The sixth annual Tribeca Film Festival, which opened in New York
Wednesday, will showcase 157 features and 88 shorts from 47
countries and territories, including four Chinese films.
The 12-day festival was founded in 2002 by Robert De Niro, his
producing partner, Jane Rosenthal and her husband, entrepreneur
Craig Hatkoff, to help economically and culturally revitalize Lower
Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks.
This year, the festival will present films covering a wide range
of topics, such as war, environment, love, women, family, dream,
arts, music, and sports.
The films to be presented were selected from 4,550 film
submissions, and 73 films will make their world premieres at the
festival.
Among the four participating Chinese films, Li Yu's Lost in
Beijing, and Jia Zhangke's Still Life will compete
for the World Narrative Competition.
Wang Quan'an's Tuya's Marriage, which won the Golden
Bear for best film in Berlin this February, will be in the
spotlight at Tribeca. The Matrimony, directed by Teng
Huatao, is a midnight thriller.
Because of its origin, the festival has always highlighted films
that deal with post-Sept. 11?issues like the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars. Several films, such as Beyond Belief,
and I Am An American Soldier: One Year in Iraq with the 101st
Airborne, will be shown this year.
The festival's free outdoor screening series, called the Tribeca
Drive-in, will offer to the public three films suitable for all
ages, including Planet B-Boy, a documentary about break
dancing in the world.
A new addition this year will be sports films. Sponsored by
ESPN, Tribeca will present 14 premieres of sports-related films, as
well as a screening of the baseball classic The
Natural.
Sports legend and social activist Billie Jean King and former
New York Giants running back and correspondent on "The Today Show,"
Tiki Barber, will serve as ambassadors for the festival.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2007)
