Tribeca film festival

Tribeca Film Festival

New York Governor David Paterson opens the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival
Location	New York City, New York, United States
Founded	2002
Language	English
Website	tribecafilm.com/festival

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 mission of the 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.

In 2006 and 2007, the Festival received over 8600 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 personalities in the entertainment world and a music lounge produced with ASCAP to showcase artists. One of the more distinctive components of the Festival is its Artists Awards program in which 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.

The festival now draws an estimated three million people—including often-elusive celebrities from the worlds of art, film, and music—and generates $600 million annually.

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, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well as the American premiere of Spider-Man 3 and The Avengers.