written by Brent Lang, Variety

Tribeca Studios will look back at the history of the film festival with a new documentary, “Tribeca 25,” from “Valentino: The Last Emperor” and “Studio 54” director Matt Tyrnauer.

The film will cover the festival’s first 25 years, which include its dramatic founding in the wake of 9/11 by Robert De Niro and Academy Award-nominated producer Jane Rosenthal. Tribeca was launched in an effort to help revitalize Lower Manhattan, but has since grown into a major celebration of the arts and media.

Reflecting on the inspiration behind founding the Tribeca Festival, De Niro shared: “In 1989, Jane [Rosenthal] and I started the Tribeca Film Center. If you look left out my office window, you could see the Towers. They were always there — which means after a while, you stop noticing them. And then… they were gone. People needed to come together. And that’s what art does. It unites us.”

Rosenthal added: “At our ‘Dinner Downtown’ series after 9/11, there was a Con-Ed worker who had lost his son sitting next to Bob [De Niro] at a Chinese restaurant. He said he felt like it was finally okay to leave the house, to do something besides mourn. That was in November of 2001. That was when we realized — how do we bring people out, and give them a reason to live again?”

The film traces the origins of the Tribeca Festival, revisiting the success of its inaugural edition, a five-day showcase featuring 150 films selected from 13,000 submissions. In its first year, Tribeca drew more than 150,000 attendees back to downtown Manhattan and generated more than $10 million worth of economic activity for New York City. Tyrnauer also plans to use Tribeca Festival’s history to spark a larger conversation about cities, art, and the need for connection, examining how De Niro and Rosenthal harnessed cinema as a form of civic architecture and activism.

“Tribeca 25” will include interviews with De Niro and Rosenthal, as well as Martin Scorsese, Bono, Whoopi Goldberg, Nas, Jon M. Chu, Nia DaCosta, Denis Leary and Julian Schnabel. It will also include the reflections of former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former HBO and MTV executive Sheila Nevins.

“’Tribeca 25′ is a film about reinvention. It traces how Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s grit and determination to bring people back downtown after 9/11 evolved into one of the world’s most influential cultural festivals,” said Tyrnauer. “I wanted to make a film about a city and a moment. Through cinéma vérité scenes, archival footage, and interviews, the film explores the relationship between art and civic life — how storytelling can help restore a sense of community after profound tragedy. Inspired visually by the great street photography of New York, it is, in many ways, a love letter to the city and to the movies —to the belief that storytelling is one of humanity’s oldest and most powerful acts, a way of making meaning, building community, and imagining what comes next. Ultimately, it’s a story about resilience, activism, creativity and the enduring human need to gather, connect and find meaning in moments of upheaval.”

The film also examines Tribeca’s role as a platform for discovering new talent and showcasing independent storytelling. Tribeca is notable for premiering early career works of Chu, who debuted “When the Kids are Away” there in 2002 and returned with “In the Heights” in 2021, and DaCosta, who premiered “Little Woods” at the 2018 edition. Oscar winners Ryan Coogler and Damien Chazelle have also appeared at the festival; with Coogler’s “Locks” and Chazelle’s “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” both screening at Tribeca.

Producers include Tyrnauer, Jenny Ewig and Dan Crane. Berry Welsh is the executive producer and Keelin Ryan is the co-executive producer. Tribeca Studios and Tyrnauer Media serve as production companies on “Tribeca 25.” Ryan Rothmaier edited the film and Bill Winters served as its director of photography.

Tyrnauer’s credits also include “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood,” “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” and the Showtime four-part series “The Reagans.”

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