The 2023 Tribeca Festival has come and gone, leaving us with news of a Robert De Niro convention … and, of course, a bunch of new winners to look forward to. Cypher, a pseudo-documentary that follows the rise of rapper Tierra Whack, received this year’s Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature. In the international narrative competition, A Strange Path took a straight path to a clean sweep and won all four categories. Meanwhile, Between the Rains emerged in the documentary competition to snag both Best Documentary Feature and Best Cinematography. This year’s stacked lineup of Tribeca jurors included Zazie Beetz, Brendan Fraser, Kate Siegel, Zoey Deutch, Stephanie Hsu, Adam Goldberg, Dianna Agron, Jeremy O. Harris, Nina Dobrev, Clea DuVall, Chance the Rapper, Andrew Ahn, and Noah Centineo, among others. Find the full list of winners, special jury mentions, and audience awards below.
U.S. Narrative Competition
Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: Chris Moukarbel for Cypher
Best Performance: Ji-Young Yoo for Smoking Tigers
Best Screenplay: So Young Shelly Yo for Smoking Tigers
Best Cinematography: Carolina Costa for The Graduates
U.S. Narrative Feature Special Jury Mention: Monica Sorelle for Mountains
International Narrative Competition
Best International Narrative Feature: Guto Parente for A Strange Path (Brazil)
Best Performance: Carlos Francisco for A Strange Path (Brazil)
Best Screenplay: Guto Parente for A Strange Path (Brazil)
Best Cinematography: Linga Acácio for A Strange Path (Brazil)
Documentary Competition
Best Documentary Feature: Andrew H. Brown and Moses Thuranira for Between the Rains (Kenya)
Best Cinematography: Andrew H. Brown for Between the Rains (Kenya)
Best Editing: Mark Bukdahl and Orvar Anklew for The Gullspång Miracle (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)
Documentary Competition Special Jury Mention: David Gutnik for Rule of Two Walls (Ukraine)
Best New Narrative Director Competition
Best New Narrative Director Award: Hugo Ruiz for One Night With Adela (Spain)
New Documentary Director Award
Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director: Jude Chehab for Q (Lebanon, United States)
Best New Documentary Director Award Special Jury Mention: Co-director Nate Pommer for Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story (United States)
New Documentary Director Special Jury Mention: Jane M. Wagner for Break the Game (United States)
Nora Ephron Award
The Nora Ephron Award: Gabriella A. Moses, Boca Chica (Dominican Republic)
Nora Ephron Award Special Jury Mention: Smoking Tigers (United States)
Human / Nature Award
Human / Nature Award: Common Ground (United States)
Shorts Competition
Best Narrative Short: Annie-Claude Caron and Danick Audet for Dead Cat (Canada)
Narrative Short Special Jury Mention:Â Gabrielle Demers for Blond Night
Narrative Short Special Jury Mention: Annelise Hickey for Hafekasi
Best Animated Short: Mitra Shahidi for Starling (United States)
Student Visionary Award: Daniela Soria Gutiérrez for Fairytales (Mexico)
Best Documentary Short: Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson for Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games (United States)
Documentary Short Special Jury Mention: Devon Blackwell for Goodbye, Morganza
Tribeca Immersive Competition
Main Competition – Storyscapes Award: Eloise Singer for The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend (United Kingdom)
Storyscapes Special Jury Mention: Kinfolk for Kinfolk: Black Lands (United States)
New Voices Award: Terril Calder for Meneath: The Mirrors of Ethics (Canada)
New Voices Special Mention: Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke for Maya: The Birth (Chapter 1) (United Kingdom, France, United States, India)
Tribeca Games Award
Tribeca Games Award: KO_OP for Goodbye Volcano High (Canada, United States)
Special Jury Mention for Tribeca Games: Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena for Despelote (New York, Ecuador)
Tribeca Audio Storytelling Competition
Fiction Audio Storytelling Award: Alex Kemp for The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen (Wolf at the Door Studios)
Narrative Nonfiction Audio Storytelling Award: Aline Laurent-Mayard for Free From Desire (Paradiso Media)
Independent Fiction Audio Storytelling Award: Cory Choy and Feyiá¹£ayo Aluko for Aisha
Independent Nonfiction Audio Storytelling Award: David Modigliani for Shalom, Amore
AT&T Presents Untold Stories
Color Book – written and directed by David Fortune
Untold Stories is a multi-year, multi-tier alliance between AT&T and the Tribeca Festival that awards $1 million dollars, mentorship, and distribution support to systemically underrepresented filmmakers to produce their films. Color Book will also be guaranteed a premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.
Tribeca X Award Competition
Best Feature: Farhoud Meybodi for Earthbound (Gjenge Makers)
Best Short: Rudy Valdez for Translators (U.S. Bank)
Best Series: Patrick Daughters for Full Bleed (Adobe)
Best Immersive: Jamie Hewlett and Fx Goby for Gorillaz Presents… Skinny Ape (Google)
Best Audio: Pedro Mendes for Making an Impossible Airplane (Atlassian)
Audience Awards
Narrative: First place - The Perfect Find. Second place - Lost Soulz
Documentary: First place: Rise - The Siya Kolisi Story. Second place - Maestra