‘Bobbi Jene,’ ‘Keep the Change’ top Tribeca Film Fest awards
NEW YORK — “Keep the Change,” a romance about a couple who meet at a community for people on the autistic spectrum, and “Bobbi Jene,” a documentary about an American dancer in the Israeli dance company Batsheva, were the top winners at the 16th Tribeca Film Festival.
In the awards, announced in a ceremony Thursday night, Rachel Israel’s debut feature, “Keep the Change,” won the Founders Award for best narrative feature. The jury called it “a heartwarming, hilarious and consistently surprising reinvention of the New York romantic comedy, which opens a door to a world of vibrant characters not commonly seen on film.”
Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal happily noted that all five feature film awards went to movies directed by women. The festival also gives an award, named after Nora Ephron, to a female director. That prize went to Petra Volpe, writer-director of “The Divine Order,” a drama about women’s suffrage in Switzerland.
“Bobbi Jene,” which follows the dancer Bobbi Jene Smith as she moved back the U.S., took the best documentary award and honours for its cinematography and editing. The jury praised director Elvira Lind’s film for “pushing nonfiction intimacy to bold new places.”