The Tribeca Film Festival is maintaining its long-running reputation for the 2018 season.
“We’ve always been an activist festival,” Tribeca’s co-founder, Jane Rosenthal told Page Six on Tuesday night. “When you look at how we started, which was after 9/11, it was about highlighting different voices and we continue to do that.”
And this year, the festival will be putting women’s equality and empowerment in the spotlight.
“When you look at what happened with Time’s Up and #MeToo, it was just natural for us to emphasize that in our programming,” Rosenthal said, while fittingly wearing a “Girl Power” t-shirt. “We’ve always highlighted women’s voices [but] this is the first year we’re yelling it even louder because of whats happening”
Kicking off the festival at the Beacon Theater with “Love, Gilda,” a documentary on the life of late “Saturday Night Live” alum, Gilda Radner, Rosenthal explained the pertinent decision.
“I think one of the things that this film does and certainly what Gilda did is that she could laugh in the face of adversity,” Rosenthal said, adding “that’s what as New Yorkers, as global citizens, as women we need to do so its great to be able to do that with Gilda.”
Radner was an original cast member on the iconic sketch comedy show in 1975 along with Chevy Chase and Laraine Newman, who were both at the premiere. She died of Ovarian cancer in 1989.
Also on the carpet were Robert De Niro, Tina Fey, Gilbert Gottfried and Sandra Lee.