The Tribeca Film Festival bestowed the Tribeca X Award upon Smirnoff Ice’s Chris Fonseca: Keep It Moving, directed by Zachary Heinzerling. The juried award recognizes excellence in creative, original and authentic storytelling that is sponsored or underwritten by a brand. The announcement was made by jury members Jenna Lyons and Elli Pariser during the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival at a celebration and screening of the work on Monday, April 24.
The short film for Smirnoff Ice was one of 10 finalists selected from a field of 600 entries that represented the best in storytelling at the intersection of advertising and entertainment from the past year. Chris Fonseca: Keep It Moving brings the true story of a deaf choreographer who challenges the perceptions of disability as a social barrier by teaching his deaf students how to express themselves on the dance floor, inspiring self-confidence within them and pure awe in all of us.
“The caliber of work that was considered this year from artist-brand pairings demonstrates the growing use of branded storytelling as a means to reach real audiences,” said Andrew Essex, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises. “This film is a perfect example of authentic storytelling and humanity.”
Juror Lyons, creative advisor at J.Crew, said, “There was something special in Keep It Moving that resonated unanimously with the group. The message was not only important and poignant – it was expressed with beautiful imagery as well as a unique play on sound that allowed the viewer for a brief moment to possibly imagine what it might be like to live in Chris’ world. It was moving and beautiful as well as inspiring.”
Pariser, CEO of Upworthy, said, “Our winning film is first-class empathic storytelling: it takes you inside another person’s experience in a way that’s real, thrilling, and beautiful.”
The winner was chosen by a jury that included Lyons; Pariser; Joanna Coles, CCO at Hearst; Jae Goodman, co-head and CCO of CAA Marketing, a division of CAA; Tim & Eric, a comedy duo and directors at PRETTYBIRD, founders of Abso Lutely; and a proprietary A.I. solution developed by Celtra, providing quantitative creative analysis based on performance data and insights from hundreds-of-thousands of video advertising campaigns powered by Celtra’s creative management platform.
Eligible projects included scripted and documentary work for film, TV, digital, social, and VR/AR, in both feature or short length that were funded with support of a brand in collaboration with artists or filmmakers. Submitted projects must have had a storytelling element; projects that are strictly intended as commercial spots were not considered.
