page_title: Tribeca Film Festival
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tribeca Film Festival / History
caption_attribution_description: Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival opening night
context_page_description: The Tribeca Film Festival is an American film festival held in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, showcasing a diverse selection of independent films. Since its inaugural year in 2002, it has become an outlet for independent filmmakers in all genres to release their work to a broad audience.
  In 2006 and 2007, the festival received over 8,600 film submissions and held 1,500 screenings. The festival's program line-up includes a 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 people in the entertainment world and a music lounge produced with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers to showcase artists. One of the more distinctive components of the festival is its artists awards program in which emerging and established artists celebrate filmmakers by providing original works of art that are given to the filmmakers' competition winners. Past artists of the artists award program include Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and Julian Schnabel.
context_section_description: The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff, reportedly in response to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the Tribeca neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, although there are reports that its founding was underway prior to the events of 9/11.
  The inaugural festival launched after 120 days of planning with the help of more than 1,300 volunteers. It was attended by more than 150,000 people 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 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, About A Boy, the American remake of Insomnia, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
  The 2003 festival brought more than 300,000 people. The festival showcased an expanded group 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 movie screenings along the Hudson River. The family festival featured 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, De Niro purchased the theater at 54 Varick Street which had housed the recently closed Screening Room, an art house that had shown independent films nightly, renaming it the Tribeca Cinema. It became one of the venues of the festival.
  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 films to the Rome Film Festival. As part of the celebrations in Rome, Tribeca was awarded the first-ever "Steps and Stars" award, presented on the Spanish Steps. 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.
  In 2009, Rosenthal, Hatkoff and De Niro were named number 14 on Barron's list of the world's top 25 philanthropists for their role in regenerating TriBeCa's economy after September 11.
  As of 2010, the festival is run as a business by Tribeca Enterprises. Andrew Essex has been the CEO of Tribeca Enterprises since January, 2016.
  In 2011, L.A. Noire became the first video game to be recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2013, Beyond: Two Souls, featuring Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, became only the second game to be premiered at the festival.
  The 19th Tribeca Film Festival, originally scheduled for April 15–26 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers told ticket holders to monitor its website for ticket refund information, implying the event will not be rescheduled. Organizers also asked people to monitor its website for more on how they are “moving forward”, without making any statements or commitments on holding future editions of the film festival.
caption: Festival founders Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro
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