By Elsa Keslassy
International Correspondent
Sony Pictures Classics‘ Dylan Leiner along with FilmNation’s Stefan Zorich and Paramount‘s Fabrizio Carrer were among the top film executives and companies who participated in the 13th NY Film & Entertainment Soccer Tournament for charity hosted at the Tribeca Festival.
The sun-drenched event gathered 39 teams, along with more than 60 filmmakers from the Tribeca Festival, and hundreds of spectators at Brooklyn Bridge Park overlooking downtown Manhattan.
The annual 5 v 5 charity soccer tournament, co-organized by Leiner and Jeffrey Saunders, will donate funds to the two organizations reigning atop the Soccer-4-Good Division, the big winner being Upwardly Global – which helps immigrants and refugees get back to work in their chosen fields; and Grassrootsoccer, an organization that leverages the power of soccer to equip young people with life-saving information, services and mentorship.
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Some of the high-profile talent in attendance included Phil Dunster (“Ted Lasso”) who presented his short film “Idiomatic” at Tribeca and showed off his soccer skills; along with two-time U.S. Woman’s World Cup Champion Kelley O’Hara, an executive producer of Olivia Mitchell’s and Kerry Furrh’s, “RIPE!” which also took home the prize for Best Narrative Short in the festival. Filmmaker Julia Aks, who co-directed the short film “Jane Austen’s period Drama,” played in goal for one of the Tribeca teams. Supporting many of their young filmmakers were Peter Newman, Head of NYU’s join MFA/MBA program, Julia Solomonoff, Chair Graduate Film Department, Tisch School of the Arts and Tom Mangan, Producer and professor of Film at NYU’s graduate film program.
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“Film and soccer are universal passions that build bridges for people across cultures,” said Leiner. “NYFEST has become a gathering of old friends and new coming together during Tribeca to celebrate these two things we love and allow us to give back to organizations in our community,” he added.
The event also brought together on the field distribution specialist Mike Tuckman; Paul Kontonis CMO for Revry TV, the LGBTQ+ streaming network; Black++ co-founder Sonia Hines; and actor-turned-director Terence Bernie Hines; FKKS partner Hayden Goldblatt; Tyler Perry Studios exec Armani Ortiz; Tribeca Programmer Ben Thompson; along with executives from music companies Alamo Records and Mophonics; production facilities such as Company3; entertainment law firms, FKKS and Pryor Cashman; and agencies Gersh and Getty
The tournament’s champions were Barca Academy, a New York development branch of FC Barcelona, which took home the cup in the Competitive Bracket, beating out Inner Circle Sports, a premier investment bank at the intersection of sports, media, entertainment and technology. New York City Football Club (NYCFC) beat out Paramount for bragging rights in the Intermediate Division. FilmNation took the crown in the Just-4-Kicks Division over New York based entertainment law firm, Frankfurt Kurnit, Klein & Selz (FKKS).
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