Pseudo-Documentary ‘Cypher’ Wins Best U.S. Narrative Feature at Tribeca

Cypher, which has been called a film with a “Blair Witch Project twist,” has won the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. 

Written and directed by Chris Moukarbel, pseudo-documentary Cypher is about the career and rise of rapper Tierra Whack told as a marriage of music documentary and found-footage thriller. 

Of Cypher's selection as the winner, the Tribeca jury said, “Its kaleidoscopic use of music, created imagery and found materials, in service of an interrogation of celebrity, conspiracy culture and the nature of narrative reality itself.”

The film leverages classic documentary tropes to lull the audience “into a false sense of security with its documentary filmmaking.” In part because of the talking heads in the intro and the inclusion of a legit subject in Tierra, a Grammy nominated rapper with over 700,000 Instagram followers on her own. 

The Graduates

GreenSlate client project The Graduates also took home an award at Tribeca with a Best Cinematography in a US Narrative Feature win for Caroline Costa.

Screenrant calls The Graduates “a moving, gentle drama about healing in the wake of tragedy.”

Watch the post screening Q&A of The Graduates from the Tribeca Film Festival

The Perfect Find

And taking the Narrative Category win for the Tribeca Audience Awards is The Perfect Find, which Nakeisha Campbell at PureWow says is a “fresh twice on the classic rom-com.” 

The Perfect Find dropped on Netflix on June 23rd and stars Gabrielle Union and Keith Powers.

Check out the trailer for The Perfect Find

The full list of 2023 Tribeca Festival winners can be found here.