Tribeca Film Fest

There are 86 features screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 22 through May 3 at venues all across town. And while superstars like Woody Allen, whose Whatever Works premieres opening night, and the Winona Ryder and Hilary Duff comedy Stay Cool screens, plenty of local talent are also represented at the festival. Here are eight New Yorkers who will be participating in the festival who we think just might make it.

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Mandy Stein In Burning Down the House:The Story of CBGBs, Manhattanite Mandy Stein’s followup to her rockumentary tribute to Johnny Ramone takes on another tale of poignant nostalgia: CB’s struggle to survive.The doc, premiering April 24, unfolds the club’s history through archived performances from the usual legends.Talking heads Jonathan Demme and Ice-T also share reflections on the former punk-rock mainstay.

Michael Sládek Described as the “ultimate art whore” and “the sort of slime that doesn’t stick,” Mark Kostabi “business artist” who found immense success through selling artworks created by hired help. The founder of the Brooklyn-based production company Plug Ugly Films, Sládek premieres his comedic doc Con Artist, about this infamous East Village 1980s art icon, April 25.

Nicole Opper A graduate of NYU’s Tisch Film School, Opper premieres Off and Running, her feature debut about the nontraditional life of Avery, an adopted African American living in Brooklyn with multi-racial brothers and two Jewish lesbian mothers.The doc (which premieres April 26) follows Avery as she searches for her birth parents and her own cultural roots.

Celine Danhier First-time filmmaker Danhier, who holds a law degree from the Sorbonne, illustrates the edgy punk-rock inspired DIY indie film movement in 1970s New York with Blank City April 25. Formerly broke artists Jim Jarmusch and Amos Poe emerged from this period, creating the “No Wave Cinema” movement.

Gabriel Noble P-Star Rising, Noble’s second feature, follows four years in the life of Jesse Diaz, who was once a rising hip-hop star but now struggles to make ends meet as a broke single father living in a Harlem shelter. He has one saving grace: his 9-year-old prodigy daughter, Priscilla (aka “P-Star”). Noble lives in Brooklyn and previously founded Equal Opportunity Productions, an outreach organization dedicated to empowering youth in L.A., Cuba and South Africa through arts education.The film’s world premiere will take place on April 24.

Dan Fogler A Brooklyn native who recently starred in Fanboys and won a Tony for his role in Broadway’s Spelling Bee, Fogler’s Hysterical Psycho,a satirical dark comedy, marks his debut into the world of auteur filmmaking. (It’s also supposedly the first installment in his new proposed film series entitled Moonlake Horror Stories.) His debut premieres April 24 and is filled with all the horror essentials: a creepy narrator, gore and mysterious murders in a deserted cabin in the woods.To add to its local flare, Fogler’s victims are members of a local theater troupe indulging in a weekend of self-discovery. We might be crazy, but don’t those sorts kind of deserve it?

Michael Cuesta Cuesta made his directorial debut in 2001 with L.I.E.,a racy NC-17 movie about pedophilia, is now taking on a whole new version of creepy straight from Edgar Allen Poe. Tell Tale follows Terry (Josh Lucas) as he receives a heart transplant and, taken over by the spirit of the murder victim who previously owned the organ, seeks vengeance on his donor’s killer. With the aid of co-producers Ridley and Tony Scott and prolific cinematographer Terry Stacey (Adventureland), this psychological thriller premieres April 24 and sounds like it will do Poe’s classic justice.

Jake Goldberger Thomas Haden Church, Elisabeth Shue and Melissa Leo star in Don McKay, Goldberger’s directorial debut about a man who returns home after receiving a letter from his high school girlfriend who’s dying of cancer. Secrets about McKay’s mysterious past loom over this strange reunion in Goldberger’s dark thriller, which will debut on April 24.The native New Yorker also wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Morgan Freeman–directed thriller, Homecoming.