The Audience Awards for the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival have been announced. Women helmed two of the four features to honored at the 15th edition of the fest.
Taking home the top prize in the documentary category was “The Return,” directed by Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway. The film focuses on how former inmates reintegrated into society following the repeal of California’s three strikes law. Prisoners who received life sentences were released from jail — but how did they cope with this unexpected freedom and the reentry into public life?
“I hope ‘The Return’ will humanize the prison population for those who haven’t personally been exposed to the millions of people serving harsh and inhuman sentences in our country, Duane de la Vega told Women and Hollywood. She elaborated, “My hope is that our audience will walk away with a better understanding of the massive barriers that face the formerly incarcerated.” Galloway stated that she wants “the redemption narrative around people coming out of prison flipped on its head. Can we as a nation be redeemed? And how?”
Priscilla Anany’s “Children of the Mountain” was named the runner-up in the narrative section. The drama, set in a Ghanaian community, follows a woman who gives birth to a deformed, sickly child and consequently arouses the suspicion of her fellow community members and the scorn of her lover, who abandons her. Anany was also honored as Best New Narrative Director at the fest.
“Every now and then we hear stories in the news about how someone killed or harmed their special needs child. I want my audience to somehow get a glimpse of understanding as to how people are pushed to make such wrong choices,” Anany explained in an interview with Women and Hollywood.
As a reminder, this year’s Competition slate at the fest was 33 percent female-helmed.
[via Press materials]
