NEW YORK, NY (SMI-ENTERTAINMENT JUNE 02-18, 2023)- The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced the 2023 jury members who will select winning projects in the film, immersive, games, and audio storytelling sections. The Festival has 15 different competition categories for which jurors will honor winning storytellers and creators with artistic awards. 

 

This year’s festival jury include a diverse roster of groundbreaking filmmakers, award-winning actors, celebrated multi-hyphenate producers, and leaders from entertainment and culture, including Brendan Fraser, Stephanie Hsu, Zoey Deutch, Dianna Agron, Zazie Beetz, Kate Siegel, Mark Duplass, Stephen Kay, Nina Dobrev, Clea DuVall, Piper Perabo, Chance the Rapper, Noah Centineo, Jeremy O. Harris, Andrew Ahn, Chloe Grace Moretz, and more. In addition to the awards in competition categories, the Nora Ephron Award, created to honor the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer, will be presented.

 

“We are thrilled to announce the jury for the 2023 Tribeca Festival,” said Tribeca Festival Executive Vice President of Artist Relations and Special Events Nancy Lefkowitz. “The diversity of perspectives and experiences across all verticals are representative of the myriad voices reflected in this year’s program.”

 

More than 58 industry leaders were selected to honor feature-length and short film categories, composed of narrative and documentary films, as well as Storyscapes, the juried section of immersive. A jury has also been established to honor the best work in games and to honor submissions in Tribeca’s returning audio storytelling category. 

 

The winning films, projects, filmmakers, storytellers, and actors in each category will be announced at the Tribeca Festival ceremony on June 15th. 

 

Feature Film Competition Categories

 

The jurors for the 2023 U.S. Narrative Feature Competition section are:

 

Ramin Bahrani

Academy Award, BAFTA, WGA and Emmy nominee Ramin Bahrani is the Iranian-American writer, director, and producer of such films as Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, 99 Homes, The White Tiger and most recently his debut feature documentary, 2nd Chance. Bahrani is a Guggenheim Fellowship winner and his cinematic oeuvre is housed in the permanent collection at the MoMA in NYC. Currently he is adapting a six-part limited series of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. As producer, Bahrani’s films include Alexandre Moratto’s  Socrates (2018) and 7 Prisoners (2021), Alex Camilleri’s Luzzu (2020), Saim Sadiq’s Joyland (2022) and Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer (2023).

 

Zoey Deutch

Zoey Deutch most recently can be seen in NOT OKAY for Searchlight/Hulu as well as SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY’S for Amazon/Hello Sunshine. She starred in and produced both films. She can also be seen in Focus Feature’s film THE OUTFIT from director Graham Moore starring opposite Mark Rylance, for which she was nominated for best supporting performance at the British Independent Film Awards. Zoey’s other credits include Sony’s sequel to ZOMBIELAND from director Ruben Fleischer and THE POLITICIAN, staring opposite Ben Platt and Jessica Lange. Deutch starred in and produced the independent feature BUFFALOED, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and released for Magnolia to rave reviews. Deutch’s films FLOWER, directed by Max Winkler, and VINCENT N ROXXY both also premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Deutch can also be seen as the female lead of Netflix’s hit romantic comedy SET IT UP, starring opposite Glen Powell. Additional credits include Russo-Young’s BEFORE I FALL, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, REBEL IN THE RYE opposite Nicholas Hoult, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! from writer/director Richard Linklater, WHY HIM? opposite Bryan Cranston, and more recently THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN, which she also produced.

 

Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan is a prolific director, writer, producer and editor, and partner at Intrepid Pictures, a feature film and television production company dedicated to creating elevated commercial content for global audiences. Flanagan is the creator, director, executive producer and showrunner of the hit Netflix Original series “The Haunting of Hill House,” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” creator, director and showrunner of the critically acclaimed series “Midnight Mass,” and co-creator and executive producer of “The Midnight Club,” of which he also directed the first two episodes. His upcoming series include “The Fall of the House of Usher” based on the iconic works of Edgar Allan Poe. Flanagan is also the director of seven feature films, including DOCTOR SLEEP for Warner Bros.; GERALD’S GAME, which he also co-wrote; BEFORE I WAKE, which he also wrote; OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL, distributed by Universal Pictures; OCULUS, that premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival; ABSENTIA; and OCULUS. Flanagan is a graduate of Towson University’s Electronic Media & Film Department. 

 

Stephanie Hsu

Stephanie Hsu recently starred in A24’s Oscar winning film “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” in which she also earned an individual Oscar and SAG Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film received 11 nominations and won 7 awards, topping all other movies that year. Next, Stephanie will star in Adele Lim’s “Joy Ride” releasing in theaters on July 7, 2023 and will also appear in the Disney+ series “American Born Chinese.” Stephanie can also be seen in the Emmy-winning series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and in a guest starring role in Peacock’s “Poker Face.” Most recently, Stephanie wrapped production on Universal’s “The Fall Guy.” On Broadway, she previously starred in “Be More Chill” and “SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical.” Her past television and film credits include a recurring role on “The Path,” “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens,” “Femme,” “Set It Up,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Girl Code.”

 

Tommy Oliver

Tommy is an award-winning writer/director/producer and Founder/CEO of Confluential Films, a production company, and financier focused on telling commercially-viable stories at the intersection of art, entertainment, and cultural specificity. Most recently, Tommy produced four Sundance ‘23 films, including the Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner, Going to Mars.

The jurors for the 2023 International Narrative Feature Competition section are:

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Zazie Beetz

The German-born, American actress Zazie Beetz is best known for her co-lead role as Donald Glover's on-and-off-again girlfriend ‘Vanessa,’ in FX Networks’ Golden Globe-winning series, “Atlanta.” The show, which premiered its fourth and final season in September 2022, earned Beetz an Emmy®-nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Beetz will appear in HBO Max’s upcoming crime drama mini-series “Full Circle,” written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The show’s first episode will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on June 11, 2023. Further, Beetz is set to star and co-executive produce the upcoming Apple TV+ drama series “Lazarus” alongside Tom Hardy. Beetz will also appear in the sixth season of Charlie Brooker’s television series “Black Mirror,” streaming on Netflix in June 2023. Most recently, Beetz appeared in the sketch comedy series “History of the World: Part II,” produced by Mel Brooks and written by David Stassen. The series was released by Hulu on March 6, 2023. In 2022, Beetz appeared in the Colombia Pictures action film, “Bullet Train,” directed by David Leitch. Beetz portrayed the character ‘The Hornet,’ alongside an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Joey King, and Brian Tyree Henry. The film was released in theaters on August 5, 2022. In 2021, Beetz starred alongside Winston Duke in the Sony Classic’s feature “Nine Days,” an existential fantasy that ponders purgatory, the afterlife, and the fate of unborn souls. The Edson Oda directorial debut feature released in theaters nationwide on August 6, 2021, with The New York Times signifying Duke and Beetz as delivering “performances of the ages.” The film first premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and earned a nomination for the coveted Grand Jury Prize at the festival. The ensemble cast also includes Bill Skarsgard, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, and David Rysdahl.

 

Beetz also starred as the infamous “Stagecoach Mary” in the first ever all-Black American Western feature film from Netflix, “The Harder They Fall.” Beetz stars alongside Jonathon Majors leading an all-star ensemble cast which includes Regina King, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, Damon Wayne Jr., and Danielle Deadwyler among others. The Jeymes Samuel-directed debut feature film opened at the 2021 London Film Festival, before releasing in theaters and on Netflix on November 3, 2021. In 2019, Beetz appeared in the Oscar-winning DC Comics’ thriller, “Joker” alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro. The film premiered in competition at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won the coveted Golden Lion Award, before receiving 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Beetz returned to the television screen in Jordan Peele’s anthology reboot of “The Twilight Zone” on CBS All Access. She appeared in the season finale, which premiered on May 30, 2019. Among Beetz’s recent film credits include Amazon’s “Seberg,” FOX Searchlight’s “Lucy in the Sky,” Annapurna Pictures’ “Wounds,” Netflix’s “High Flying Bird,” Marvel Studios’ blockbuster “Deadpool 2” opposite Ryan Reynolds, and “Sollers Point.” Beetz is a native New Yorker.

 

Brendan Fraser

Brendan Fraser is an Academy Award winning actor who’s inspired performances and eye for thought-provoking material continue to garner critical acclaim. Fraser can be seen as the lead role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, for which he received several nominations and awards including his first Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading role. Other notable works include Universal’s Mummy Franchise, Crash, directed by Paul Haggis; Phillip Noyce’s The Quiet American, based on Graham Greene’s 1955 thriller of the same name; and Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters, opposite Sir Ian McKellen, and Lynn Redgrave. He attended high school at Toronto’s Upper Canada College and received a BFA in acting from the Actor’s Conservatory, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

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Alfredo Jaar

Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect, and filmmaker based in New York. His work has been shown extensively around the world. Over fifty monographic publications have been published about his work. A Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, he received the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2018 and the Hasselblad Award in 2020

 

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York.  Neshat works and continues to experiment with the mediums of photography, video and film, which she imbues with highly poetic and politically charged images and narratives that question issues of power, religion, race, gender and the relationship between the past and present, East and West, individual and collective through the lens of her personal experiences as an Iranian woman living in exile. Neshat has held numerous solo exhibitions at museums internationally including the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas; The Broad, Los Angeles; Museo Correr, Venice, Italy; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

Neshat has directed three feature-length films, Women Without Men (2009), which received the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Looking For Oum Kulthum (2017), and most recently Land of Dreams, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival (2021). Neshat was awarded the Golden Lion Award, the First International Prize at the 48th Biennale di Venezia (1999), the Hiroshima Freedom Prize (2005), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2006) and in 2017, she received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award in Tokyo. She is represented by Gladstone Gallery in New York and Goodman Gallery in London.

 

Kate Siegel

Actress and Screenwriter Kate Siegel is best known for her critically acclaimed starring role as Erin Greene in the Netflix limited series Midnight Mass (2022 Critics Choice Nominee – Best Limited Series). Prior to this, she is recognized for her roles in The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Oculus. She also starred in and co-wrote the Netflix thriller film Hush. Kate most recently appeared in the HBO Max series The Time’s Traveler’s Wife, and up next will reteam with Netflix starring in The Fall of the House of Usher series which is based on the Edger Allan Poe short story of the same name. 

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