective tissue for romantic connection and separation, winning Paula Beer (Petzold’s closest collaborator since “Transit”) the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
While “Afire,” in which Beer returns, is set along the Baltic Sea, this one has more to do with the flames of passion erupting and fizzling between four people trapped in a holiday home that is also surrounded by forest fires. The film also stars Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt. —RL
“Bad Things”
“Lyle” director Stewart Thorndike didn’t set out to make a queer feminist riff on “The Shining,” but the Overlook Hotel is naturally in her filmmaking DNA. Set at an abandoned hotel in upstate New York, “Bad Things” follows a group of friends over a snowy weekend as they attempt to resist the energy of the hotel’s past inhabitants.
The ensemble film stars Gayle Rankin in a powerhouse performance as the film’s own Jack Torrance, here dubbed Ruthie Nod. A livewire actor with a unique sensibility, fans of “Her Smell” will appreciate watching Rankin let out her own inner tempestuous rockstar. As she attempts to outrun some chilling childhood memories, she must contend with jealous lovers and a host of mommy issues. Thorndike’s use of the roving camera as a hovering observer adds a veneer of eeriness to the mounting tension, and her commitment to telling traditionally masculine narratives with women and non-binary folks definitely has teeth. —JD
“Break the Game”
Narcissa Wright amassed a huge online following for live-streaming her speed runs of various video games and breaking many records in the process. In the midst of aiming to beat the world record for a speed run of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (no easy task, as anyone who has played this massive open world game will tell you), she also came out as trans.
Director Jane M. Wagner’s “Break the Game” tracks that journey with a fascinating blend of the player’s own live streams and a behind-the-scenes look at the personal struggles she faces while navigating a climate not always hospitable to people at a sensitive moments in their lives. As gaming becomes a more and more prominent aspect of modern-day youth culture, documentaries like “Break the Game” offer the human side of an ever-growing ecosystem too often reduced to pixels and memes. Needless to say, Twitch stream are more than frivolous obsessions to the people who follow them, and this documentary is poised to add a critical perspective to that conversation. —EK
“Downtown Owl”
Despite his prodigious output as an essayist and cultural critic, author Chuck Klosterman’s work has never been the kind to inspire obvious cinematic adaptations (though, personally, the idea of someone attempting to translate Klosterman’s specific brand of winking nostalgia to a doc series does sound somewhat appealing). And yet! Klosterman has, over the years, tried his hand at actual fiction, and thus, it’s high time for a movie version.
Klosterman’s first novel, “Downtown Owl,” is also first out of the movie gate, with long-time personal and professional partners Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater serving as co-directors (Linklater wrote the script, Rabe stars in the film) attempting to turn the three-hander into a comedic look at small-town life for their directorial debut. The film also stars Jack Dylan Grazer, Vanessa Hudgens, Ed Harris, Henry Golding, and Finn Wittrock, who will all play various denizens of tiny, fictional Owl, North Dakota as it braces for an unexpected (and potentially life-changing) blizzard. —KE
“Eric LaRue”
Oscar nominee Michael Shannon was a little confused when he was asked to star in the DC entry “The Flash,” as he thought his character, General Zod, had already died in “Man of Steel.” Fittingly, his directorial debut, “Eric LaRue,” premieres the same week at Tribeca that “The Flash” begins its four-quadrant takeover of global multiplexes.
Less fittingly but also no less timely, Shannon’s film seemingly has echoes of another movie led by “The Flash” star Ezra Miller, “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” That’s because “Eric LaRue,” adapted by writer Brett Neveu from his own play, centers on the aftermath of a high school shooting as the killer’s mother, Janice (Judy Greer), prepares not only to visit her son in prison but also to face the tribunal of bereaved local parents affected by the murders. Alexander Skarsgård co-stars as Janice husband, who’s found refuge in a local church, with Tracy Letts and Alison Pill co-starring in a portrait as much about religious fanaticism as it is about atonement and whether or not it’s possible. —RL
“First Time Female Director”
First-time female director Chelsea Peretti makes her debut with, yes, “First Time Female Director,” which touts the festival’s most tongue-in-cheek title and one we’re expecting that the very funny Peretti will deliver on. The multi-hyphenate does it all on this one: she’s star, writer, director (duh), and producer.
The comedy follow Peretti as a rising theater director who is suddenly thrust into the limelight when her local Glendale theater’s main director (a dude) is tossed out (for “inappropriate behavior”). Turns out, being in charge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but we bet Peretti and her team had a hell of a time making this one. The star-studded cast also includes Megan Mullally, Blake Anderson, Megan Stalter, and Kate Berlant, plus the film’s official Tribeca synopsis hints at a raft of cameos that will delight comedy fans (and which will not be spoiled here). —KE
“The Graduates”
Executive produced by Chloé Zhao and helmed by the Oscar winner’s filmmaking mentee Hannah Peterson, “The Graduates” is — terrifyingly, tellingly — the second film about a high school shooting and its aftermath to land on this list. Set a year after the terrible event, Peterson’s film follows high school senior Genevieve (Mina Sundwall) as she wrestles with her past pain and attempts to look forward to what’s coming next.
Co-starring many of our favorites, including Maria Dizzia and John Cho, Peterson’s feature debut is being heralded as the arrival of a fresh, deep-feeling new voice in cinema. Get on board now. —KE
“The Gullspång Miracle”
In her feature debut, documentarian Maria Fredriksson follows two devout Norwegian sisters, Kari and May, who respond quickly to a divine sign to buy an apartment in Sweden. But the woman selling the apartment looks just like their older sister Astrid — who committed suicide thirty years ago. The sisters bring in Fredriksson to investigate this mystery, and the director uncovers the bizarre secrets of their family history. —AT
“The League”
Non-fiction veteran Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) unearthed rare archival footage to track the tumultuous journey of Negro League baseball through the first half of the twentieth century. The archives include never-before-seen interviews with legends like Satchel Paige, whose early career paved the way for Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, who started out in the Negro Leagues. The story includes the entrepreneurs who fed competitive rivalries over the decades, such as owners Cumberland Posey, Gus Greenlee, and Effa Manley, the only woman to belong in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. —AT
“Mountains”
Monica Sorelle’s first feature follows a family of Haitian immigrants in Miami who grapple with intergenerational challenges from several directions: a father who works hard to survive in an increasingly gentrified community, and a grown son who rejects his family’s traditionalist ways even as he mines them for a standup comedy routine his relatives know nothing about.
Sorelle (who worked in the casting department on “Moonlight”) has been invested in supporting stories of the Caribbean diaspora as part of the collective Third Horizon, and further contributes to that effort with this immersive look at modern Haitian life from the inside out. Her filmmaking stands a good chance of being one of the finer discoveries out of this year’s festival. —EK
“Rather”
Dan Rather was a media icon decades ago, thanks to his immediate reporting on the JFK assassination and his coverage from the frontlines of the Vietnam War. Yet recent times have elevated Rather’s brand to a whole new level, as the 92-year-old has migrated into the social media age with his trenchant for truth-telling intact.
While the anchor was pushed off the air over a scandal related to his reporting on George W. Bush in 2004, the last two decades of his career have found him untethered from the traditional restrictions of mainstream media, and a welcome voice of reason in chaotic times. Directed by veteran producer Frank Marshall (“Indiana Jones,” “Gremlins,” “Back to the Future,” etc.), “Rather” promises a long-overdue tribute to the reporter’s legacy, as well as his resilience. —EK
“The Secret Art of Human Flight”
Bay Area filmmaker H.P. Mendoza has been one of the more endearing voices of low-budget American filmmaking ever since his 2006 “Colma: The Musical” became a cult hit. “The Secret Art of Human Flight” finds him heading in another playful direction with Grant Rosenmeyer playing a grief-stricken man attempting to learn how to fly from an eccentric guru (“Sound of Metal” Oscar nominee Paul Raci). Mendoza’s best work blends quirkiness and unexpected twists with an undercurrent of melancholy, and this one seems likely to keep that welcome tradition alive. —EK
“Shadow Brother Sunday”
Alden Ehrenreich wrested himself from the possible soul-consuming abyss of a certain sci-fi tentpole with a return to where he got his start: thoughtful independent character studies. His performance in Sundance’s Netflix pick-up “Fair Game” re-heralded a serious actor, and now his directorial debut, the short film “Shadow Brother Sunday,” hopes to announce a serious filmmaker, too.
Ehrenreich stars in the short film — and in suave-less, full lumberjack beard mode — as a spun-out musician who returns home on the day of his younger brother’s (“Love, Simon” breakout Nick Robinson) movie premiere to steal his computer and sell it to the paparazzi. Lisa Edelstein and Jacob Wysocki also star. —RL
“Take Care of Maya”
One of four Netflix documentaries to debut at Tribeca, Henry Roosevelt’s film tracks nine-year-old Maya Kowalski who, after being admitted to the ER at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in 2016, is studied for a rare illness and suddenly winds up in state custody. The story is told by the parents, Jack and Beata Kowalski, who doctors wrongfully accused of child abuse. —AT
“Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music”
One of the most daring performance artists working today, Taylor Mac is a monumental musical force with the research chops to back it up. A non-binary cabaret artist revered by the downtown punks and queers. Mac exploded into the mainstream consciousness in 2016 with the monumental 24-hour live show extravaganza, “A 24 Decade History of Popular Music.” Each hour represents a decade in American popular music, stitching a fabulously political history of the country through its songs, both known and revived. Mac worked with longtime costumer Machine Dazzle, who recently showed a solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, to create the show’s mind-blowing maximalist queer aesthetic.
While not everyone has 24 hours to spend at the theater, thankfully this epic masterpiece was filmed and has been cut down to a tight 106-minute documentary, courtesy of acclaimed gay documentary duo Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. —JD
“Transition”
Embedding with the Taliban as a journalist is a tense and conflicting scenario for anyone, but to do so as a trans man would seem to be openly courting danger. This high-stakes documentary captures the experience of Jordan Bryon, a filmmaker invited by a Taliban commander to film the daily life of his unit after the fall of Kabul for the New York Times.
Directed by Bryon with Monica Villamizar, the film follows Byron as he pursues medical transition in Iran, and captures a complicated relationship that develops between Bryon and one of the Taliban fighters. Through a nearly unbelievable confluence of events, the film is sure to offer a wholly unique perspective on both of its seemingly incongruous subject. —JD
“Waitress, the Musical — Live on Broadway!”
If you missed this charmer when it originally premiered on Broadway back in 2016, now’s your chance to catch up with the Tony-nominated musical, based on the beloved movie by Adrienne Shelly. Directed by Brett Sullivan, this is a special taped performance of the theatrical show, starring Sara Bareilles (who also wrote the hella catchy music and lyrics) as Jenna, a down-on-her-luck waitress with an abusive husband who tries to find a more hopeful future when she begins an affair with her doctor.
The show originally closed back in 2020, but this taped performance reunites many of the original cast — including Drew Gehling and a scene-stealing Christopher Fitzgerald — for a final hurrah. The songs are memorable, Bareilles is both heartbreaking and delightful, and it’s a special treat to re-discover this gem of a tale brought to new life. Please, producers, make this a trend and find a way to tape more shows a la “Hamilton” so that fans can watch over and over again. —ES
