NYU Freshman Phillip Youmans Wins Award At Tribeca Film Festival

TRIBECA, NY — A New York University freshman won a top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival Thursday for his film 'Burning Cane' — becoming the youngest and first African American director to win an award.

Phillip Youmans, 19, was awarded the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature for 'Burning Cane,' a film set in rural Louisiana dealing with the tensions between an aging mother and her son, a preacher who struggles with alcoholism.

Youmans is the youngest to compete in the festival and the first African American director to win an award, NBC New York reported. The award includes a prize of $20,000.

Youmans, raised in New Orleans, told The Daily Beast last week of competing in the festival, "It's totally surreal."

"The Founders Award goes to a voice that is searingly original," the film festival's jury commented. "We loved this filmmaker's vision and we love this filmmaker's inevitable brilliant future."

The festival director, Cara Cusumano, said in a statement, "I'm so proud to see our juries reward a group of winners that is truly representative of the diversity of story and accomplishment in craft at this year's Festival."

Other top awards include 'House of Hummingbird,' directed by Bora Kim, who won the Best International Narrative Feature, and Ellen Fiske's 'Scheme Birds,' which won Best Documentary Feature.

The festival run through May 5.