June Bloom: Tribeca Takes Manhattan — and the Movies
The eclectic festival celebrates blockbusters, indies, AI films and its founder with a De Niro Con. Plus: Time to get slimed and my chat with Seth Meyers
You know what’s a good way to feel better about the future of movies? Going to the movies.
That’s one of many reasons to make your way to the Tribeca Festival, now underway in — despite its name — several different neighborhoods in Manhattan. While not as internationally famous as Cannes or as essential for Oscar buzz as Telluride, Tribeca is a reliable annual source for promising indies and the filmmakers you’ll be hearing about for decades to come.
Case in point: At the 2009 festival, I watched a scrappy musical that had begun as a senior thesis project, and sat down for an interview with the director, who was my age and already incredibly ambitious. The film was Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, the director was Damien Chazelle — and the interview is no longer available anywhere online so you’ll just have to believe me that I knew he was talented way back then.
I can’t see into the future and tell you which of this year’s Tribeca first-timers will be Oscar winners within the decade, but there are plenty of sure things to look out for, from new films starring Lily Gladstone (forever the inaugural Prestige Junkie podcast guest), Dakota Johnson and Steve Buscemi to the return of a certain set of minions.
In an era when the indie film sales market is slowly coming back to life and the box office has inspired a full-blown panic, Tribeca’s commitment to expanding its boundaries — from high-profile reunion events (there’s one for The Sopranos this year) to short films made by AI to this year’s “De Niro Con” — might inspire some new ways forward.
As Tribeca’s VP of programming Cara Cusumano told me recently, “From the very beginning, our identity came from storytelling with film as the anchor to that. But there's been a real spirit of curiosity in our programming over the years to explore and embrace where that might be going next.”
Read on for more of the highlights from this year’s festival, as well as selections from this week’s podcast conversation with another New York City icon, Seth Meyers.
Summer in the City
Summer in New York City is often more associated with heat that inspires you to rob a bank or throw a trashcan through the window of Sal’s pizza parlor, but early June is actually spectacular. The pandemic initially inspired Tribeca to shift from its original early April dates, but as Cusumano says, they’re making the most of it.
“We've seen some of the biggest audiences we've ever had since we've been in June,” she tells me. “Being able to do more outside, it just feels like it's a really energetic time of year, and we’re creating that festival atmosphere that everyone strives for.”
Tribeca is probably the only festival that gives you the chance to visit Travis Bickle’s bedroom or catch Judd Apatow in conversation with Matthew Broderick, and some of its films are one-of-a-kind experiences as well. World premieres include the opening night documentary, Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge; the Jenna Ortega-starring Winter Spring Summer or Fall; Michael Angarano’s directorial debut Sacramento, starring Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart and Maya Erskine; and Jazzy, a follow-up to The Unknown Country, with Lily Gladstone returning in the role that earned her a Gotham Award last year. Films stopping at Tribeca before debuting in theaters later this summer include the Dakota Johnson-Sean Penn two-hander Daddio and blockbuster hopefuls A Quiet Place: Day One and Despicable Me 4.
Many of those world premieres will be looking for distribution, and though Tribeca isn’t quite as famous for acquisitions as other festivals, Cusumano expects the buyers to be there. “You don't see as many real-time deals, but when you look at the arc of the festival, typically about two-thirds within a year have found a home,” she says. “So we're definitely eager to make sure that buyers are here, that there's a sales energy, that we're teeing the films up the best possible way.”
Got your credit card ready, whether you’re buying a ticket or a whole film? Check out the full lineup for Tribeca, now underway in beautiful New York City.
In Other News . . .
Slime Time
Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera may have finally finished their awards pushes for Barbie, but the awards manage to keep coming anyway. All three are now first-time nominees at the Kids’ Choice Awards, which will air on Nickelodeon on July 13 and will be hosted — no joke — by SpongeBob SquarePants.
Nickelodeon was eager to point out (via The Hollywood Reporter) that more than 50 of this year’s nominees are first-timers, so if you’re hoping that Hollywood is finally starting to mint new stars who actually appeal to young people, that could be good news. First-time nominees include stars of kids shows but also Timothée Chalamet (for Wonka), Zendaya (for Dune Part Two, not Challengers, thank God), and Ayo Edebiri (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, not The Bear, thank God).
Last year’s Kids’ Choice Awards, which aired in March, had a pretty decent celebrity turnout, with Michelle Rodriguez, Chris Pine and Melissa McCarthy gamely getting slimed onstage. My money’s on Travis Kelce, nominated for favorite male sports star, being the one to take the plunge this year, but I’m eager to hear your bets.
A Closer Look with Seth Meyers
“A lot of times on our show, the gist of [the joke] is ‘Look at this dummy.’ And it was the first time where I was the dummy.”
That, in short, is how Seth Meyers and his staff selected their February 28 episode as the show’s Emmy submission, quite possibly one of the most meta Closer Look segments they’ve ever done. Meyers calls the segment an anniversary gift to themselves — Late Night With Seth Meyers celebrated 10 years on the air on February 24 — but it’s also a neat summation of the topical, self-deprecating humor that continues to make the show stand out in the crowded late-night field.
On this week’s episode of the Prestige Junkie podcast I talked to Meyers about how the show bounced back from a five-month strike hiatus, the camaraderie he built with his fellow late-night hosts when they banded together for the Strike Force Five podcast and a fortuitous phone call from Dolly Parton’s people.
Katey Rich: Your children's book I'm Not Scared, You're Scared is a big part of our household. And we got it because of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Seth Meyers: Oh, look at that!
KR: How does that happen from your end? Do you get a letter from Dolly Parton?
SM: When you do things like a children's book, all of a sudden these different worlds open up to you. Your editor sends an excited email telling you you've been selected for the Dolly Parton book club and they tell you it's a very, it's a big deal.
And I should note, even if it was no deal at all, the fact that it is Dolly Parton would be enough for me to wholeheartedly agree to it.
Straight talk, Katey: Are you bummed out if your kids say they want to have it read to them? Have you read it enough that you don't want to read it anymore?
KR: No, I think you stuck a really good balance there.
SM: Thank you. I've heard a few “it's too longs.” Identifying as a writer, I didn't want to mail it in with a short one. Then I realized that most parents at the end of the night with tired kids are not judging me on whether or not I worked hard on my book. They just want to get their kids to bed.
KR: I will say, Jimmy Fallon's book is really short. So you beat him.
SM: You know, it's a funny bit. When my first kid was born, Jimmy Kimmel sent me Jimmy Fallon's book. And Jimmy Kimmel has a really good bit where he did the drawings. So of all of the late-night hosts, he worked the hardest on his book.
KR: I assume competing against the other late-night hosts at the Emmys feels ridiculous all the time because you know them so well. But after doing the Strike Force Five podcast together, does it feel extra ridiculous?
SM: The gift of the podcast was realizing how ridiculous it is, in a good way. Having built better friendships with the other people that we are “in competition” with every year was really kind of cool. It was also so fun and funny to us that John [Oliver] left the category. Then when Trevor [Noah] won, every one of us was like, Oh, so we weren't second place. Every year.
I will say, John and I have a residency at the Beacon Theater where we do stand up together one Sunday a month, which is again, another thing that came out of the strike, one of the silver linings.
We do a Q&A, and the first question a couple of Sundays ago was, ‘Congratulations to both of you for your Writer's Guild nominations. John, you just won. How does that feel?’ And I was like, look, I knew you were going to win, but did I have to find out in front of 3,000 people?
KR: You’ve been back from the strike for about six months now. How do you think the strike changed the show?
SM: I just think there was just a sincere appreciation from everybody who works here as to how fortunate we are to have this show. To go five months without it, it's not just losing a creative outlet, it’s losing a support system. We all rely on each other, not just for jokes and show infrastructure. Our personal lives are really dependent on this being a place as well.
You can listen to my whole conversation here:
