NY (Heart) TFF

In its fourth year, New York's Tribeca Film Festival, which concluded last weekend, has begun to find its sea legs and identity. Rushed into existence in the spring of 2002 in the wake of 9/11, the festival at the start was part film event and part civic boosterism for the surrounding New York City neighborhood hit hard by the fall of the Twin Towers. The result was a mishmash of movies from across the U.S. and abroad, reflecting not so much the best of the best but rather a hurried desperation to fill the streets and the theatres with warm, fun-seeking bodies ready for a return to the world of make-believe.

In 2005, it seemed that the festival was better-attended than ever before and could boast of scores of sold-out screenings, while the programming seemed to cohere around quality presentations and premieres of some of the best new work available. Gone were embarrassments like last year's gala premieres of such star-wattage, low-impedance movies as Kate Hudson's Finding Helen and the Olsen twins' universally lambasted New York Minute. In their place were more than 250 thoughtful and provocative smaller films from around the globe.

American Express, a founding sponsor from the get-go, appeared to up the ante this year with those "My life. My card." print and television ads featuring Robert De Niro, a festival co-founder. Those glimpses of the movie star standing under the marquee that says "Tribeca Film Festival" are the kind of national brand advertising that only money can buy. (The dramatic black-and-white commercials were also directed by another festival signatory, Martin Scorsese, with whom the festival programs its Restoration sidebar, which this year admirably included seven titles.) AmEx's other celebrity spokesperson, Ellen DeGeneres, also got in on the act by promoting in festival trailers and TV ads the festival's online Short Film Competition shown in conjunction with Amazon.com.

The Family Festival is one more aspect of Tribeca's commitment to its namesake neighborhood. In addition to a sidebar of family-friendly film programming, the final Saturday of the festival features a large, free street fair, with booths, tents, and stages that lured strollers with food and entertainment geared toward the tastes of young New Yorkers. Not even the drizzle that hung over last Saturday's street fair or the publication error that erroneously listed the fair's date from two years ago curtailed attendance. Downtown Manhattan has clearly welcomed the Tribeca Film Festival into its home.