Tribeca Film Festival Awards: ‘Burning Cane’, Haley Bennett, Wendell Pierce Among Winners

Patrick Hipes

Burning Cane, the drama whose writer-director Phillip Youmans is the youngest-ever helmer to have a feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, won the fest’s marquee Founders Award on Thursday. Tribeca bestowed all three of its top juried feature awards on first-time directors, but none more first-time than Youmans, who made the movie when he was 17. He also becomes the first African American director to win the award.

The film’s Wendell Pierce won the Best Actor award in the fest’s U.S. Narrative Competition section. He plays a preacher dealing with his wife’s recent death in Burning Cane, a portrait of Southeastern Louisiana. Youmans also won a cinematography honor.

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Haley Bennett won the Best Actress award for Swallow, a psychological thriller about a newly pregnant woman who develops the compulsion to consume dangerous objects.

In the documentary competition, Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin’s Scheme Birds won the Best Feature prize, and the pair also took home the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award. The South Korean pic House of Hummingbird won the Best Feature in the International Narrative section, with the film’s Ji-hu Park taking Best Actress.

Tribeca wraps on Sunday.

Here’s the full list of winners announced today:

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature
Burning Cane
Directed by Phillip Youmans

Best Actress
Haley Bennett, Swallow
(Special Jury mention: Geetanjali Thapi, Stray Dolls)

Best Actor
Wendell Pierce in Burning Cane

Best Cinematography
Phillip Youmans for Burning Cane
(Special Jury mention: Todd Banhazl, Blow the Man Down)

Best Screenplay
Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, Blow the Man Down
(Special Jury mention: Ani Simon-Kennedy, The Short History of the Long Road)

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Best Feature
House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA)
Directed and written by Bora Kim

Best Actress
Ji-hu Park, House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA)

Best Actor
Ali Atay, Noah Land (Nuh Tepesi) (Germany, Turkey, USA)

Best Cinematography
Kang Gook-hyun, House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) (South Korea, USA)

Best Screenplay
Cenk Ertürk, Noah Land (Nuh Tepesi) (Germany, Turkey, USA)

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Best Feature
Scheme Birds (Scotland, Sweden)
Directed and written by Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin

Best Cinematography
Yang Sun, Shuang Liang, Our Time Machine (China)

Best Editing
Jennifer Tiexiera, 17 Blocks (USA)
(Special Jury mention, Rewind)

BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION

The Gasoline Thieves (Huachicolero) (Mexico, Spain, UK, USA)
Directed by Edgar Nito

BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION

Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award
Scheme Birds (Scotland, Sweden)
Directed by Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin

NORA EPHRON AWARD

Rania Attieh for Initials S.G. (Iniciales S.G.) (Argentina, Lebanon, USA)
Directed by Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia

SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Best Narrative Short
Maja (Denmark)
Directed by Marijana Jankovic
(Special Jury mention: The Dishwasher, written and directed by Nick Hartanto and Sam Roden

Shorts Animation Award
My Mother’s Eyes (UK)
Directed and written by Jenny Wright

Best Documentary Short
Learning To Skateboard In a Warzone (If You’re A Girl) (UK)
Directed by Carol Dysinger
(Special Jury Mention: St. Louis Superman

Student Visionary Award
Jebel Banat (Egypt)
Directed and written by Sharine Atif
(Special Jury mention: Pearl (Zhen Zhu))

STORYSCAPES AWARD

The Key (USA, Iraq)
Created by Celine Tricart

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