As we’ve seen so far with other 2013 end-of-festival wrap-up polls, critics tend to single out one or two top-notch films that rise above all others. Maybe it’s the nature of the Tribeca Film Festival’s program, but the ballot responses from the members of our Criticwire Network who chose to participate this time praised a wide variety of films and performances from this year’s lineup. The results didn’t single out any clear winners but nevertheless demonstrated several of the highlights from the recently-concluded festival.
Still, there were some films that garnered several mentions by critics in multiple categories. A pair of dramas about discovery, Tomasz Wasilewski’s “Floating Skyscrapers” and Daniel Patrick Carbone’s “Hide Your Smiling Faces,” topped the overall Best Narrative Feature tally. Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Wadjda,” a tale of a young girl growing up in Saudi Arabia, was singled out as a favorite by a few critics who also praised Waad Mohammed’s performance in the title role.
And it wouldn’t be a 2013 film festival if “Before Midnight” didn’t pop up once or twice. Richard Linklater’s film placed on both the Best Narrative and Best Director columns. Also, Jake Johnson’s impressive 2013 run continues (after the success of “Drinking Buddies” at SXSW) with a top-vote-getting supporting turn in Jenee LeMarque’s “The Pretty One.”
READ MORE: Why the Good Narratives at the Tribeca Film Festival Are Away From the Spotlight
On the documentary side, Dan Krauss can add earning the top slot in this poll to a growing list of acclaim for “The Kill Team,” his portrait of American soldiers facing sanctions for their actions in Afghanistan. The festival’s winner for Best Documentary Feature was joined on multiple ballots by Sean Dunne’s “Oxyana,” a look at Oxycontin abuse in rural West Virginia. Both films also won prizes from the documentary jury at the festival this year.
READ MORE: What This Year’s Tribeca Winners Tell Us About the Value of the Festival
We also asked critics to provide their picks in two less groupable categories: Best Scene and Biggest Surprise. To sample some of those more elaborate selections, be sure to check out all the reprinted ballots on the next page.
Joe Bendel, Libertas Film Magazine
1. Hide Your Smiling Faces
2. Whitewash
3. Broken Circle Breakdown
1. Daniel Patrick Carbone, Hide Your Smiling Faces
1. Veerle Baetens, Broken Circle Breakdown
3. Johan Heldenbergh, Broken Circle Breakdown
1. Hide Your Smiling Faces
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
(It should be noted that I missed approximately everything.)
1. Before Midnight 5. Michael H. – Profession: Director
Jim Fouratt
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE 1. Floating Skyscrapers – Against an Antonioni-like landscape, the truth of attraction vs societal demands is revelatory. 3. Killing Team BEST DIRECTOR 1. Sean Dunne, Oxyana BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE 1. Naomi Watts, Sunlight, Jr. BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE 1. Kim Dickens, At Any Price BEST ENSEMBLE 1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist BEST FIRST FEATURE 1. Emir Baigazin, Harmony Lessons MOST ANTICIPATED (BUT MISSED IT AT TRIBECA) 1. The Rocket BEST SCENE 2. GASLAND Part 2: When director Josh Fox is handcuffed and removed from a public hearing because he wants to video the actual hearing. No other journalist is present. It’s his wake up call that the political system has failed him because it has been completely kidnapped by lobbyist money. BIGGEST SURPRISE 1. Bridegroom: Had passed on it and only went when I was turned away from Adult World and it was was just starting. Though it was to be one more same-sex civil marriage advocacy doc – I get it, I support it, but really there’s more to same sex romance than marriage – I found myself deeply engaged in a love story of two small town, midwest gay men who find each other and true love in, of all places, Hollywood. One is an actor/jock/musician and the other a smartypants fem boy with balls, One dies …and not from AIDS (Oh my) in an accident and that is where life would have been different for the surviving partner if they had been allowed to marry. Two very different families of origin spice the story. Well surprise, surprise: it completely engaged me as a love story so universal that gender and sexual orientation became secondary. Yes, changing laws is necessary, but changing culture is the real battle. Linda Bloodworth Thomason has made a film for every American who does not know a gay person and does not understand the power, joy and strength of same sex love and the devastation learned in crisis of second class citizenship, |

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
1. The Moment
2. Prince Avalanche
3. Before Midnight
4. Sunlight Jr
5. Byzantium
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1. Out of Print
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Richard Linklater, Before Midnight
2. David Gordon Green, Prince Avalanche
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
1. Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Moment
2. Paul Rudd – Prince Avalanche
3. Emile Hirsch – Prince Avalanche
4. Melissa Leo – Bottled Up
BEST FIRST FEATURE
1. Whitewash
MOST ANTICIPATED (BUT MISSED IT AT TRIBECA)
1. Teenage
2. Adult World
3. Cutie and the Boxer
4. In God We Trust
5. Bridegroom
1. Harmony Lessons
2. Before Snowfall
3. The Rocket
4. Ali Blue Eyes
5. Floating Skyscrapers
1. Let the Fire Burn
2. Powerless
3. The Kill Team
4. Big Men
5. Alias Ruby Blade
Eric Kohn, Indiewire
2. Bluebird
3. Run and Jump
4. Fresh Meat
5. Dark Touch
3. Oxyana
4. Teenage
5. Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
The world narrative showcase took some risks–TABOOR, for example–that paid off.
Overall, very satisfied with this year’s fest. I only wanted to stay longer and see more.
1. Floating Skyscrapers
2. Hide Your Smiling Faces
3. Six Acts
4. What Richard Did
5. Adult World
1. Oxyana
2. Big Joy
3. The Kill Team
4. Red Obsession
5. Powerless
1. Tomasz Wasilewski, Floating Skyscrapers
1. Thomas Haden Church, Whitewash
2. Emma Roberts, Adult World
3. Sivan Levy, Six Acts
4. Naomi Watts, Sunlight, Jr.
5. Waad Mohammed, Wadjda
1. Maika Monroe, At Any Price
2. Zac Efron, At Any Price
3. Norman Reedus, Sunlight, Jr.
4. Shiloh Fernandez, Deep Powder
5. Amanda Peet, Trust Me
1. Hide Your Smiling Faces

2. The Pretty One
3. A Case of You
4. Prince Avalanche
5. Trust Me
2. Paul Giamatti, Almost Christmas
3. Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
4. Clark Gregg, Trust Me
5. Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
2. Paul Rudd, Almost Christmas
3. John Cusack, Adult World
4. Jake Johnson, The Pretty One
5. Emile Hirsch, Prince Avalanche
1. Wadjda
2. The Rocket
3. The Pretty One
4. Whitewash
5. Prince Avalanche
1. The Kill Team
2. Mistaken For Strangers
3. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
4. Bending Steel
1. Haifaa Al-Mansour, Wadjda
2. Dan Krauss, The Kill Team
3. Jenée LaMarque, The Pretty One
4. Kim Mordaunt, The Rocket
5. Tom Berninger, Mistaken for Strangers
1. Thomas Haden Church, Whitewash
2. Zoe Kazan, The Pretty One
3. Maxine Peake, Run & Jump
4. Waad Mohammed, Wadjda
5. Sitthiphon Disamoe, The Rocket
1. Jake Johnson, The Pretty One
2. Emile Hirsch, Prince Avalanche
3. Loungnam Kaosainam, The Rocket
4. Brendan Morris, Run & Jump
5. Gemma Arterton, Byzantium
BEST ENSEMBLE
1. G. B. F.
2. Run & Jump
1. Wadjda
2. The Pretty One
3. Whitewash
4. Mr. Jones
5. Run & Jump
MOST ANTICIPATED (BUT MISSED IT AT TRIBECA)
1. Before Midnight. Haven’t gotten around to it yet. I know, I know.
2. Flex is King. I hear it’s insanely amazing. I just missed it again and again.
3. A Single Shot. Sam Rockwell plus buzz of a high tension finale makes me kick myself for having missed this one.
4. Six Acts, I heard only great things about.
5. Teenage.
BEST SCENE
1. The finale of Wadjda. Because of its subject matter (gender disparity in Saudi Arabia), I feared horrendous soul-crushing tragedy would be a given for its third act. But instead Al-Mansour gave her heroine a happy ending that the narrative earned, and left me elated. When the credits rolled, I was a mess of tears and smiles.
2. Chris Schoeck’s Coney Island performance at the end of Bending Steel was extraordinary. We’ve watched this shy strong man come out of his shell over the course of the film, and before he attempts his final feat of strength—one we’ve only seen him fail at—he gives a speech about overcoming his fears, laying himself bare before the audience. I literally held my breath in hopes he’d succeed. Fantastic, simply fantastic.
3. In Run & Jump there’s a spectacular sequence that crosscuts between the teen boy Lenny as he proudly outs himself at a swim meet, with his mother and father attempting to connect through sex for the first time since his father’s brain-devastating stroke. It’s contains a heady mix of emotions, defiance, hope, ecstasy and despair.
4. James Gandolfini talking about his relationship with Elaine Stritch in Elaine Stritch: Just Shoot Me: “If we had both met when we were 35, I’m sure we would have had a passionate love affair that would have ended very badly.” Beyond being hilarious, this comment is evocative, beautifully capturing Stritch’s brassy allure.
5. The final freaky and funny shot of Gareth Evans “Safe Haven” contribution to V/H/S/2.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
1. How terrific the slate overall was. I was not only felt spoiled for choice, but also deeply enjoyed most of what I saw.
2. Mistaken For Strangers. I almost skipped it because I didn’t know a thing about the band The National, but was urged by fellow critics to give it a shot. I’m ecstatic I did. It’s a thoughtful and entertaining look at brotherhood and the creative process.
3. V/H/S/2. I completely hate the first one, finding it frustrating misogynistic and painfully lacking in scares. These troubles didn’t bleed in to this sequel.
Stephen Saito, The Movable Fest
1. The Pretty One
2. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
3. Whitewash
4. Bluebird
5. Lily
1. Lenny Cooke
2. Oxyana
4. The Kill Team
5. Bending Steel
2. Sam Fleischner, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
3. Emir Baigazin, Harmony Lessons
4. Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Whitewash
5. Josh and Ben Safdie, Lenny Cooke
2. Naomi Watts, Sunlight Jr.
3. Amy Morton, Bluebird
5. Maxine Peake, Run & Jump
1. Tess Harper, Sunlight Jr.
2. Andrea Suarez Paz, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
3. Marc Labrèche, Whitewash
4. Jake M. Johnson, The Pretty One
5. Amanda Peet, Trust Me
1. Trust Me
2. Bluebird
3. The Pretty One
4. Hide Your Smiling Faces
5. Almost Christmas
2. Sean Dunne, Oxyana
3. Lance Edmands, Bluebird
4. Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Whitewash
5. Steph Green, Run & Jump
1. Before Midnight
2. The Rocket
3. Before Snowfall
4. The Broken Circle Breakdown
5. Cutie and the Boxer
1. Lenny Cooke climax – Wouldn’t want to spoil, but what could be an incredibly corny moment near the end becomes eerily effective with some movie magic.
2. Bluebird – Amy Morton’s bus driver, filled with regret over an incident on her bus, feels the whole school is judging her when she attends her daughter’s concert and retreats to the bathroom. The unique framing of the scene of scene as she collects herself in the bathroom is Edward Hopper-level and could easily be taken as a still and placed in a gallery.
3. Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me – The legendary actress/singer is taking her medicine, insisting to the cameraman that it would be more interesting if he got the shot in a certain way, an incredibly funny moment that shows that even in spite of a weakened state, she still wants what’s best for her audience.
4. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors – Although director Sam Fleischner shot the majority of his film on the subway system and braved Hurricane Sandy in the middle of production, one of the film’s most striking images is when a cleaning lady (Andrea Suarez Paz) is forced to spend time back at home after her son goes missing and wipes away the dust off her own TV set, never having the time to do so before.
5. The Pretty One – Zoe Kazan and Jake M. Johnson spend an evening in their neighbor’s pool, imagining themselves as a married couple in a swooningly romantic moment.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
1. Gasland 2 – A followup that’s easier to digest as a narrative and harder to watch for what it says about fracking, Josh Fox’s sequel is both necessary and more impressive in all respects than its 2010 forebear.
2. Hide Your Smiling Faces – A really nice debut from Daniel Patrick Carbone, who has an easy way with a young cast and a great eye for locations.
3. Frankenstein’s Army – After a rough beginning, a really pleasant, unexpectedly inventive surprise.
4. The English Teacher – If you can’t get past some very pronounced logical gaps, some of the most charming work any of the actors have done in a while in a confident debut that plays like a poor man’s “Election” from Craig Zisk.
5. Kiss the Water – Eric Steel’s profile of Megan Boyd, who dedicated her life to making the perfect flies for fisherman to use as bait, never once shows its late subject onscreen, but has friends and relatives tell her story. Both unusual and low-key, it sneaks up on you.

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
1. Lily
2.
Bluebird
3. Hide
Your Smiling Faces
4.
Taboor
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1. The Kill Team
2. Bending Steel
3. Let the Fire Burn
4. Oxyana
5. Teenage
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Matt Creed, Lily
2. Dave Carroll, Bending Steel
3. Dan Krauss, The Kill Team
4. Lance Edmands, Bluebird
5. Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
1. Amy Grantham, Lily
2. Amy Morton, Bluebird
3. Johan Heldenbergh, The Broken Cycle Breakdown
4. Veerle Baetens, The Broken Cycle Breakdown
5. Nathan Varnson, Hide Your Smiling Faces
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
1. Nell Cattrysse, The Broken Cycle
Breakdown
2. John Slattery, Bluebird
BEST ENSEMBLE
1. Bluebird
2. Hide Your Smiling Faces
3. The Broken Cycle Breakdown
BEST FIRST FEATURE
1. Lily
2. Bluebird
3. Bending Steel
4. The Kill Team
5. Hide Your Smiling Faces
MOST ANTICIPATED (BUT MISSED IT AT TRIBECA)
1. Lenny Cooke
2. A Birder’s Guide to Everything
3. Before Snowfall
4. The Machine
5. The English Teacher
Anne-Katrin
Titze, Eye for Film
In
2013, the Tribeca Film Festival has succeeded triumphantly with the MoMA PS1
collaboration for Michelangelo Frammartino’s Alberi and how to bring nature
into an urban setting through films like Bruno Barreto’s Reaching for the Moon,
Reha Erdem’s Jîn, Whitewash, directed by Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Hisham Zaman’s
Before Snowfall, and Red Obsession, directed by David Roach and Warwick Ross. (Interview with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer)
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
1. Reaching for the Moon – Bruno
Barreto’s exquisite Reaching For The Moon tells the grand love story between
the Pulitzer prize-winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop, and the Brazilian
architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Barreto adeptly investigates the art of losing
and living with demons. Style is a trigger for communication, and the green
layers of nuance are lush.
2. Whitewash
3. Sunlight Jr.
4. Byzantium
5. Some Velvet Morning
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1. Michael H. Profession: Director – Cat
lover and Academy Award winning director Michael Haneke is profiled in Yves
Montmayeur’s penetrating Michael H. Profession: Director by frequent
collaborators including Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Juliette Binoche,
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Béatrice Dalle, and Josef Bierbichler. The documentary
about the filmmaker’s career shows Haneke at work, starts with the word
“coward” spoken in his 1992 feature film Benny’s Video and ends with
his statement, that love is a difficult thing and not given to everybody.
2. Lil Bub & Friendz
3. Kiss the Water
4. Red Obsession
5. Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amnesia
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Michelangelo Frammartino, Alberi – Playing
in an endless loop in the dome at MoMA PS1, Alberi accomplishes something
extremely rare very quickly and profoundly: it allows spectators to
breathe, relax and think, about nature, myth, and how good it feels when
someone awaits your arrival. Frammartino invites us to remember and forget.
2. Bruno Barreto, Reaching for the Moon
3. Yves Montmayeur, Michael H. Profession:
Director
4. Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Whitewash
5. Eric Steel, Kiss the Water
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
1. Thomas Haden Church, Whitewash – Thomas
Haden Church plays Bruce with great strength and impeccable timing. He is
a Samuel Beckett character and winter athlete rolled into one, while he juggles
a past of glass eyes, a present of strong beer, and an inevitably icy future.
2. Miranda Otto, Reaching for the Moon
3. Emmanuelle Devos, Just A Sigh
4. Naomi Watts, Sunlight Jr.
5. Stanley Tucci, Some Velvet Morning
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
1. Glória Pires, Reaching for the Moon – Lota
de Macedo Soares is played by Glória Pires with every response a marvelous
surprise. The way she meets the world in general and how she slowly changes
around Elizabeth Bishop is masterfully subtle. She wonders why their guest is
so “stuck-up and defensive” and has already deeply entered a new
chapter in her life, without knowing it. Glória Pires conveys all this in a
gesture and a movement of her shoulders.
2. Tim Roth, Mõbius
3. Greg Kinnear, The English Teacher
4. Heather Graham, At Any Price
5. Vince Vaughn, A Case of You
BEST ENSEMBLE
1. Reaching for the Moon – The
extraordinary yarn begins at the boat pond in New York’s Central Park, on a
bench, where Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto, translucent and captivating)
suffers “weekly attacks” on her poetry and her virtue by good friend
Cal (Treat Williams). Former ballet dancer and friend from Vassar, Mary Morse
(Tracy Middendorff, a limber Cassandra in a complex role), and right-wing
politician Carlos Lacerda (Marcello Airoldi) who wants to be president of
Brazil and supports the military coup that ends Brazilian democracy console the
central love story.
2. Lil Bub & Friendz
3. Teenage
4. Sunlight Jr.
5. At Any Price
BEST FIRST FEATURE
1. Whitewash – Tribeca Film Festival
Best New Narrative Director Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais wins for his chillingly
unique snow thriller. On a very snowy night, Whitewash, blows us into the icy
world of a man at a crossroads. Bruce’s life changes forever after encountering
Paul, whose personality couldn’t be more different from his but whose situation
is no less urgent. He has to confront the basics of survival – food, warmth,
shelter.
MOST ANTICIPATED (BUT MISSED IT AT TRIBECA)
1. Bluebird
2. Jîn
3. Cycling with Moliere
4. Odayaka
5. Before Snowfall
BEST SCENE
1. Bub in Lil Bub & Friendz meeting the
tiger at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center.
2. Erica’s (Kate Hudson) art opening in The
Reluctant Fundamentalist.
3. Paul (Marc Labrèche) stealing dolls’
eyeballs in Whitewash
4. Haute Cuisine – Monsieur le Président de la
République (played by Jean d’Ormesson) endears himself to Hortense (Catherine
Frot) when at the first lunch she prepares for him, we learn that he eats the
carrot top. Any wise bird can tell you about it.
5. Gore Vidal in Gore Vidal: The United States
Of Amnesia explaining JFK.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
1. Michelangelo Frammartino’s World Premiere
of his breathtaking 28 minute continuous cinematic installation Alberi in the
VW Dome at MoMA PS1.
Daniel Walber, Film School Rejects
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
1. Wadjda
2.
Floating Skyscrapers
3. Ali
Blue Eyes
4. Dark
Touch
5.
Fresh Meat
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1. Cutie and the Boxer
2. Alberi
3. Big Joy
4. The Kill Team
5. Raw Herring
BEST DIRECTOR
1. Haifaa al-Mansour, Wadjda
2. Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie and the Boxer
3. Tomas Wasilewski, Floating Skyscrapers
4. Big Joy, Stephen Silha & Eric Slade
& Dawn Logsdon
5. Alberi, Michelangelo Frammartino
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
1. Waad Mohammed, Wadjda
2. Mateusz Banasiuk, Floating Skyscrapers
3. Bartosz Gelner, Floating Skyscrapers
4. Nader Sarhan, Ali Blue Eyes
5. Riz Ahmed, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
1. Marta Nieradkiewicz, Floating
Skyscrapers
2. Reem Abdullah, Wadjda
3. Karel Roden, Frankenstein’s Army
4. Ahd, Wadjda
5. Joyce Payne, Prince Avalanche
BEST ENSEMBLE
1. Fresh Meat
2. Ali Blue Eyes
3. Dark Touch
4. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
BEST FIRST FEATURE
1. Wadjda
2. Cutie and the Boxer
3. Big Joy
4. The Kill Team
5. Frankenstein’s Army
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