Tribeca Film 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, 2001 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.

History


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.

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 Fest. 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.

In 2011, L.A. Noire became the first video game to be recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival.

Best Narrative Feature

 * 2014 – Zero Motivation, directed by Talya Lavie
 * 2013 – The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt
 * 2012 – War Witch, directed by Kim Nguyen
 * 2011 – She Monkeys, directed by Lisa Aschan
 * 2010 – When We Leave, directed by Feo Aladag
 * 2009 – About Elly, directed by Asghar Farhadi
 * 2008 – Let the Right One In, directed by Tomas Alfredson
 * 2007 – My Father My Lord, directed by David Volach
 * 2006 – Iluminados por el fuego, directed by Tristán Bauer
 * 2005 – Stolen Life, directed by Li Shaohong
 * 2004 – Green Hat, directed by Liu Fendou
 * 2003 – Blind Shaft, directed by Li Yang
 * 2002 – Roger Dodger, directed by Dylan Kidd

Best New Narrative Filmmaker

 * 2014 – Josef Wladyka for Manos Sucias 
 * 2013 – Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais for Whitewash
 * 2012 – Lucy Mulloy, Una Noche
 * 2011 – Park Jung-bum for The Journals of Musan
 * 2010 – Kim Chapiron for Dog Pound
 * 2009 – Rune Denstad Langlo for North
 * 2008 – Huseyin Karabey for My Marlon and Brando
 * 2007 – Enrique Begne for Two Embraces
 * 2006 – Marwan Hamed for The Yacoubian Building
 * 2005 – Alicia Scherson for Play
 * 2004 – Liu Fendou for Green Hat
 * 2003 – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi for It's Easier for a Camel...
 * 2002 – Eric Eason for Manito

Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film

 * 2014 – Paul Schneider for Goodbye to All That
 * 2013 – Sitthiphon Disamoe, The Rocket
 * 2012 – Dariel Arrechada and Javier Nuñez Florian, Una Noche
 * 2011 – Ramadhan "Shami" Bizimana in Grey Matter
 * 2010 – Eric Elmosnino in Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)
 * 2009 – Ciarán Hinds in The Eclipse
 * 2008 – Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello for their roles in Somers Town
 * 2007 – Lofti Ebdelli in Making Of. (Akher film)
 * 2006 – Jürgen Vogel in Der Freie Wille
 * 2005 – Cees Geel in Simon
 * 2004 – Ian Hart in Blind Flight
 * 2003 – Igor Bareš in Výlet and Ohad Knoller in Yossi & Jagger

Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film

 * 2014 – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in Human Capital
 * 2013 – Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown
 * 2012 – Rachel Mwanza in War Witch
 * 2011 – Carice van Houten in Black Butterflies
 * 2010 – Sibel Kekilli in When We Leave
 * 2009 – Zoe Kazan in The Exploding Girl
 * 2008 – Eileen Walsh in Eden
 * 2007 – Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley
 * 2006 – Eva Holubová in Holiday Makers
 * 2005 – Felicity Huffman in Transamerica
 * 2004 – Fernanda Montenegro in O Outro Lado da Rua
 * 2003 – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in It's Easier for a Camel...

Best Documentary Feature

 * 2014 – Point and Shoot, directed by Marshall Curry
 * 2013 – The Kill Team, directed by Dan Krauss
 * 2012 – The World Before Her, directed by Nisha Pahuja
 * 2011 – Bombay Beach, directed by Alma Har'el
 * 2010 – Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina
 * 2009 – Racing Dreams, directed by Marshall Curry
 * 2008 – Pray the Devil Back to Hell, directed by Gini Reticker
 * 2007 – Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney
 * 2006 – The War Tapes, directed by Deborah Scranton
 * 2005 – El Perro Negro: Stories from the Spanish Civil War, directed by Péter Forgács
 * 2004 – Arna's Children, directed by Danniel Danniel and Juliano Mer-Khamis and Kill Your Idols, directed by Scott Crary
 * 2003 – A Normal Life, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Hugo Berkeley
 * 2002 – Chiefs, directed by Daniel Junge

Best New Documentary Filmmaker

 * 2014 – Alan Hicks for Keep On Keepin' On
 * 2013 – Sean Dunne for Oxyana
 * 2011 – Pablo Croce for Like Water
 * 2010 – Clio Barnard for The Arbor
 * 2009 – Ian Olds for Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
 * 2008 – Carlos Carcass for Old Man Bebo
 * 2007 – Vardan Hovhannisyan for A Story of People in War and Peace
 * 2006 – Pelin Esmer for The Play
 * 2005 – Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary for Favela Rising
 * 2004 – Paulo Sacramento for The Prisoner of the Iron Bars: Self-Portraits

Best Narrative Short

 * 2014 – The Phone Call, directed by Mat Kirkby
 * 2013 – The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars, directed by Edoardo Ponti
 * 2010 – Father Christmas Doesn't Come Here, directed by Bekhi Sibiya
 * 2009 – The North Road, directed by Carlos Chahine
 * 2008 – New Boy, directed by Steph Green
 * 2007 – The Last Dog in Rwanda, directed by Jens Assur
 * 2006 – The Shovel, directed by Nick Childs
 * 2005 – Cashback, directed by Sean Ellis
 * 2004 – Shock Act, directed by Seth Grossman
 * 2002 – Bamboleho, directed by Luis Prieto

Best Documentary Short

 * 2014 – One Year Lease, directed by Brian Bolster
 * 2010 – White Lines and the Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug, directed by Travis Senger
 * 2009 – Home, directed by Mathew Faust
 * 2008 – Mandatory Service, directed by Jessica Habie
 * 2007 – A Son’s Sacrifice, directed by Yoni Brook
 * 2006 – Native New Yorker, directed by Steve Bilich
 * 2005 – The Life of Kevin Carter, directed by Dan Krauss
 * 2004 – Sister Rose's Passion, directed by Oren Jacoby
 * 2003 – Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones, directed by Harvey Wang
 * 2002 – All Water Has a Perfect Memory, directed by Natalia Almada

Student Visionary Award

 * 2014 – Nesma's Bird, directed by Najwan Ali and Medoo Ali
 * 2013 – Life Doesn't Frighten Me, directed by Stephen Dunn
 * 2010 – some boys don't leave, directed by Maggie Kiley
 * 2009 – Small Change, directed by Anna McGrath
 * 2008 – Elephant Garden, directed by Sasie Sealy
 * 2007 – Good Luck Nedim, directed by Marko Santic and Someone Else's War, directed by Lee Wang
 * 2006 – Dead End Job, directed by Samantha Davidson Green
 * 2005 – Dance Mania Fantastic, directed by Sasie Sealy
 * 2004 – 'Independent Lens' (American Made), directed by Sharat Raju