Tribeca Film Festival

neighborhood in Manhattan.

The mission of the film festival is "to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience." The Tribeca Film Festival was founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan.

With over 250 films and 1,000+ screenings in both 2006 and 2007, the Tribeca Film Festival has become one of the most prominent film festivals in the world. The Festival's program line-up offers moviegoers a wide variety of independent films including documentaries, narrative features and shorts, as well as a program of family-friendly films. The Festival also features panel discussions with personalities in the entertainment world and a music lounge produced with ASCAP to showcase up and coming artists. One of the more distinctive components of the Festival is its Artists Awards program where emerging and renowned artists celebrate filmmakers by providing original works of art that are given to the filmmakers competition winners. Past artists of the Artists Awards program have included Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and Julian Schnabel.

Critics of the contendwho complain that it's merely a launching pad for big Hollywood movies and vanity projects directed by celebrities, while actually doing nothing to help filmmakers or the New York independent community.

History

The inaugural Festival was successfully launched after only 120 days of planning and with the help of more than 1,300 volunteers; the inaugural Festival became a critical and popular success. It was attended by more than 150,000 people, generated more than $10.4 million in revenues for local Tribeca merchants, and featured several up-and-coming filmmakers. The festival included juried narrative, documentary and short film competitions; a Restored Classics series; a Best of New York series curated by Martin Scorsese; 13 major panel discussions; an all-day Family Festival; and the premieres of studio films "", "About A Boy", the American remake of "Insomnia", "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ."

The second annual Tribeca Film Festival brought more than 300,000 people downtown and in excess of $50 million to the local economy. The May 2003 Festival showcased an expanded grouping of independent features, documentaries and short films from around the world, coupled with studio premieres, panel discussions, music and comedy concerts, a family festival, sports activities, and outdoor "drive-in" movie screenings along the Hudson River. The two-weekend family festival was an extravaganza of children's movie screenings, storytelling, family panels, workshops, and interactive games culminating in a daylong street fair that drew a crowd estimated at 250,000 people.

At the end of 2003, DiNiro purchased the theatre which had housed the recently closed "Screening Room," an art house which had shown independent films nightly, [ [http://www.thevillager.com/villager_33/deniroandpartners.html] ] renaming it the "Tribeca Cinema." It became one of the venues of the festival.

The festival's website contains a disclosure that it is now run as a business by Tribeca Enterprises. [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/about.html]

In an effort to serve its mission of bringing independent film to the widest possible audience, in 2006, the Festival expanded its reach in New York City and internationally. In New York City, Tribeca hosted screenings throughout Manhattan as the Festival's 1,000-plus screening schedule outgrew the capacity downtown. Internationally, the Festival brought Festival films to the first-ever Rome Film Fest. As part of the celebrations in Rome, Tribeca was awarded the first ever "Steps and Stars" awarded presented on the Spanish Steps.

In 2007, the Tribeca Film Festival raised its basic ticket price to $18, a move necessary for the sustainability of such an ambitious program, but disappointed many of its biggest fans.

The 2006 Tribeca Film Festival

In 2006, the Festival highlighted 15 feature-length screenings and four shorts programs and expanded to more screening locations in association with AMC Loews Theatres. A total of 169 feature films and 99 shorts were selected from 4,100 film submissions, including 1,950 feature submissions—three times the total submissions from the first festival in 2002. The festival featured 90 world premieres, nine international premieres, 31 North American Premieres, 6 U.S. Premieres, and 28 New York City premieres.

Three highly anticipated films included the world premiere of "United 93" on April 26th, directed by Paul Greengrass; "Just Like the Son" on April 29th, directed by Morgan J. Freeman; and on May 3rd, "Mission Impossible III", directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Tom Cruise, had its U.S. premiere. Cruise's arrival to the premiere simulated a Hollywood-style chase scene from midtown Manhattan to Tribeca—over two miles away—using a series of train rides, motorcycles, helicopters, cars and taxis.

Jesus Camp was awarded the Special Documentary Jury Prize. "The makers of Jesus Camp turn their cameras on an evangelical Christian camp of rare devotion. With unprecedented access, the children and parents show how their faith dictates everything from their daily lives to politics. This fascinating doc about a rarely seen world where faith trumps everything else is sure to provoke debate." [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2006/filmguide/event_np_summary.php?EventNumber=4083 TFF Site]

The Family Festival highlights included "Over the Hedge", a comedy from DreamWorks Animation featuring the voices of Bruce Willis, Steve Carell, William Shatner; "Keeping Up With The Steins", Scott Marshall’s feature directorial debut, starring Jeremy Piven, Doris Roberts and father Garry Marshall; and "RV", directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Robin Williams

The avant-garde section of the Festival contained notable performances by mainstream celebrities Brad Pitt and Isabelle Huppert who appeared in shorts produced by LAB HD.

howcase:

* "Akeelah and the Bee" – directed and written by Doug Atchison (USA)
* "" – a documentary directed by Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob (USA)
* "Black Sun" – a documentary directed by Gary Tarn (UK)
* "Brothers of the Head" – directed by Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton, written by Tony Grisoni (UK)
* "Close to Home (Karov La Bayit)" – directed and written by Dalia Hager and Vidi Bilu (Israel)
* "Eden" – directed and written by Michael Hofmann (Germany)
* "Hanging Garden (Kuutyuu Teien)" – directed and written by Toshiaki Toyoda (Japan)
* "Kill Gil (Volume 1)" – a documentary directed by Gil Rossellini (Italy)
* "loudQUIETloud" – a documentary directed by Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin (USA)
* "Madeinusa" – directed and written by Claudia Llosa (Peru, Spain, in Spanish and Quechua)
* "Freedomless" – a documentary film written and directed by Xoel Pamos and Mike Jacoby (USA/Spain)
* "Sound of the Soul" – a documentary directed by Stephen Olsson (USA)
* "Taking Father Home (Bei Ya Zi De Nan Hai)" – directed by Ying Liang, written by Ying Liang and Peng Shan (China)
* "The Heart of the Game" – a documentary directed and written by Ward Serrill (USA)
* "The Sacred Family (La Sagrada Familia)" – directed and written by Sebastián Campos (Chile)
* "The Shutka Book of Records" – a documentary directed by Aleksandar Manic (Serbia and Montenegro)
* "Viva Zapatero!" – a documentary directed and written by Sabina Guzzanti (Italy)
* "Wah-Wah" – directed and written by Richard E. Grant (UK)
* "Wordplay" – a documentary directed by Patrick Creadon (USA)

Restored/Rediscovered:

* "Barren Lives (Vidas Secas)" – directed and written by Nelson Pereira dos Santos (Brazil, 1963)
* "Big Combo" – directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan (USA, 1955)
* "Burning Patience (Ardiente Paciencia)" – directed and written by Antonio Skármeta (Portugal and Germany, 1983)
* "Fair Wind to Java" – directed by Joseph Kane, written by Richard Tregaskis (USA)
* "On the Bowery" – directed by Lionel Rogosin, written by Richard Bagley and Lionel Rogosin (USA, 1957)
* "The River" – directed by Jean Renoir, written by Rumer Godden and Jean Renoir (India, USA)

Midnight:

* "Air Guitar Nation" – a documentary directed by Alexandra Lipsitz (USA)
* "Alone with Her" – directed and written by Eric Nicholas (USA)
* "Another Gay Movie" – directed by Todd Stephens, written by Stephens and Tim Kaltenecker (USA)
* "Cocaine Cowboys" – a documentary directed by Billy Corben (USA)
* "The Gravedancers" – directed by Mike Mendez, written by Brad Keene and Chris Skinner (USA)
* "Hatchet" – directed and written by Adam Green (USA)
* "Sam’s Lake" – directed and written by Andrew Erin (USA)
* "Sheitan" – directed by Kim Chapiron, written by Chapiron and Christian Chapiron (France)
* "Too Tough to Die" – a documentary directed by Mandy Stein (USA)

Family Film Festival

* "Beauty And The Bastard (Tyttö sinä olet tähti)" – directed by Dome Karukoski, (Finland) - Ages 15+
* "Elephant Tales" – directed by Mario Andreacchio, (Australia) - Ages 7+
* "Goal! The Dream Begins" – directed by Danny Cannon, (USA) - Ages 12+
* "Keeping Up With The Steins" – directed by Scott Marshall, (USA) - Ages 12+
* "Lassie" – directed by Charles Sturridge, (USA, UK) - Ages 7+
* "Laura’s Star" – directed by Thilo Graf Rothkirch and Piet de Rycker, (Germany) - Ages 4+
* "" – directed by John Henderson, (Canada, USA) - Ages 6+
* "One Last Thing" – directed by Alex Steyermark, (USA) - Ages 16+
* "Over The Hedge" – directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, (USA) - Ages 5+
* "Punching At The Sun" – directed by Tanuj Chopra, (USA) - Ages 14
* "RV" – directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, (USA) - Ages 10+
* "Speedy" – directed by Ted Wilde, (USA) - Ages 7+
* "When Fried Eggs Fly" – directed by Constantine Limperis, (USA) - Ages 10+

External links

* [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tff/ 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Guide]
* [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/2007/filmguide/title-detail.php 2007 Tribeca Film Festival Guide]
* [http://manhattan.about.com/od/artsandculture/a/tribecafilm2006.htm/ 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Guide] - manhattan.About.com
* [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/ Tribeca Film Festival - Official Site]
* [http://manhattan.about.com/od/artsandculture/a/tribecatickets.htm/ Purchasing Tribeca Film Festival Tickets]
* [http://manhattan.about.com/od/2006tribecafilmfestival/a/tffmapdirection.htm/ Tribeca Film Festival] Map & Directions
* [http://www.lathrios.com/festival.php?festid=17 Lathrios Film Festival Database] - the Lathrios listing for the Tribeca Film Festival including a film list and analysis for the event.
* [http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/festivals/tribeca/ EyeForFilm.co.uk] - Reviews, news and features from the festival 2007-2008.