5 Must Watch Films In The 2025 Tribeca Festival U.S. Narrative Competition

Geek Vibes Nation

2 days ago

Every year, New York City's Tribeca Festival is abuzz with star-studded premieres and panels featuring the most talked-about talents across the industry. However, for true film fans, the biggest bang for your buck is in the competition slates. Sure, these independent productions may not get as much fanfare from the press, but what they do have are deeply personal stories told by up-and-coming filmmakers that prove that storytelling outside the studio system can still sustain life.
There's nothing more exciting than sitting at the Village East Cinemas or the SVA Theatre and witnessing a new generational voice emerge, whether that be someone behind the camera or someone in front of it. This year's U.S. Narrative Competition features nine World Premieres from indie filmmakers around the country, many of which are their respective feature directorial debuts. From New York-based portraits of struggling artists to small-town stories about second chances, it's a diverse array of meaningful, even autobiographical films that can comfort you as assuredly as they can challenge you.
If you plan on attending the film festival this year, consider making time in your schedule for a film playing in this year's competition. Here are some recommendations. Charliebird – Courtesy of the Tribeca Festival Charliebird
It's rare to experience firsts at such an established film festival, but Charliebird may be the first time you will ever witness a 1:1 aspect ratio on the silver screen. In a competition slate full of boxy films, Libby Ewing's feature debut is the boxiest of them all, framed in a perfect square that frames the entire film as though you're watching a memory through a viewfinder.
Fittingly, the film opens in flashback, as music therapist Al (Samantha Smart) recalls childhood days spent with her best friend. In the present day, she works at a children's hospital, doing her best to cheer up terminal patients and their families while compartmentalizing her work's traumatic effects. When she is assigned to Charlie (Gabriela Ochoa Perez), a stubborn teenager who eventually opens up, personal and professional lines begin to blur, forcing Al to confront the suppressed trauma of her seemingly innocent memories. Suddenly, the square aspect ratio traps the audience in a chokehold, the same one that forces Al to confront her past.
Anchored by Smart and Ochoa Perez's sensitive performances, Ewing's film is a sensitive drama that will mend and break your heart in equal measure. Though the heart of its story is somewhat conventional, the looming cloud of terminal illness makes it far heavier than other dramas of the same ilk. The film's naturalistic cinematography and lighting design give it a palpable lack of polish that makes its story as movingly messy and raw as the characters and setting it inhabits. Horsegirls
Not all stories about disability need to be solely about disability. In fact, you could argue that Horsegirls , from director and co-writer Lauren Meyering, is more about hobby horsing than it is about living with autism. The first thing we learn about 22-year-old Margarita (Lillian Carrier, Everything's Gonna Be Okay ) isn't her diagnosis, but rather her love for horses. Her overprotective mother, Sandy (Gretchen Mol, Boardwalk Empire ), forbids her from riding real ones, instead encouraging Margarita to get a job and support their family following both the death of her father and Sandy's breast cancer diagnosis. Margarita obliges but, along the way, discovers a local hobby horse riding team, led by a stern but encouraging coach (Jerod Haynes). She decides to compete in sectionals, all while keeping it a secret from her mother.
This is the secret sauce behind Meyering's feature debut. Horsegirls comes from a transparently personal place (co-writer and producer Mackenzie Breeden based both Sandy and Margarita on her own mother and sister), but it effortlessly toes a fine line between evoking lived-in experiences and broadening its themes into a more universal drama about grief and self-acceptance. At the center of this feat is Carrier as Margarita, who steals the show in what is nothing short of a revelatory film debut. Though she has autism, it is clear that Carrier is still giving a performance – a beautifully brash and wonderfully charming one at that – and that is a rare distinction in on-screen portrayals of autism that deserves recognition. Leads – Courtesy of the Tribeca Festival Leads
Years ago, Mags Malloy (Heather Kafka) was poised to become a star following a breakthrough performance at the Sundance Film Festival. Today, she's a single mom and a university acting teacher who's lucky to book the occasional commercial. It may trade Utah for New York, but this sly wink-and-a-nudge to the realities of the industry makes it a perfect film to debut at any film festival, let alone one with a lousy track record for recognition beyond the AMC at 19th Street. This sets the stage especially well for Bryan Poyser's earnestly funny comedy, whose levity in the face of life's most challenging hurdles is bound to make it an audience favorite. 'Unit 234' Review - Cat And Mouse With Nuance And Edge
Mags' life is upended when her charming but reckless younger brother, Merritt (Justin Arnold), comes by looking for a place to stay. She agrees reluctantly, in part because it helps ease the load of caring for her young daughter, Jo (Hazel Poyser), but things get extra complicated when Merritt crashes Mags' acting class and, believe it or not, begins to reveal some undiscovered talent. Arnold's performance is the heart and soul of the film, so disarmingly lovable that it distracts you from his crippling self-destruction (literally – he arrives in an arm cast), and rounds out an altogether chummy ensemble that elevates a lightly-plotted comedy into something closer to a slice-of-life ensemble piece. Though its need to progress plot can sometimes lead to contrivances, it never fully takes away from the film's homegrown charm and life-affirming message that it's never too late to take life by the reins. Lemonade Blessing
Perhaps the most assured feature debut playing in this year's competition, in part because it's the only one to feature a teenage boy pissing on a eucharist wafer, Lemonade Blessing is a hilariously cringe-inducing and deeply affecting sex comedy that will surely resonate with anyone who suffered through a religious upbringing. Jake Ryan ( Eighth Grade, Asteroid City ) stars as an introverted, pubescent boy living with his devout Catholic single mother (Jeanine Serralles, Hot Summer Nights ). Upon beginning his freshman year at a new Catholic school, he falls for Lilith (Skye Alyssa Friedman in a remarkable film debut), a rebellious atheist who pushes him to perform defamatory acts against his religion, including sexual ones.
What follows is an acutely observed portrait of developmental crisis anchored by remarkable performances from its entire ensemble, particularly Ryan as its star. Though he has proven to be a memorable presence in film thus far, this film solidifies him as one of his generation's boldest talents. However, the greatest discovery of the film is its writer-director, Chris Merola, whose deft visual eye and incisive screenplay would suggest he has been making films for far longer than he has. His explosive look at the disastrous melting pot of religious repression, sexual awakening, and toxic masculinity is unafraid to explore the breaking points through which we come of age, making it one of the most engaging and audacious films of the U.S. competition and of the festival at large. The Travel Companion
In another metafictional moment for this year's festival, The Travel Companion begins with a familiar scene: a group of young filmmakers answering questions at a Q&A for a sparsely attended shorts block. There are so many filmmakers waxing pretentious that the final filmmaker, Simon (Tristan Turner), doesn't even get a word in before the Q&A is cut short. If this kind of satire feels too real to you, you're in for a treat with The Travel Companion , a chill but charming comedy whose unique premise freshens an all-too-relatable look at the creative grind.
Simon's roommate and best friend, Bruce (Anthony Oberbeck), works for an airline and allows Simon to take advantage of free flights as his 'travel companion,' which gives Simon the opportunity to travel and shoot footage for his sprawling, vague, and perpetually-in-progress documentary. When Bruce falls for Beatrice (Naomi Asa), a fellow filmmaker, his perks are suddenly at risk, forcing him to come to terms with not only his artistic aimlessness but also his friendship with Bruce in the long term. Vividly shot with a warm glow and dynamic cinematography, director-writers Travis Wood and Alex Mallis's feature directorial debut is an authentic look at every filmmaker's love-hate relationship with the filmmaking process (not to mention the film festival circuit) and the sobering self-reflection one has to endure in order to make their own way as an artist. It doesn't leave the audience with easy answers, but it does provide just enough life-affirming comfort to remind us to trust the process.
The 2025 Tribeca Festival will run through June 15th in New York City. Tickets are currently available.