Tribeca Film Festival 2015: 11 Movies We're Excited to See

The Tribeca Film Festival, once a hastily thrown-together event to help revive a devastated downtown Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, has become a staple for film-lovers in New York City. On Wednesday night, the 14th edition of the festival will kick off with the premiere screening of Live From New York, a new documentary on an even bigger metropolitan cultural institution: Saturday Night Live.

The festival this year will mark the world premiere of 64 movies from 31 different countries, and many of those films boast casts with some major star power, including James Franco, Olivia Wilde, Mark Wahlberg, Glenn Close and Oscar Isaac.

Even bigger stars will participate in the festival’s series of conversations, which feature titans of film and pop culture, including Stephen Colbert interviewing George Lucas and Bennett Miller shooting the breeze with Christopher Nolan.

After scouring through the line-up, we’ve singled out the 10 most anticipated films of the festival:

Live From New York!
Documentary
Director: Bao Nguyen
The festival opens with this high-profile documentary on the four-decade history of Saturday Night Live, from the primordial days of the Not Ready for Prime time Players to the era of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Numerous cast members and guests appear to discuss the ups and flows of SNL’s history, including Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, and Laraine Newman.

Rosanne Barr in ‘Roseanne for President!’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

Roseanne for President!
Documentary
Directed by Eric Weinrib
Remember when Roseanne Barr ran for president back in 2012? It happened! After announcing her campaign during an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show in the summer of 2011, the stand-up and actress spent nearly a year in pursuit of the Green Party’s nomination. The always-dynamic comedian’s journey was caught on camera by Weinrib, and even though Barr didn’t earn a spot on the Greens’ ticket, the resultant documentary looks like a potential winner.

Ed Harris and James Franco in ‘The Adderall Diaries’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

The Adderall Diaries
Drama
Directed by Pamela Romanowsky
Based on the 2010 gonzo-tragic memoir of the same name by author Stephen Elliott, Diaries has the potential to be one of the wilder films at the festival. Franco plays Elliott, a writer trying to break through a mental block with the battering ram of amphetamines. As he becomes obsessed with a shady murder case, his estranged father (Harris) comes back into his life with a mystery of his own.

Olivia Wilde in ‘Meadowland’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

Meadowland
Drama
Directed by Reed Morano
Morano — the cinematographer on indie hits such as Frozen River, Kill Your Darlings and The Skeleton Twins — moves into the director’s chair for the first time. Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson play a couple whose relationship begins to implode when their young son goes missing; as they try to cope with the fallout, their professional and personal lives begin to deteriorate. With a supporting cast that includes Elisabeth Moss, Giovanni Ribisi and Juno Temple, Meadowland has all the elements of a solid character study filled with major stars.

Russell Brand in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

The Emperor’s New Clothes
Documentary
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Russell Brand has lived many lives in his 40 years, going from junkie to comedian and radio personality, then from TV host to movie star and half of a major celebrity couple. He’s spent the last few years concentrating more on urging people into the streets than theaters, and this documentary — made with the prolific Michael Winterbottom (The Trip, 24 Hour Party People) — about financial inequality is the latest public statement from Russell Brand, social justice warrior.

Sam Waterston and Glenn Close in ‘Anesthesia’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

Anesthesia
Drama
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
The Oh Brother Where Art Thou? star is also a director: He last helmed 2009’s pot comedy Leaves of Grass, in which Edward Norton played identical twins. Nelson’s latest project is a sprawling New York City drama about a Columbia professor (Sam Waterston) who gets mugged — and the shockwaves that follow. The film’s huge supporting cast includes Kristen Stewart, Glenn Close, Corey Stoll, and Michael K. Williams, among others.

Garrett Hedlund and Oscar Isaac in ‘Mojave’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

Mojave
Drama
Director: William Monahan
The screenwriter for The Departed and The Gambler directs this gritty Hollywood tale, about a tormented young filmmaker (Garrett Hedlund) who heads to the Mojave Desert to find himself and instead finds trouble in the shape of Oscar Isaacs’ shifty drifter. Departed tough guy Mark Wahlberg has a cameo as an agro movie producer.

Two passengers on the train in ‘In Transit’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

In Transit
Documentary
Directors: Albert Maysles, Lynn True, Nelson Walker, David Usui, and Ben Wu
Legendary documentarian Maysles died in March at the age of 88, but he left behind one last graceful portrait of American life to beguile and unsettle audiences. Maysles and his fellow directors climbed aboard the Empire Builder — an Amtrak train that runs from Chicago to Seattle — to capture vignettes of the travelers who are just passing through, from the very pregnant woman racing to get home before she goes into labor to the death-haunted, photo-snapping vet with PTSD who’s convinced this is the last train ride he’ll ever take.

Martin McCann in ‘The Survivalist’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

The Survivalist
Drama
Directed by Stephen Fingleton
This post-apocalyptic tale of isolation and ingenuity follows a nameless woods-dweller (Clash of the Titans’ Martin McCann) whose self-sufficient solitary life is threatened by the arrival of a young woman (Nymphomaniac’s Mia Goth) and her mother (Olwen Fouere). When he takes them in, he finds himself fending off threats from not only the outside world, but from within his own new (and unsettling) ad hoc family.

Gilberto Valle in ‘Thought Crimes’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

Thought Crimes
Documentary
Directed by Erin Lee Carr
In 2012, New York City police officer Gilberto Valle was fired from his job — and later tried — after revelations emerged that he’d used the web to entertain fantasies about kidnapping, raping, and eating women, leading the press to dub him “Cannibal Cop.” This new documentary, which includes interviews with Valle and his family, examines how online role-playing can have IRL consequences.

DJ AM in ‘As I AM’ (Tribeca Film Festival)

As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM
Documentary
Directed by Kevin Kerslake
DJ AM’s successful career — he was the first million dollar DJ in the United States, and set the stage for the man behind the 1s and 2s to reach “celebrity” status — is mixed with his personal difficulties, including his he struggle with an addiction to crack and 2008 plane crash, in this buzzy doc. The film features interviews with fellow DJs Mark Ronson, Steve Aoki, and Diplo, as well as Jon Favreau and many others.