The Tribeca Film Festival has returned for 2021. Cancelled last year due to coronavirus pandemic, the festival this year has announced its feature film lineup to celebrate its 20th anniversary, with live in-person events at outdoor venues across New York.
The features program will include 66 films from 81 filmmakers from across 23 different countries. The line-up includes 56 world premieres, 1 international premiere, 4 North American premieres, 1 U.S. premiere, and 4 New York premieres. This year’s program includes 15 directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects, and over 60% of the feature films are directed by female, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers. This year’s festival received a record high of 11,222 total submissions across all categories.
Showing at the festival in the category of Viewpoints, a vertical committed to launching fresh voices and embracing risky, utterly original storytelling, is the HBO documentary The Legend of the Underground.
Following Nneka Onuorah’s impactful feature documentary debut The Same Difference, she joins forces with co-director Giselle Bailey to uncover rampant discrimination in Nigeria and explores the lives of several charismatic non conformist youth who must choose either to fight for freedom of expression there or flee to live ‘free’ in the USA. Through social media, celebrity and bold creativity, they spark a cultural revolution that challenges the ideals of gender, conformity and civil rights in Nigeria. Executive produced by John Legend, Mike Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius, The Legend of the Underground is a timely and critical look at a vibrant and resilient community that continues to fight state-endorsed discrimination in Nigeria while celebrating who they are.
The Tribeca Film Festival this year runs from June 9-20.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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