Tribeca Festival 2025 Award winners.
Best U.S. Narrative Feature +
Best Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature
Charliebird
Dir: Libby Ewing
Star: Gabriela Ochoa Perez
Synopsis:
Centers on a devoted music therapist at a children’s hospital in Texas. And, Charlie, the rebellious teen patient assigned to work with her, forms an unexpected bond.
The film also co-stars one of the top indie actors in NYC, Nicholas Michael McGovern.
Special Jury Mention for Best U.S. Narrative Feature
Esta Isla (This Island)
Dir: Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones Molina
Synopsis:
Young lovers Bebo and Lola — both from opposite social circles in Puerto Rico — as they flee to a remote part of the island in the wake of a heinous murder.
The film is adapted from the filmmaker’s short film of the same name. There’s an ethereal quality to the trailer for the 2014 short that you can see is developed in the first look images of the feature.
Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature
On a String
Dir/Wri/Prod/EP/Star: Isabel Hagen
Hagen plays a young, Juilliard-trained violist who returns home to live with her parents in the heart of New York City.
The project has a good prod company behind it, Dweck Productions (Michael Cera’s The Adults, Jane Schoenbrun’s debut We're All Going to the World's Fair).
The real-life Isabel Hagen is a stand-up comedian (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) and classically trained violist (master’s degree: Juilliard).
Best International Narrative Feature + Best Screenplay
Happy Birthday
Dir/Co-Wri: Sarah Goher
Synopsis:
Eight-year-old maid Toha goes to great lengths to ensure that her best friend Nelly, the daughter of her wealthy employer, has a successful birthday party in this poignant debut feature exploring classism in modern-day Cairo.
Sarah Goher serves as a consulting producer on Marvel’s Moon Knight.
Special Jury Mention for International Narrative Feature
Cuerpo Celeste
Dir: Nayra Ilic GarcÃa
Synopsis:
Summer of 1990, as the Chilean dictatorship nears its end, a family begins to fall apart. At fifteen, a girl searches for her place in a world where everything she knew is slipping away.
Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature
Dragonfly
Cast: Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn
Riseborough plays Colleen, who volunteers to care for her elderly neighbor Elsie. Of course, as they bond, motives start to be questioned, leading to a devastating series of events.
Oscar-nominee Riseborough displays a forlorn, yet calculated empathy in the first look image.
Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature
Little Trouble Girls
DP: Lev Predan Kowarski
Synopsis:
16-year-old Lucia joins Catholic school choir, befriends senior Ana-Maria. During choir retreat at convent, Lucia's attraction to a restoration worker creates tension with Ana-Maria and challenges her faith.
Sexual awakening is ripe in Little Trouble Girls, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival Perspectives and won the FIPRESCI.
The film has been sold to Kino Lorber for North America for theatrical and digital, and BFI for the U.K. Warner Bros. Discovery bought broadcast rights in Europe.
You may need to eat a sour grape after watching the trailer.
Best Documentary Feature
Natchez
Dir: Suzannah Herbert
Synopsis:
A sharp look at the American South's unreconciled history through a Mississippi town that mixes antebellum tourism with a community deeply divided over its past.
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature
An Eye for an Eye
Dir: Tanaz Eshaghian and Farzad Jafari
Synopsis:
Convicted of murdering her husband, Tahereh served her sentence and now faces a ticking clock to negotiate with her in-laws who, under Sharia law, have the legal right to either execute her or forgive her- for a price.