Tribeca Film Festival All Access Winners

Saturday, April 26---------The Tribeca Film Festival, along with the Tribeca Film Institute  announced the winners of the fifth annual Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards.  Tribeca All Access (TAA) is a program designed to help foster relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Awards were announced at Budakkan in New York City.

Award winners include:

• Narrative section prize – Pete Chatmon for his current screenplay, “$Free.99,” co-written by Candice Sanchez McClaren, which tells the story of a complicated bank heist where twelve hostages quickly realize that their captor is more than he appears.
• Emerging Narrative section prize – Leigh Dana Jackson for his screenplay, “The Infinite Life of Stuart Hornsley,” with producer Moira Griffin, in which the lead character Stuart Hornsley is on a mission to travel back in time to win the girl that got away. 
• Documentary section prize – Gemma Cubero and Celeste Carrasco for their documentary work-in-progress, “She Wants to Be A Matador,” which portrays the challenges – both physical and societal – of being a female matador.
• Screenwriting section prize – Anslem Richardson for his screenplay, “Bardos,” in which two family men are forced to continuously alternate fates after a tragic car accident.

Honorable mentions were given to:

• Narrative – Rodney Evans for his screenplay, “Day Dream,” set in New Orleans at the home of Buddy Bolden, the forefather of modern jazz, and Billy Strayhorn, the openly gay composer of numerous Duke Ellington tunes.
• Emerging Narrative – Shawn Ku for his screenplay, “White and Rice,” with producer Christina Piovesan, which tells the story of a 14-year-old boy who, after the death of his adopted mom, moves in with his grandmother to start his life over.  
• Documentary – Lisa Collins and Mark Schwartzburt for their work-in-progress, “Oscar’s Comeback,” in which a small, predominantly white town in South Dakota celebrates its most famous native son, Oscar Micheaux, with a unique, “mom-and-pop” style festival. 

The winners were selected from 31 eligible projects on the strength of their vision and filmmaking promise. The TAA Creative Promise Award comes with a prize of $12,000 for narrative, documentary, and emerging narrative and $8,500 for screenwriting. All of the filmmakers participating in the program have scripts or documentary proposals for which they are seeking funding and/or representation. 

2008 Tribeca All Access participants were selected from an open call for submissions, which garnered over 550 entries from across the country.  A jury of distinguished entertainment and arts personalities selected the four winners and three honorable mentions. 

Jurors for this year’s Tribeca All Access included actor Jesse L. Martin, who has starred in NBC’s “Law & Order” and “Rent”; actress Joy Bryant, who has starred in “Antwone Fisher”; actor Adam Beach, who has starred in “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”; actor Anthony Mackie, who has starred in “We Are Marshall”; executive producer Chris Lee, who has produced “Superman Returns” and is currently producing “Valkyrie”; author Jessica Hagedorn; actor Jamie Hector, who has starred in HBO’s “The Wire”; ABC News features correspondent Marysol Castro; producer Neda Armian; director Patricia Riggen (“Under the Same Moon”); and businesswoman/philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson.

Alka Raghuram was presented with the L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth “Vision” Award for her screenplay “The Conqueror,” in which an old feud between two villages brings tragedy to a young boy’s family and he must decide whether to avenge his loss or try to break the painful cycle of violence.  Alka received a $15,000 cash award from L’Oréal Paris to help further her creative vision through filmmaking.

Tribeca All Access provided this year’s 37 participating directors and screenwriters the opportunity to meet one-on-one with more than 140 potential investors, development executives, producers, and agents in prescheduled meetings.  This year marked the first time Tribeca All Access expanded its program to include international delegates, featuring four out-of-competition projects in the narrative category through associations with the UK Film Council, Australian Film Commission and Canadian Film Centre. 

Sandy Mandelberger, Tribeca FF Dailies Editor