NEW YORK – Roger Dodger, about a teen-age boy's night out in Manhattan with his playboy uncle, won the best narrative feature award at the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival.
The movie by writer-director Dylan Kidd stars Campbell Scott, Elizabeth Berkley, Jennifer Beals and Isabella Rossellini.
Awards were given in six categories Sunday at the end of the five-day festival, where some 150 movies screened. All the movies in competition came from first-time filmmakers.
A feature documentary about high school basketball players won in its category. Chiefs, by director Daniel Junge, focuses on the Wyoming Indiana High School basketball team and the struggles of two American Indian players.
The best short documentary award went to All Water has a Perfect Memory from director Natalia Almada, about a family's loss of a child. Best narrative was given to Bamboleho from director Luis Prieto, about a child who lives on rooftops in Barcelona, Spain.
Writer-director Eric Eason was named best emerging filmmaker and won a $25,000 cash prize for Manito. The film follows two brothers trying to escape a family cycle of drugs and violence in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood.
The student award went to Marcin Wrona for Magnet Man, about a conflict between a boy and his father.
Also on Sunday was the premiere of Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, which was a fund-raiser for children affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. New York was one of 11 cities nationwide where charity screenings of the film took place.
Robert De Niro and his business partner, Jane Rosenthal, created the festival to encourage new filmmakers and boost the economy of Tribeca, the slice of downtown named for the Triangle Below Canal. They'd talked about staging a film festival for years, but decided to do it in 2002 to revitalize lower Manhattan after Sept. 11.
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