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We truly love how the Tribeca Film Festival has grown over the last 17 years, establishing a strong curatorial identity as a prestige destination for edgy documentaries, well-chosen midnight movies and fun gala events (often involving co-founder Robert De Niro). Today, the festival announced a small—but significant—shift in timing: Tribeca's 18th edition will take place from April 24 to May 5, a week later than usual. Past start dates have been midmonth, right after Tax Day.
Festival watchers (like yours truly) find the move an interesting one, because it creeps the event that much closer to Cannes, a fest that usually begins the second week of May. Optics-wise, it positions Tribeca as more of a competitor to France's ultra-prestigious event; it may result in a better selection of narrative features being available to the hard-working NYC team that chooses our selection.
Speaking of selecting, the Tribeca Film Festival also announced today the addition of a new Critics Week sidebar, in which a handful of professional film critics (hey, where's our invitation?) will choose a slate of five to seven features to be screened throughout the festival. This year's panel is exceptionally strong, and includes Vanity Fair's K. Austin Collins, the Village Voice's Bilge Ebiri, Indiewire's Eric Kohn, BuzzFeed's Alison Willmore and Vulture's Emily Yoshida.
“The New York critical community has long been our compatriots in championing the most exciting new voices and trends in cinema, so we are thrilled that Tribeca will officially partner with them with this inaugural Critics Week program,” says Tribeca’s Director of Programming Cara Cusumano. “We look forward to discovering the new work they select, along with all the upcoming features, shorts, TV, VR and online work from around the world as we officially open for submissions for Tribeca 2019.”
Expect the festival to announce the majority of its lineup in early March—or would that now be late February? Take all the time you need, programmers. We'll be there. Tickets will go on sale shortly thereafter at the official site.