Social Media-Driven 'Chef' Movie Is Tribeca Film Festival Darling

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Sofia Vergara, Emjay Anthony, Jon Favreau and Bobby Cannavale pose at the premiere for 'Chef' during the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22 in New York City.

Image: Evan Agostini/Associated Press

By Samantha Murphy Kelly2014-04-27 17:01:38 UTC

A story about how delicate and powerful the social-media world can be for both growing and squashing a business was awarded the audience choice award for Best Narrative at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday night.

Written and directed by Jon Favreau (Swingers), Chef made its New York debut this week at the festival, and features a cast of Hollywood heavy hitters including Favreau, Sofia Vergara, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo and Dustin Hoffman.

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Social media serves as a significant character throughout the film. Not only does it advance the plot (and is also responsible for some of the film's peaks and valleys of success), it also captures today's culture and what's needed to get a startup business off the ground.

When chef Carl Casper (Favreau) receives a bad review from a food critic, he lashes back on Twitter and has a meltdown that goes viral on YouTube. After losing his job, he starts fresh with a food truck business and his young son that helps to get the word out on Twitter, Vine, Instagram and Facebook.

"I wanted to tell a story that also captured where we are in time and the language we use," Favreau told Mashable during the New York premiere this week. "In Swingers, we used answering machines to convey that — with Chef, it made sense for [the chef's young son] to be a social media rock star and the audience gets that."

What's refreshing about the role of social media in the film is that it isn't gimmicky. Instead, it captures both sides of its tricky relationship with businesses. Sure, it's not unusual for unknown brands to find major success with the help of social media, but it highlights every marketers' worse nightmare.

Let's recall the photo that went viral of a Taco Bell employee licking dozens of taco shells and the time the owners of Amy's Baking Company in Arizona responded to Reddit comments about the business, using a strong collection of NSFW language.

It's no surprise Chef won over audiences this week. Not only is a fun take on a non-exhausted topic, it's sweet, funny and you'll miss the characters when it ends.

Chef won one of two Heineken Audience Awards given at the festival. Keep On Keepin' On, directed by Alan Hicks, was chosen for the Documentary category. The film follows 89-year-old trumpet legend Clark Terry, the mentor of jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, as he tries to guide a young blind piano player to stardom.

Throughout the Festival, which kicked off on April 16 and wraps up on Sunday, audiences were asked to vote for the Heineken Audience Awards by completing nomination ballots after each screening.

Both films received a $25,000 award for the honor. Favreau said he would be donating to City Harvest, a food rescue organization dedicated to feeding New Yorkers.

Chef hits theaters nationwide starting May 9.

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Topics: Entertainment, Facebook, Film, Marketing, Social Media, tribeca film festival, Twitter