Wednesday, April 25----In only its sixth year, the Tribeca Film Festival has emerged as not only a major cultural celebration for New York City, but an industry must-attend event of considerable influence and gravitas. With its (relatively) modest start in 2002, the Festival ran over 5 days, screening 116 feature films and 36 short films, attracting fewer than 150,000 attendees. At last year's event, the Festival clocked in nearly 500,000 attendees, with a feature film roster of 174 films over 13 days. This year's Festival has pulled back a little, with 157 feature films and 88 short films to be screened over a 12 day period.

This year's program is culled from a staggering number of 4500 plus submissions, which includes over 2000 feature films from around the world. The final program includes 73 World Premieres, 7 International Premieres, 28 North American Premieres, 19 U.S. Premieres and 21 New York Premieres. Nearly 50 countries are represented, including Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine and the United States.

The high number of World and International Premieres has made the Festival an important first-time showcase for filmmakers, and a prime hunting ground for acquistion executives from the US and overseas. With New York the unofficial center for "specialty" distribution, with such companies as Miramax, Focus Features, Sony Pictures Classics, First Run Features, Palm Pictures, IFC Films, Zeitgeist Films, The Weinstein Company, Magnolia Pictures and several others calling New York home, the Festival has a "home team" of distributors who make up the core of the Festival's industry delegations. And as the Festival has expanded its international profile, sales agents and international distributors have been coming to Tribeca in increasing numbers, hoping to get a jump on film deals a few weeks before the Cannes Film Festival.

With the Tribeca Film Festival now a full city celebration (with screenings in almost all of Manhattan's neighborhoods), it has become the gargantuan alternative to the more effete New York Film Festival, which screens a scant 27 films in the Fall. Taking on more of a "Toronto/Sundance" approach, the Festival caters to a wide field of films, and serves as a prime launching pad for films that will be opening in the next few months. With the weather finally turning more temperate as New York explodes with Spring colors, the Tribeca Film Festival is poised this year to break previous attendance records and to further solidify its reputation as one of the most expansive and ambitious events on the festival circuit.

Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Online Dailies Editor