“Despite the challenges our industry faced this past year, it did not stop filmmakers, artists, and storytellers from creating compelling, entertaining, and thought-provoking content,” said Paula Weinstein, Chief Content Officer of Tribeca Enterprises. “The selections for each of these categories represent the tenacity and commitment of our creative community and we are so proud to include them as part of this year’s Festival and share them with our returning in-person audiences. After a year of closed cinemas, canceled gatherings, and virtual everything, it is with joy and hope that we finally invite New Yorkers out of their homes and back to the movies. Immersed in the city itself, Tribeca 2021 will bring once-in-a-lifetime big-screen experiences to filmmakers and audiences alike as we reconnect, re-imagine, and reopen through the shared experience of film," said Cara Cusumano, Festival Director and Vice President of Programming for the Tribeca Festival.
The Tribeca Festival, presented by AT&T, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, VR, gaming, music, and online work. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is a platform for creative expression and immersive entertainment. Tribeca champions emerging and established voices; discovers award-winning filmmakers and creators; curates innovative experiences; and introduces new technology and ideas through premieres, exhibitions, talks, and live performances. The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Tribeca will celebrate its 20th year June 9 – 20, 2021. In 2019, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, a private investment company with locations in New York and Mumbai, bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise. The 2021 Tribeca Festival is presented by AT&T and with the support of our corporate partners: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, CHANEL, City National Bank, CNN Films, Diageo, DoorDash, FreshDirect, Hudson Yards, Indeed, Montefiore, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, P&G, PwC, Roku, Spring Studios New York.
The 2021 Tribeca Festival, presented by AT&T, today unveiled its feature film lineup. The Festival’s 20th anniversary edition will be a celebration of audiences coming back together with comedic, music-centered, and socially-conscious films from diverse storytellers using art to inspire, illuminate and above all else, entertain. The 2021 Tribeca Festival will run June 9-20 with live in-person events at outdoor venues across all New York City boroughs. The features program will include 66 films from 81 filmmakers from across 23 different countries. The
line-up includes 56 world premieres, 1 international premiere, 4 North American premieres, 1 U.S. premiere, and 4 New York premieres. This year's program includes 15 directors returning to Tribeca with their latest projects, and over 60% of the feature films are directed by female, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers. This year’s Festival received a record high of 11,222 total submissions across all categories.
“In celebration of the reopening of New York's cultural life, Tribeca's 20th anniversary International Competition will introduce a new generation of storytellers from around the world who will premiere their films at a time when the preciousness of big screens has never been more appreciated or missed. Inventive, thrilling and compelling, the films are, at their essence, about human connections. This simple theme can take infinite paths, and in the hands of these engaging storytellers, the emotion in these stories transcend countries, languages, and cultures with an intimacy that is ultimately human,” said Frédéric Boyer, Artistic Director.
Special curated Juneteenth programming highlighted throughout different verticals of the Festival will celebrate voices from the African Diaspora, with special emphasis on African-American artists, performers, filmmakers, and interdisciplinary creators. The feature categories include 6 U.S. Narratives, 6 International Narratives, and 8 Documentary competition features. Additionally, the feature line-up includes 8 Spotlight Narratives, 11 Spotlight
Documentaries, 13 Viewpoints, 3 Midnight, 7 Movies Plus selections, 3 Tribeca Critics’ Week. In addition, 53 feature films from the 2020 festival program will be screened. Full descriptions of the sections are below.
Many of the films will also be available for U.S. audiences to view online the day after they premiere in person through the Tribeca at Home virtual hub. As previously announced, the 2021 Tribeca Festival Opening Night film will be In the Heights, the screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical, directed by Jon M. Chu. The Tribeca Festival is curated by Festival Director and VP of Programming Cara Cusumano, Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer; VP of Filmmaker Relations & Shorts Programming Sharon Badal; Senior Programmer and VP of Immersive Loren Hammonds; Senior Programmers Liza Domnitz (features, TV, and NOW), and Lucy Mukerjee (features); Programmers Ben Thompson (shorts), José F. Rodriguez (features); Karen McMullen (features), Leah Sarbib (podcasts); and program advisor Paula Weinstein, along with a team of associate programmers.
(Source : press release)