New York City is full of great characters, whether they are real or imaginary. Our TFF 2013 filmmakers share their favorites.
Iconic characters, both real and fictional, are inevitably associated with New York City. Some of this year's Festival filmmakers were gracious enough to share with us their favorite New Yorkers who embody the spirit of this great city.
"It's Robert De Niro's Rupert Pupkin. A funny, creepy, and brilliant performance. I think everyone dreams of success and can relate to his craziness to some degree. Martin Scorsese captured obsession in a way I hadn't seen before." Matthew Bonifacio, Fortune House
"A tie between King Kong and George Costanza." Daniel Patrick Carbone, Hide Your Smiling Faces
"Woody Allen is my favorite New York character. That guy is the embodiment of this city. If you don't know what I mean, just watch one of his films." Dave Carroll, Bending Steel
"Argh...so clich but...Annie Hall." Kat Coiro, A Case of You
"Maybe Sal, from On The Road. That book had a big influence on me growing up." Matt Creed, Lily
"It's a tie between Howard Stern and Rocky Salemmo (the subject from my short doc The Bowler). In very different ways they both embody the spirit of what it means to be a New Yorker." Sean Dunne, Oxyana
"Seaside Sal." Sam Flesichner, Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
"Woody Allen. Manhattan is what painted my first visions of New York. I was a teenager I think when I saw it the first time, and I saw Mariel Hemingway surrounded by all these adults but holding her own, having wonderful, stimulating conversations, and being taken seriously. So I thought, that is New York and that's for me! Amy Grantham, Lily
"I was dying to say Holden Caulfield but I just cant. I'll make people think I'm a serial killer. So there was a guy, I'm sure he's deceased, named Broadway because that's where he lived. I hate to be cliche but he was a fantastic African-American homeless guy in a wheelchair with one leg. He had the most spectacular dirty jokes, more spectacular dirty jokes than anybody I ever heard in the early 80s when I moved here. I would actively hang around Astor Place trying to find him just to get a new one even if it cost me all the quarters I was going to need for my Stromboli pizza, the best slice on 1st Avenue and St. Marks." Clark Gregg, Trust Me
"Elaine Stritch! I still don't know if she's real or fictional." Chiemi Karasawa, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
"Definitely Bill Cunningham." Rob Meyer, A Birder's Guide to Everything
"My man Yuli at my corner bodega. I call him the Mayor of Montrose he engages EVERYONE that comes in. Like, he'll be ringing me up and introduce me to the girl behind me in line because we both work in visuals. He's really into film, and has even started a film club and shows movies on the rooftops of people in the neighborhood he uses his bed sheet for a screen. He also started a book club. I told him I want to make a short film about him but he laughed. I'm going to keep trying." Michael Beach Nichols, Flex is Kings
"I couldn't possibly say. But there is this giant character in my memory. I grew up coming to NY several times a year to see family, and we would always spend several hours at the original Canal Plastics, which was this epic treasure chest of tiny, irresistible things. There was an autistic man who worked at the counter and knew the price of every single item in the store. My sister and I would come to the counter with dozens and dozens of little chips of plastic of all shapes and sizes, and he would flick the pieces across the counter as he added the prices out loud. 7 cents times 13, plus .56 cents, plus 1.29 with an 8% discount for bulk. He would just keep this running tally. His fingers and his brain would move so quickly, and I was mesmerized by him. He represents the New York I wish still existed." Jessica Oreck, Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys
"Louis de Palma, Danny Devito's character in Taxi. He is just a terrible, terrible human being, but somehow he still comes off as likable. It's a credit to both how well the character is written and how completely endearing Danny Devito is." Ryan Scafuro, Bending Steel
"Let's go with Holly Golightly." Deidre Schoo, Flex is Kings
"You know my favorite New York character was a real person named Robert Clampitt. He was a Wall Street lawyer who gave it all up to start a kids magazine called Children's Express, which later became a newspaper column and a TV show. He's just the quintessential New Yorker to me." Stephen Silha, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
"I guess that it's Woody Allen or Sylvia Miles from Andy Warhol's films." Eric Slade, Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
"Andy Warhol. Bob Fosse and Joe Gideon, the character based on Fosse played by Roy Schieder in All That Jazz. And of course Ratso Rizzo. And Judy Davis in Husbands and Wives." Darren Stein, G.B.F.
"I'm going to give you the most bizarre answer ever. I have two. My favorite real New York character is Martin Scorcese, and my favorite fake New York character is Bugs Bunny." Josh Waller, Raze
"I think it'd have to be my first building superintendent in New York, Roddy. He was missing his two front teeth and always put 40 ounces in front of my door for me on weekends when he had a good week. He was always very upbeat, which I appreciated." Enid Zentelis, Bottled Up
"He may not be my favorite but I am fascinated with Roger O. Thornhill, Cary Grant's character in North by Northwest. He represents what I love about New Yorkers. He's sophisticated, resourceful and quick on his feet. How can you not be charmed by a man who carries monogrammed matches?" Craig Zisk, The English Teacher
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
New York City is full of great characters, whether they are real or imaginary. Our TFF 2013 filmmakers share their favorites. 
