However, the Tribeca Film Festival never forgets its roots as a hometown New York City film festival. Each year, the festival honors a variety of features by up-and-coming New York City filmmakers, films set in the streets of New York, and works inspired by New York people and landmarks.
This year's top New York films include a documentary about CBGB, a Soderbergh film about a high-priced Manhattan call girl, John Hurt as Quentin Crisp, and many more.
- Blank City, directed by Celine Danhier. This documentary is about the the independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock in late ‘70s downtown New York and includes interviews with Debbie Harry, Jim Jarmusch, Lydia Lunch, Steve Buscemi, and other artists.
- Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB, directed by Mandy Stein. This film charts the history and far-reaching influence of iconic downtown club CBGB and its fight for survival against the Bowery homeless shelter that sought to shut it down. The documentary includes vintage performances by the likes of Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Television, Bad Brains, and The Ramones.
- City Island, directed and written by Raymond De Felitta. Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Emily Mortimer, and Alan Arkin star in this smart and poignant dysfunctional-family comedy, set in unassuming City Island.
- Con Artist, directed by Michael Sladek. One of the biggest names in the East Village art scene of the ’80s, “business artist” Mark Kostabi gleefully made a fortune signing and selling artworks painted by a revolving stable of hired hands. This punk-fueled docu-comedy looks at Kostabi’s ultimately self-destructive skewering of the celebrity art world and his current obsession with getting back on top.
- Cropsey, directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio, written by Zeman. In this documentary, directors Zeman and Brancaccio investigate five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearance in Staten Island.
- An Englishman in New York, directed by Richard Laxton, written by Brian Fillis. John Hurt revisits the role that made him a star (in 1975’s The Naked Civil Servant): real-life writer, actor, and gay icon Quentin Crisp. This smart, sensitive drama focuses on the flamboyant 72-year-old star’s move to New York in 1981, and the fallout from a reckless comment about the burgeoning AIDS epidemic. Features Cynthia Nixon, Jonathan Tucker, and Swoosie Kurtz.
- The Exploding Girl, directed and written by Bradley Rust Gray. A tender performance by Zoe Kazan is the centerpiece of this delicate, beautifully shot character study set in Brooklyn.
- The Girlfriend Experience, directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien. Director Steven Soderbergh follows five days in the life of a $2,000-an-hour Manhattan call girl (adult film star Sasha Grey) who thinks she has her life totally under control.
- The Good Guy, directed and written by Julio DePietro. This true insider view of the culture of Wall Street explores what it means to be "good" in that world.
- Off and Running, directed by Nicole Opper, written by Avery Klein-Cloud and Opper. Adopted Brooklyn teen Avery sets out to explore her biological African-American roots in this documentary.
- P-Star Rising, directed by Gabriel Noble. In the early ’80s, Jesse Diaz was a rising star in the hip-hop world. Now a broke single father in Harlem with two children to support, Jesse finds a shot at redemption in his nine-year-old daughter Priscilla Star, a precocious and immensely talented rapper. Director Gabriel Noble follows four years of father-daughter ups and downs as they navigate the grit and the glamour of the music biz.
