The 2023 Tribeca Festival has revealed its opening and closing night and centerpiece selections, as well as more gala events.
The festival will kick off on Wednesday, June 7, with the North American premiere of the documentary Kiss the Future, which follows underground musicians and creatives through the siege of Sarajevo and the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital. The movie is produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony.
“We are grateful to the people of Sarajevo and to U2 for giving us the opportunity to help tell this special story,” Damon said in a statement. “Though this event happened almost 30 years ago, we feel it has strong relevance to today’s world, serving as a powerful reminder that human creativity can provide a powerful antidote to even the most horrific of situations.”
In a separate statement after the selection was announced, U2’s Bono said, “We know U2’s marquee is helpful in getting the lives of these local heroes to a wider audience, but even at my most puffed up I couldn’t have imagined our tiny role being given so much care, attention and screen time by [director] Nenad Cicin-Sain. If defiance is the essence of romance, then the people of Sarajevo are the most romantic figures. Viva Sarajevo!”
The festival will close on Saturday, June 17, with the 30th anniversary screening of Robert De Niro’s directorial debut A Bronx Tale, followed by a post-screening conversation with De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal and writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri.
The centerpiece film is the New York premiere of Disney and Pixar’s Elemental, set in Element City where fire, water, air and earth residents live together. The movie, directed by Peter Sohn, features the voices of Catherine O’Hara, Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie.
The festival will also feature world premiere gala screenings of documentaries about Carlos Santana (Carlos), Cyndi Lauper (Let the Canary Sing) and French Montana (For Khadija, executive produced by Drake and Diddy), with performances by each artist after the screening of their respective documentary. And Megan Thee Stallion will participate in a live conversation.
“Music is an instrumental form of storytelling, and the Tribeca Festival is thrilled to weave dynamic performances into our gala events. Our lineup features the best of soul, rock & roll, pop and hip-hop,” said Tribeca Festival director and vp, programming Cara Cusumano. “We hope our audiences are inspired by activism in art and riled up by the electrifying acts paired with the screenings.”
The Tribeca Festival recently revealed its audio storytelling lineup including 18 world premieres from independent and established narrative audio creators and live tapings of Pod Save America, SmartLess Media’s Just Jack & Will, featuring Will & Grace alums Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack, Selective Shorts with Roxane Gay and Modern Love with Kim Cattrall.
And the festival has added new audio storytelling award categories.
More info about the audio storytelling lineup and gala events is available here.
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