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By Gemma Brosnan - In the Big Apple THE 8th TRIBECA film festival may have had the odds stacked against it, with The Crunch and Swine Flu crisis firmly on its tail, but it didn’t stop film’s finest stepping out last night to celebrate the best the industry has to offer. Filmmakers and actors from Iran, Norway, Ireland and the United States took the top prizes at the award ceremony last night, which also saw cash prizes of $25,000 thrown in to ensure the success of future projects. Ciarán Hinds was named best actor in a narrative feature for ‘The Eclipse’, a supernatural tale directed by the playwright Conor McPherson. Zoe Kazan picked up best actress in a narrative feature for ‘The Exploding Girl’, a film by Bradley Rust Gray about a woman who returns home to Brooklyn on a summer off from college. Marshall Curry won for best documentary feature for ‘Racing Dreams’ about a national go-kart competition. The festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro to help revive Lower Manhattan after 9/11, is around the corner from Ground Zero and Wall St, placing the financial crisis and its own set of issues firmly at the centre. Several of the films at Tribeca portray or examine the current economy, including the sub-prime mortgage documentary ‘American Casino’ and Steven Soderbergh’s ultra-cool ‘The Girlfriend Experience’. Johnny Knoxville made an appearance earlier this week to discuss the documentary ‘The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia’, which he worked on as an executive producer. Directed by Julian Nitzberg, it takes a look at the long-branching family tree of the Whites, a West Virginia clan notorious for causing chaos, which gives a suggestive hint as to why Knoxville wanted to get involved, considering his Jackass credentials. The White family of Boone County is one of the most destructive and dysfunctional families known to man, the kind that the whole town knows about and does their utmost to avoid, who enjoy local notoriety by ending up in a police blotter at least once a week. The struggle to focus on film was highlighted by numbers, with figures equating to 85 films, down from a high of 157 in 2007. Indie film has been struggling for a while, as studios contract their output and labels, like Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse continue to shutter as the older, prestigious, uptown Film Society of Lincoln Center try to ride out a shake-up, following the closure of the legendary indie distributor New Yorker Films back in February this year. These challenges, and the battle against the online revolution, were just many of the topics being discussed at Tribeca this week, as the industry struggles to find a glimmer of hope during exceptionally tough times. But on a slightly brighter note, there are a number of films worthy of attention to help block out the bleakness of reality. The dark political satire “In the Loop,” which co-stars James Gandolfini as a U.S. general, might be called a modern day ‘Dr. Strangelove’, with Beltway offices substituting for Kubrick’s war room. In ‘Outrage’, Kirby Dick (‘This Film is Not Rated’) documents gay politicians who are in the closet and yet oppose gay rights and Irish playwright Conor McPherson, who’s won raves for plays filled with hardy drinking and supernatural visitors, has brought the same milieu to the screen in his most significant film yet, ‘The Eclipse’, which is more than worthy of last night’s award. LIST OF WINNERS The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – "About Elly (Darbareye Elly)," directed and written by Asghar Farhadi. Best New Narrative Filmmaker – Rune Denstad Langlo for "North (Nord)," written by Erlend Loe. Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Ciarán Hinds in "The Eclipse," directed and written by Conor McPherson. Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Zoe Kazan in "The Exploding Girl," directed and written by Bradley Rust Gray. Best Documentary Feature – "Racing Dreams," directed by Marshall Curry. Special Jury Mention: "Defamation (Hashmatsa)," directed by Yoav Shamir. Best New Documentary Filmmaker – Ian Olds for "Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi." New York Competition Categories: Best New York Narrative – "Here and There (Tamo i ovde)," directed and written by Darko Lungulov. Best New York Documentary – "Partly Private," directed by Danae Elon. Short Film Competition Categories: Best Narrative Short – "The North Road (La route du Nord)," directed and written by Carlos Chahine. Best Documentary Short – "home," directed by Matthew Faust. Special Jury Mention: The Last Mermaids, directed by Liz Chae. Student Visionary Award – "Small Change," directed and written by Anna McGrath. Special Jury Mention: "Oda a la Piña," directed and written by Laimir Fano.
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