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This year's program has over 200 features, documentaries and shorts in a nine-day period that will transform Lower Manhattan into a circus for cinephiles.
Tribeca will show world premieres of five feature films and six documentary features, put on two family festival weekends. It also offers free outdoor screenings recreating 1950s style drive-in movies and a free Rock & Comedy Concert at Battery Park. And De Niro's pal Al Pacino is also heavily involved this year.
Also on board are Nathan Lane , Helen Hunt and Paul Rudd amongst a glittering group of actors participating in an array of panel discussions. Top Directors taking part include Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things', Nurse Betty, 'In the Company of Men',) Julie Taymor ('Frida' and 'Titus') and Jay Roach ('Austin Powers' and 'Meet the Parents').
Last year's inaugural festival was devised to celebrate New York as a filmmaking center and draw visitors to aid the economic recovery of a neighborhood struggling to overcome effects of the Sept. 11 destruction of the World Trade Center.
'The Tribeca Film Festival has re-energized the downtown area', Pacino said in announcing two appearances he is making. 'It's made it alive with activity and the promise of a new creative haven'.
More than 150,000 people from around the world attended the 2002 festival and spent more than $10 million in the area, according to a spokeswoman for the mayor's office.
The first family weekend, which includes workshops and a street fair, features a showing of 'Daddy Day Care', starring Eddie Murphy , on Saturday, with the premiere of 'Pokemon Heroes', being screened on Sunday.
The main schedule of films kicks off on Tuesday with a premiere showing of 'Down With Love', a romantic comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
'The Tribeca Drive-In', where films will be shown on a giant screen on Pier 25 in Hudson River Park, will accommodate 3,000 filmgoers for showings of 'Diner', 'Grease', and the winner of an on-line vote contest (www.tribecafilmfestival.org) for the most romantic film set in New York City.
The festival ends on May 11 with 'The Italian Job', a heist film set in Venice that features Mark Wahlberg , Charlize Theron and Edward Norton .
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