The prize, the Founders Award for best narrative feature, was one of several awards for “Burning Cane,” which its filmmaker, Phillip Youmans, now 19, has said was inspired by the blues. He also won for the movie’s cinematography, and Wendell Pierce, who stars as the troubled clergyman, won best actor in an American feature. The jury described Youmans as “a voice that is searingly original,” according to a statement, and likened him to the Southern writers William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.
Best actress in an American movie went to Haley Bennett, who plays a pregnant woman obsessed with consuming dangerous objects in the thriller “Swallow.”
On the international side, “House of Hummingbird” (Beol-sae), directed by Bora Kim, was named best feature, and its star, Ji-hu Park, best actress. The South Korean movie is a coming-of-age tale about a Seoul eighth-grader. Best actor went to a star of the Turkish-language “Noah Land,” Ali Atay, who plays a son accompanying his ailing father on a journey to the village where he grew up.
“Scheme Birds,” which The Times critic Ben Kenigsberg described as “a frank look at life in a Scottish housing project,” was named best documentary. It was directed by Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin.
The Tribeca Film Festival continues through Sunday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.