The Films CHARLIEBIRD, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATCHEZ: Winners in the U.S. Narrative, International Narrative and Documentary Competitions for the 2025 Tribeca Festival
Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn Earn Performance Awards as Women Take Home Top Honors Across the Majority of Categories. First-Time Directors and Latin American Cinema Deliver Strong Showing in Competition. Tribeca Award Winner Tickets Available at tribecafilm.com/award winners2025
The 24th annual Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, announced 2025 competition winners: CHARLIEBIRD, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and NATCHEZ too top honors in the U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, and Documentary competitions.
Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn shared the Performance Award for DRAGONFLY – a strong showing by women who claimed top honors across the majority of categories at the ceremony held at Racket NYC. The awards also highlighted breakthrough achievements by first-time feature directors and a notable presence of Latin American cinema throughout the competition.
The Competition categories represent the breadth of Tribeca’s programming with awards for U.S. Narrative, International Narrative, Documentary, Viewpoints, Nora Ephron, Short Film, Best New Directors, Audio Storytelling, Games, AT&T Untold Stories, and Tribeca X. The Festival concludes June 15.
“Every year at Tribeca we set out to spotlight the most exciting new voices from around the world,Tribeca Festival Director and SVP of Programming Cara Cusumano was quoted as saying in a press release. “We are thrilled our jury honored this mission with winners that brilliantly represent the vibrancy and diversity of global independent storytelling today.”
All winning films in the U.S. Narrative category are first-time directors, including Libby Ewing for CHARLIEBIRD, Cristian Carretero and Lorraine Jones Molina for ESTA ISLA (THE ISLAND) – Jones Molina also winning Best New Narrative Director Award, and Isabel Hagen for ON A SONG. Other first-time filmmakers include The Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director honorees Augusto Zegarra for Runa Simi and Rowan Haber for WE ARE PAT and Walter Thompson-Hernandez who took home the Viewpoints Award for KITES.
Sarah Goher, also a first-time filmmaker, earned three awards on behalf of her film HAPPY BIRTHDAY including Best International Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay in an International Narrative Feature and the prestigious Nora Ephron Award, which honors exceptional female filmmakers who represent the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer. Meanwhile, Latin American cinema made its mark with award winners A BRIGHT FUTURE, GUERPO CELESTE, RUNA SIMI and KITES.
Select categories receive the unique Tribeca Festival Art Award from a selection of artists led by curator Zoe Lukov. Supported by CHANEL, the world-class artists donated work to honored filmmakers.
Winners of the Audience Award, which are determined by audience votes throughout the Festival, will be announced at a later date.
2025 Winners and Special Jury Mentions, as selected by the 2025 Festival Jury. Click here for more awards information, Part 2.