The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) today announced its jurors–a diverse group of 33 industry leaders, including award-winning filmmakers, writers, producers, acclaimed actors, respected journalists and entrepreneurs. The jury will be divided among the seven competitive Festival categories. The winning films, filmmakers and actors in each category will be announced at the TFF Awards Night ceremony on April 24. The 2014 Festival runs from April 16 –27.
“The diverse group of voices that make up this year’s jury will make for very interesting deliberations,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival.
The seven TFF juries will award $150,000 in cash and prizes. Announced earlier this year, eight of the winners will also receive a work of original art by an acclaimed artist as part of the Tribeca Film Festival Artists Awards program, sponsored by CHANEL. In addition to the Festival’s main competition juries, the three jurors for the second annual $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, recognizing a female writer or director, were also announced.
Following is a list of all 2014 Festival jurors and their respective categories.
World Competition Categories
The jurors for the 2014 World Narrative Competition are:
* Lake Bell: Independent Spirit Award-nominated triple threat whose recent film, In A World…, she directed, wrote, and starred in. Other acting credits include Black Rock, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and the soon-to-be released Million Dollar Arm, The Coup, and Man Up.
* Steve Conrad: Screenwriter and director whose writing credits include The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the soon to be released The Business Trip. He directed and wrote The Promotion and the upcoming film, Belushi.
* Bart Freundlich: Director, screenwriter, and producer whose credits include The Rebound, Trust the Man, Catch That Kid, World Traveler, his feature-film debut and Sundance hit, The Myth of Fingerprints, and numerous episodes of Showtime’s Californication.
* Catherine Hardwicke: Director best known for the blockbuster hit Twilight. Her critically-acclaimed debut feature Thirteen received the Director’s Award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, two Golden Globe nominations, and an Independent Spirit Award. Additional directing credits include Red Riding Hood and Lords of Dogtown.
* Ben Younger: Independent Spirit Award-winning screenwriter and director whose credits include Boiler Room, Prime, and the soon-to-be released, Bleed for This.
The jurors for the 2014 World Documentary Competition are:
* David Edelstein: Movie critic of New York Magazine, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and CBS Sunday Morning. He guest hosted for Turner Classic Movies in 2011 and 2013. He has written for Slate, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.
* Nick Fraser: London-based journalist, independent television producer, and program editor. He is currently commissioning editor of Storyville, the BBC’s long-running and award-winning series of international documentaries.
* Andrea Meditch: Founding president of Back Allie Films whose executive producing credits include Academy Award-winning Man on Wire, Academy Award-nominated Encounters at the End of the World, Grizzly Man, and Buck.
* Jenni Wolfson: Executive director of Chicken & Egg Pictures, which supports women nonfiction filmmakers whose diverse voices and dynamic storytelling have the power to catalyze change, at home and around the globe.
* Marina Zenovich: Director and producer whose films have screened at Tribeca, Cannes, Sundance, New York, and Toronto Film Festivals. Credits include NAACP Image Award-winning Richard Pryor: Omit The Logic, Emmy Award-winning Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out.
Emerging Competition Categories
The jurors for the 2014 Best New Narrative Director are:
* Jeff Goldblum: Renowned Emmy and Academy Award-nominated actor. Film credits include: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Le Week-End, Adam Resurrected, Nashville, The Life Aquatic, Buckaroo Banzai, Igby Goes Down, Pittsburgh, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Powder, Mr. Frost, Annie Hall, The Big Chill, Silverado, The Fly, Deep Cover, The Right Stuff, Between The Lines, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Into the Night, Next Stop Greenwich Village, and The Tall Guy. He recently appeared in The Lincoln Center Theatre’s production of Domesticated, Seminar and The Pillowman on Broadway, as well as The Prisoner of Second Avenue in London’s West End and Speed The Plow at The Old Vic Theatre.
* Nadine Labaki: Lebanese filmmaker and actress whose directorial debut feature film Caramel premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards. Her second feature film, Where Do We Go Now?, debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, won a Special Mention from the Cannes Film Festival, and received the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival.
* Dorothy Lyman: Emmy Award-winning actress best known for her roles as the dynamic “Opal Gardner” on ABC’s All My Children and “Naomi Harper” on Mama’s Family. Film credits include acting in Ruby in Paradise, I Love Trouble, Blow, and The Departed, as well as directing The Northern Kingdom and Split Ends.
* Adepero Oduye: Independent Spirit and NAACP Image Award-nominated actress. Credits include Pariah, Twelve Years a Slave, and the 2012 television adaptation of Steel Magnolias with Alfre Woodard. She debuted on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of The Trip to Bountiful with Cicely Tyson.
* Mickey Sumner: Actress whose film credits include Noah Baumbach’s critically-acclaimed Frances Ha, 2014 SXSW Film Festival selection, The Mend, recently shot indie, The End of the Tour, directed by James Ponsoldt, festival award-winner Missed Connections, Girl Most Likely, and CBGB. She’s had recurring television roles in Low Winter Sun and The Borgias.
The jurors for the 2014 Best New Documentary Director are:
· Rebecca Cammisa: Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary film director, producer, and cinematographer. Credits include Sister Helen, Which Way Home, and God is the Bigger Elvis.
· Heather Graham: Independent Spirit Award-nominated actress for her breakout role in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy. Additional credits include Swingers, Boogie Nights, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Hangover 1 & 3, and At Any Price.
· Nate Parker: Actor and Sundance fellowship recipient for his screenplay for the Nat Turner biopic, Birth of a Nation. Film credits include The Great Debaters, Arbitrage, Red Hook Summer, The Secret Life of Bees, Red Tails, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and Non-Stop.
· Doug Pray: Emmy Award-winning feature documentary film director focusing on American subcultures and maverick individuals. Work includes Art & Copy, Surfwise, Big Rig, Infamy, Scratch, Hype!, and the upcoming Levitated Mass.
· Michael Stuhlbarg: Golden Globe Award-nominated and Independent Spirit Award-winning actor best known for his role in Boardwalk Empire, which won him two SAG Awards. Film credits include A Serious Man, Blue Jasmine, Lincoln, Hitchcock, and Hugo; television credits include Damages and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; theatrical credits include The Invention of Love, Cabaret, and The Pillowman, for which he received a Tony Award Nomination and Drama Desk Award.
Short Film Competition Categories
The jurors for the 2014 Narrative Short Film Competition are:
· Alfonso Arau: Award-winning Mexican character actor and prominent filmmaker of the Latino community in Hollywood. He made his American debut in The Wild Bunch and achieved international acclaim for directing Like Water for Chocolate, one of the most successful foreign-language films ever released in the U.S.
· Whoopi Goldberg: One of an elite group of artists who have won an Academy, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award. Film and television credits include The Color Purple, Ghost, Sister Act, Boys on the Side, The Lion King, For Colored Girls, and The View on ABC. She made her directorial debut with the 2013 TFF selection Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley.
· Christine Lahti: An Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar-winning actress and director of film, television, and theater.
· Sheila Nevins: President, HBO Documentary Films. She has been responsible for overseeing the development and production of more than 1,000 documentaries for HBO, HBO2, and Cinemax. As an executive producer or producer, she has received 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, 31 News and Documentary Emmys, and 37 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically-acclaimed documentaries have gone on to win 23 Academy Awards.
· Paul Wesley: Actor currently starring in the CW’s Vampire Diaries. Made his directorial debut with the episode “Resident Evil.” He co-produced and co-starred in the feature film Before I Disappear, which premiered in competition at the SXSW Film Festival. Film credits include Shot in the Heart, Peaceful Warrior, Baytown Outlaws, Roll Bounce, and the forthcoming Sam & Amira. Television credits include Fallen, Everwood, American Dreams, 8 Simple Rules, and 24.
The jurors for the 2014 Documentary and Student Visionary Award Competitions are:
· Lindsay Burdge: Actress, producer, and casting director who has starred in films screened at Tribeca, Sundance, and SXSW Film Festivals. Credits include A Teacher and First Winter as well as the soon-to-be-released The Midnight Swim and Some Beasts.
· Toni Collette: Australian Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress. Best known for her performances in Muriel’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, About A Boy, The Hours, Little Miss Sunshine, the acclaimed Showtime series The United States of Tara, The Way, Way Back, and Enough Said. She is currently co-starring in The Realistic Joneses on Broadway and will next appear in the upcoming films Lucky Them and A Long Way Down.
· Regina Dugan: VP of Engineering at Google. She leads the Advanced Technology and Projects group charged with breakthrough innovations in mobile computing and accelerating the development of promising technologies to market.
· Simon Kilmurry: Twelv- time Emmy Award and three time George Foster Peabody Award-winning executive producer of POV, the long-running PBS showcase of independent documentaries. Serves as chief executive of American Documentary, POV’s non-profit parent organization.
· Anton Yelchin: Critically-acclaimed actor with performances in Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, The Beaver, and Charlie Bartlett. He was honored for his starring role in Like Crazy with the “Artist to Watch” Award at the 2011 Aspen Film Festival and the “Hollywood Spotlight Award” at the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival. Upcoming films include Only Lovers Left Alive, Cymbeline, Rudderless, and 5 to 7, which will premiere at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
Storyscapes
The jurors for the 2014 BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Award for transmedia are:
· Paola Antonelli: Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA whose work investigates design’s influence on everyday experience. Appointed to direct a new research and development initiative in 2012 and named one of the top 100 most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review.
· Kira Pollack: Director of Photography at TIME Magazine and executive producer of Red Border Films, TIME’s new documentary film project. Named Photo Editor of the Year at the 2011 Lucie Awards and spearheaded TIME’s Emmy Award-winning Beyond 9/11 project.
· Caspar Sonnen: Curator and festival organizer working in the still largely undefined spaces between cinema, digital storytelling, and interactive art. He started the new media program IDFA DocLab at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam as well as co-founded the Open Air Film Festival Amsterdam.
Nora Ephron Prize
The jurors for the 2014 Nora Ephron Prize are:
· Delia Ephron: Best-selling author, screenwriter, journalist, and playwright. Film credits include Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Michael, and Hanging Up. She has written numerous novels, non-fiction essays, humor books, and a hit play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, in collaboration with her sister Nora Ephron.
· Natasha Lyonne: Successful on stage and screen, Natasha Lyonne continues to display her creative versatility and talent after more than two decades in the industry. She will soon return as “Nicky Nichols” in Orange Is The New Black, the popular Netflix drama series.
· Gary Ross: Four-time Oscar nominated writer and director whose credits include The Hunger Games, Big, Pleasantville, and Seabiscuit. His first book, Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind, an illustrated children’s fantasy, was released last year.
The Many Hires Jeremiah Wassom As Group Creative Director
Independent agency The Many has added Jeremiah Wassom as group creative director.
Wassom most recently worked a decade at Deutsch LA where, as SVP/creative director, he led the Taco Bell account and won new business for the agency. His agency past also includes AKQA and TBWAChiatDay. His creative work has touched the QSR, video games, automotive, fashion, and culture brand sectors. He also served eight years with the United States Marine Corps.
“Throughout his career, Jeremiah has helmed work that has not only made me personally jealous but has consistently pushed brands to show up in memorable and innovative ways,” said Josh Paialii, head of creative at The Many. “One look at his body of work and you will see his passion for storytelling and craft has raised the bar for entire categories, driving participation with many brands’ most loyal fans. Beyond being a world-class creative director and maker, Wassom is a proven team player and strategic thought leader. He’ll be a great addition to the leadership team at The Many working across all accounts. His role will be immediately felt as he guides and supports each of the creative leads in the department.”
A 20-year creative with agency, brand, and freelance experience, Wassom has forged a creative approach which focuses on crafting engaging connections rather than simply make ads. He sees the need for advertising to mean more, not simply do more.
The Many believes that true business growth is made possible by harnessing the power of participation and partners with brands to forge deeper connections with consumers, cultivate trust and loyalty, and maximize marketing spend and execution. The agency is built around a flexible model that offers a suite of capabilities, including... Read More