By Kwame Patterson
April 2, 2007 - The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting is proud to announce the New York films that will be competing for awards in the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.

The New York films will be in various film categories such as World Documentary Feature Competition, World Narrative Feature Competition, Spotlight, Encounters, and Discovery. The films will be eligible for two awards and will compete for a combined unrestricted prize, consisting of more than $100,000.

New York films in this year’s slate include:

New York films Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe, directed by James Crump

Bomb It, directed by Jon Reiss

The Business of Being Born, directed by Abby Epstein

Chops, directed by Bruce Broder

HELLFIGHTERS, directed by Jon Frankel

Music Inn, directed by Ben Barenholtz

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, directed by Jim Brown

The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman, directed by Fred Barney Taylor

A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory, directed by Esther Robinson

Amexicano, directed by Matthew Bonifacio

Blackout, directed by Jerry Lamothe

The Cake Eaters, directed by Mary Stuart Masterson

Day Zero, directed by Bryan Gunnar Cole

Descent, directed by 'Talia Lugacy

The Education of Charlie Banks, directed by Fred Durst

Gardener of Eden, directed by Kevin Connolly

The Killing of John Lennon, directed by Andrew Piddington

Suburban Girl, directed by Marc Klein

Take the Bridge, directed by Sergio M. Castilla

West 32nd, directed by Michael Kang

The festival, taking place April 25 – May 6, 2007 and presented by American Express, will feature a total of 245 films, 157 feature films and 88 shorts selected from 4,550 film submissions, of which 2,250 were feature film submissions. These selections include 74 World premieres, seven International premieres, 27 North American premieres, 19 U.S. premieres and 21 New York City premieres.

This year’s festival also includes films from 47 countries including Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, U.K., Ukraine, U.S.A and its territory Puerto Rico.

Good luck to all of the competing films, especially those that continue to showcase New York a great place for film theatre and broadcast productions.