Tribeca Names 2020 Winners, ‘The Half of It’ and Steve Zahn Among Them

Actors Steve Zahn and Assol Abdullina, along with Alice Wu’s ‘The Half of It’ (2020), were some of the winners of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.

‘The Half of It’ will be released on Netflix on 1^st May of this year, and it follows Ellie Chu, a shy, top-of-her-class student who makes extra cash by writing papers for her high school mates. She reluctantly agrees to write a love letter for an enamoured jock to his crush, a girl that Ellie is also fawning over. All three students embark on a journey of complicated friendship and self-discovery in the drama-comedy film that was included in the slate of juried awards.

‘THE HALF OF IT’ (2020), ©NETFLIX

Jan Komasa’s ‘The Hater’ (2020) took the prize for best international narrative feature, while ‘Socks on Fire’ (2020), directed by Bo McGuire, was awarded for best documentary feature.

Given the worldwide halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, most in-person award shows have switched to streaming and digital, and Tribeca made no exception. This year, its winners were announced on Instagram.

Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal said: ‘We are fortunate that technology allowed for our jury to come together this year to honor our filmmakers. Despite not being able to be together physically, we were still able to support our artists, which has always been at the heart of the Festival.’

The full list of winners:

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, ‘The Half of It’, directed by Alice Wu.

Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Assol Abdullina in ‘Materna’.

Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Steve Zahn in ‘Cowboys’.

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Greta Zozula, Chananun Chotrungroj, Kelly Jeffrey for ‘Materna’.

Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film, Anna Kerrigan for ‘Cowboys’.

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Best International Narrative Feature, ‘The Hater’ (Poland), directed by Jan Komasa.

Best Actor in an International Narrative Feature Film, Noe Hernandez for ‘Kokoloko’ (Mexico).

Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film, Shira Haas for ‘Asia’ (Israel).

Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film – Daniella Nowitz for ‘Asia’ (Israel).

Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature Film, Prashant Nair for ‘Tryst with Destiny’ (India, France).

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES

Best Documentary Feature, ‘Socks on Fire’, directed by Bo McGuire.

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film, Alejandro Mejia for ‘499’.

Best Editing in a Documentary Film, Amy Foote for ‘Father Soldier Son’.

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION

Best New Narrative Director, Gaspar Antillo for ‘Nobody Knows I’m Here’.

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award, Jessica Earnshaw for ‘Jacinta’.

THE NORA EPHRON AWARD

The Nora Ephron Award, ‘Asia’, directed by Ruthy Pribar.

SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

Best Narrative Short, ‘No More Wings’, directed by Abraham Adeyemi.

Best Animated Short, ‘Friends’, directed by Florian Grolig.

Best Documentary Short, ‘My Father the Mover’, directed by Julia Jansch.

Student Visionary Award, ‘Cru-Raw’, directed by David Oesch.

TRIBECA X AWARDS

Best Short, ‘Pay Day’, directed by Morgan Cooper.

Best Series, ‘Girls Room’, directed by Tiffany Johnson.

Writer, Lena Waithe.

Best Feature, ‘U Shoot Videos?’, directed by Morgan Cooper.