The 2022 Tribeca Film Festival began on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, and it will end on Sunday, June 19th, 2022. With over 100 features films from 150 filmmakers across the globe, the event promises to shake things up for the kickoff to the exciting summer festival season. There will be 88 world premieres and over 40 short films in competition from 25 countries. If that isn’t’ an exciting lineup of diverse filmmaking, I don’t know what is!

While it would be amazing to be able to see every film the festival has to offer, I am only one woman with limited time. Still, I am determined to see as many projects as possible for my first in-person Tribeca Film Festival. This year, I am mixing old habits with new ones. That’s right! I will be seeing plenty of the horror films, but I’ll be adding quite the bit of documentaries to the list, too… talk about growth 🙂

Here’s my watchlist for the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival:

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION

1) Allswell | Director: Ben Snyder

Synopsis: Three Nuyorican sisters navigate the daunting life challenges of single motherhood, career, and family, all while finding humor and solace within the bonds of sisterhood in this absorbing dramedy.

2) The Drop | Director: Sarah Adina Smith

Synopsis:  In this clever cringe comedy, a seemingly happy married couple confronts a test of their marriage when one of them drops a baby while at a destination wedding at a tropical island.

3) 4 Samosas | Director: Ravi Kapoor

Synopsis: Happy-go-lucky, underachieving, wanna-be rapper Vinny is dismayed to learn that his favorite ex-girlfriend Rina is planning to marry his smarmy arch-nemesis. Determined to disrupt the wedding as well as fund the dreams of his family and friends, he and his band of neighborhood pals concoct a plan to steal Rina’s dowry jewels from her father’s supermarket safe. But can this motley crew actually pull off a heist?

4) Next Exit | Director: Mali Elfman

Synopsis: In a world where ghosts are real and front-page news, a controversial new medical procedure allows people to peacefully kill themselves. In the midst of this breakthrough, two strangers travel cross country together to end their lives, only to unexpectedly find what they’ve been missing along the way.

5) The Year Between | Director: Alex Heller

Synopsis: Forced to return home from college after her erratic behavior alienates everyone around her, Clemence begrudgingly begins a new chapter in the suburbs, hell-bent on defying her mom, dad, younger siblings, therapist—and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION

6) Blaze | Director: Del Kathryn Barton

Synopsis: After a young girl witnesses a violent crime, she summons an imaginary dragon to help process her anger and protect her on her journey into womanhood.

7) Karaoke | Director: Moshe Rosenthal

Synopsis: A comedy about a married middle-class suburban couple in their 60s who are drawn to their new neighbor, a charismatic bachelor who has karaoke evenings at his apartment.

8) Two Sisters and a Husband | Director: Shlok Sharma

Synopsis: Tara and Amrita are sisters. One is married to hotel manager Rajat, while the other is expecting his child. Set in the beautiful Himalayan foothills, this is a compelling drama about a thorny domestic arrangement.

9) We Might as Well Be Dead | Director: Natalia Sinelnikova

Synopsis: The disappearance of a dog and the sudden isolation of a security guard’s daughter start a bizarre chain of events in an apartment complex obsessed with keeping up appearances.

Documentary Competition

10) The Cave of Adullam | Director: Laura Checkoway

Synopsis: Living by the mantra ‘it’s easier to raise boys than to repair broken men’, martial arts sensei Jason Wright tenderly guides his often-troubled young Detroit students with a beautifully effective blend of compassion and tough love. 

11) Katrina Babies | Director: Edward Buckles

Synopsis: Katrina Babies is a first-person account of the short-term and long-term devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, as told by young people who were between the ages of 3 and 19 when the levees broke.

12) The Wild One | Director: Tessa Louise-Salomé

Synopsis: Jack Garfein — Holocaust survivor, theater and film director, key figure in the formation of the Actors Studio — vividly, animatedly, passionately recalls a life where historical tragedy and personal art formed a unique, driving, uncompromising vision.

13) Sophia | Directors: Jon Kasbe & Crystal Moselle

Synopsis: This stirring and visually-immersive documentary brings us inside the spirited pursuits of David Hanson – a restless inventor aiming to perfect the world’s most life-like A.I. With freewheeling energy and storytelling gusto, Kasbe’s & Moselle’s probing film masterfully ponders the future of artificial intelligence – and humanity’s shared need for connectedness.

SPOTLIGHT NARRATIVE

14) Aisha | Director: Frank Berry

Synopsis: Aisha, a young Nigerian woman seeking asylum in Ireland, is floundering in a maze of social services and bureaucracy. As her situation becomes increasingly dire, Aisha struggles to maintain hope and dignity against the looming threat of deportation. 

15) Alone Together | Director: Katie Holmes

Synopsis: Strangers June and Charlie have to learn to coexist when they accidentally book the same AirBnb to get away from the pandemic. Alone Together is the ultimate New York lockdown love story.

16) Don’t Make Me Go | Director: Hannah Marks

Synopsis: This stirring drama stars a charming John Cho as a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find her estranged mother. 

SPOTLIGHT DOCUMENTARY

17) All Man: The International Male Story | Directors: Bryan Darling, Jesse Finley Reed

Synopsis: A nostalgic and colorful peek behind the pages and personalities of International Male, one of the most ubiquitous and sought-after mail-order catalogs of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

18) American Pain | Director: Darren Foster

Synopsis: American Pain tells the jaw-dropping story of twin brothers Chris and Jeff George who open up a chain of pain clinics in Florida where they hand out pain pills like candy.

19) Body Parts | Director: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

Synopsis: An eye-opening investigation into the making of Hollywood sex scenes, shedding light on the real-life experiences behind classic scenes of cinema and tracing the legacy of exploitation of women in the entertainment industry.

20) Leave No Trace | Director: Irene Taylor

Synopsis: In February 2022, The Boy Scouts of America reached a $2.7 billion agreement over sex abuse claims, the largest such settlement in history. Leave No Trace explores how this all-American institution went so horrifyingly wrong. 

VIEWPOINTS

21) Carajita | Director: Silvina Schnicer & Ulises Porra

Synopsis: The relationship between a spoiled white Argentinian teenager and the Black Dominican nanny who raised her is pushed to its limit when a night of partying leads to a troubling disappearance. 

22) Our Father, The Devil | Director: Ellie Foumbi

Synopsis: Caretaker Marie finds her peaceful life in France upended by the arrival of a new priest who reminds her of her traumatic past.

23) Petit Mal | Director: Ruth Caudeli

Synopsis: In director Ruth Caudeli’s latest collaborative chronicle of queer life, three charismatic women living in an intimate, passionate partnership must learn to navigate the shift in their dynamic when one lover is called away for a long-term project. 

MIDNIGHT

24) Attachment | Director: Gabriel Bier Gislason

Synopsis: Maja and Leah’s new relationship is interrupted when mysterious things start happening in their London flat. It seems that Leah’s disapproving mother, who lives downstairs, is using Jewish folklore to come between them. 

25) The Black Phone | Director: Scott Derrickson

Synopsis: Locked in a soundproof basement by a masked child killer, a teenage boy finds the possibility of hope through an unexpected and supernatural lifeline: a telephone on which he receives motivational calls from the killer’s past victims.

26) Family Dinner | Director: Peter Hingl

Synopsis: Overweight and insecure, Simi spends Easter weekend with her famous nutritionist aunt. The hope is that it’ll help her get on a healthier track, but as the aunt’s family’s icy dynamics and an increasingly malevolent atmosphere leave Simi feeling uneasy, weight isn’t the only thing she’s about to lose. 

27) Huesera | Director: Michelle Garza Cervera

Synopsis: Valeria has long dreamed about becoming a mother. After learning that she’s pregnant, she expects to feel happy, yet something’s off. Nightmarish visions and an unshakeable paranoia have her questioning what she wants, and an ancient evil spirit may be the cause.

28) A Wounded Fawn | Director: Travis Stevens

Synopsis: It’s the perfect plan: A serial killer brings an unsuspecting new victim on a weekend getaway to add another body to his ever-growing count. She’s buying into his faux charms, and he’s eagerly lusting for blood. What could possibly go wrong? Directed by Travis Stevens.

TRIBECA ONLINE PREMIERES

29) Cherry | Directors: Sophie Galibert & Arthur Cohen

Synopsis: A driftless young woman discovers she’s 11 weeks pregnant and has only 24 hours to make a consequential decision. This charming film examines how softly life moves, even in our most urgent moments. Directed by Sophie Galibert.

30) God Save the Queens | Director: Jordan Danger

Synopsis: A quartet of drag queens meet on a group therapy retreat that will change their lives forever.

31) Rounding | Director: Alex Thompson

Synopsis: When a motivated resident doctor transfers to a rural hospital for a fresh start, his demons follow him as he becomes consumed with the case of a young asthma patient, in Alex Thompson’s psychological horror follow up to his highly acclaimed Saint Frances. 

Gala

32) Vengeance | Director: B.J. Novak

Synopsis: Vengeance is B.J. Novak’s feature directorial debut, a darkly comic thriller about a journalist who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman.